Day 63
IHGS. I hate garage sales. Let me rephrase that … I love going to them but hate having them. Immensely.
Years ago when Tim liquidated his company we had a variety of things from the shop that ended up in our garage. Time for a garage sale!
So, I lugged things onto the driveway and priced all the goods at what I considered to be an astronomical discount and people still haggled with me.
I guess I just don’t GET it … but I find it insulting when I have a good shovel priced at $5 and someone walks up and offers me $2. Really? You don’t want to buy a sturdy shovel for $5 bucks? You have to offer me a pittance instead? I want to tell them to go to Home Depot!
That happened at that garage sale (so long ago but it still irks me!) … we had 3 new, large fire extinguishers from the print shop. Never used. Brand new. I had them each priced at $15. I figured if someone wanted that item they’d pay three times that at the store – so $15 sounded reasonable and a bargain at that! Late in the day some little man came by and offered me $1 for all 3 of the extinguishers.
Looking back I hope I was semi-polite in my decline but inside I remember wanting to tell him to get off my property!
Anyway … I’ve had a few garage sales since and each time (EACH TIME) I say, “This is my last garage sale … EVER! I hate these things!”
And, today, I tortured myself once again and had a garage sale. Will I never learn?! And, boy, was it FUN! Yeah … kind of like the root canal I had done or the C-section I had without anesthetic (yeah, THAT was fun) … egad.
And besides all the fun of lugging everything out onto the driveway, I made a whopping $33. THIRTY-THREE DOLLARS. Given the horrendous cost of this move that $33, if broken down by cost per mile, will get the moving van about 2 miles away, at best. Lovely.
However … I made several people very happy!
Some guy, from Steele Street, came by and got the bale of chicken wire (god knows why we had a bale of chicken wire up in the attic all these years!) … and the old hamster cage (how long has it been since we had a domesticated rodent in the house?) … all for his son’s chickens! He also took the “Do Not Park – Fire Lane” sign that was one of my children’s ill-gotten goods!
At the same time, a couple … also from Steele Street, came by walking their dog and the woman said she’d like my pond for her turtles … so, the other guy from their block dropped it off for her. Nice and neighborly!
Meanwhile, another guy – again another resident of Steele Street, rode up on his bike and both Sam and I thought he was someone we knew so we started chatting him up and then realized that neither of us knew him. In any case, I think he thought we were super friendly and he bought a few things and then I gave him the belt sander that has been sitting unused for at least a decade. He left happy, if not confused by the super friendly greeting.
Not too long after that, as I was calling it a day … a guy drove up in his big truck telling me he lived on … (yes, you guessed it) … Steele Street … and took all my garden pots and tools and the frog statue that has been under my plum tree for 26 years. He said his mother would love it for her garden. I was glad the frogs found a new home.
At that time, a friend of mine came by and took Ted’s desk for her daughter. And guess what? She lives a mile south and I just looked up her address and … egad … she’s on Steele Street.
So … even though I didn’t make any money … I got rid of quite a bit of “junk” (one person’s junk is another’s treasure), met some very nice neighbors and made several people quite happy.
And … if Steele Street has a garage sale anytime soon … I’m not going to it cuz it’s probably all MY stuff!