Roatan

Roatan
Pirate ship?

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Day Two Hundred! Garage Sale Recap

I've been dealing with the garage sale pretty steadily since last Wednesday so I haven't written on the blog or much of anything else since then.  When I signed into my blog site this morning to start writing I was shocked to discover that I am already up to Day 200.  Where does the time go?

I just have to tell you that garage sales can be very eye opening in a number of ways.  The first discovery that I made is that there are not that many differences between me and a hoarder.  Thank God that there are differences but they are much less distinctive than I thought.  Let's face it, I would have gotten rid of much of this stuff sooner if there were an easy outlet for it.  It wasn't stuff that I wanted to hold on to.  I just knew that I had spent too much on it in the first place to simply throw it away.  However, after a full weekend of sitting out in a garage and watching extremely poor people walk past a set of dishes priced at $8 that I paid $150 for so that they can give me $1 for a Lancome tote bag that I receive as a gift with a purchase of mascara and lipstick, I'm okay with just chunking the dishes in the dumpster.  Obviously, even the poorest people in Dallas don't need a full 8 place setting of dinnerware.  I'm not sure what they needed with the Lancome bag.

Actually, the dinnerware will go to Goodwill.  In my purging frenzy yesterday following the garage sale, it is one of the few things I was unable to throw in the dumpster.  The only thing I brought back in the house was a martini set.... go figure!  But I only brought it in to photograph it so that I can put it on Ebay.  I have never sold anything on Ebay, but I think it is time I give it a try.  I got this martini set at Pottery Barn.  It is whimsical and I really like it.  I just don't have anyplace to keep it.  I took a few pictures of my old fish tank with stand yesterday so that I can put it on Craig's List and perhaps sell it.  I also have never used Craig's List.  So we will see how all of this works.

So, in case you are wondering, the things that you are likely to sell in a garage sale are:
Lamps
Rugs
Framed "art" (I use that term VERY loosely!)
Knick Knack crap that people have given you over the years that you never really wanted in the first place
Small Kitchen Appliances
Electronics (working or not)
Vacuum Cleaners
Cell Phone Chargers
Shoes
Handbags

The things that you can't even give away in garage sales are:
Dishes
Drinking Glasses
Coffee Cups
Old Printers
Electric Litter Boxes along with all of their accessories
Flower Pots

Finally, here is a list of items that you couldn't even pay someone to take:
Old mirrors that were taken out of your bathroom and are too big to move to the dumpster
35 Gallon Fish Tanks on a Stand
Treadmills and perhaps any other kind of exercise equipment
Clothes
Martini Sets

If you have old handbags that you bought at Sam Moon several years ago when they first opened and there was that frenzy to go there and buy multiple handbags several times a year, you will do well at your garage sale with them.  I probably made $20 on cheap old handbags that I thought I should have just thrown in the trash selling them at $1 each.  Meanwhile I had a $250 Lark garment bag that I couldn't unload for $5.  What the hell?!!?!?!??!

So, I get it.  Many of the people who shop garage sales have no real since of value.  They are the people who go through life being distracted by shiny objects and reacting accordingly.  That is okay.  Many things that I felt I simply couldn't live without over the last few years have new homes today.  Some of them are in the bottom of a dumpster.  Others are boxed up in my garage awaiting a trip to Goodwill.  Hopefully, the weekend taught me to think a little more carefully before throwing away good money on something frivolous.  At the very least, maybe I got a sign from God that I needed to keep that treadmill and get my fat a$$ on it this afternoon.

Have a great Sunday.  Go Cowboys.... or at least don't embarrass me further....

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