How the Garage Sale Went Down

On Saturday, as you may have already known, we had a garage sale. It was our first ever garage sale in the entirety of our college and married lives. Well, aside from the time I sold everything in our college apartment on craigslist. We don't talk about that. I sold stuff that shouldn't have been sold, that parents asked for back years later. This may or may not have something to do with why we don't have garage sales. I digress.

My memory was correct, May 5th was the day slated for the community garage sale in our neighborhood that some nice neighbor, who I still do not know, so kindly put together. We joined the very few other neighbors in displaying our collective crap from over the years on our driveway. The night before I cut up leftover shipping labels and priced every product, complete with notes. On the Tivo, "needs a hard drive but works great otherwise!" On the Roomba, "short battery life but works great!" I was determined to charm the average garage saler with honesty and thoroughness. I also priced everything high, seeing as I planned on a good barter and you have to start high to get to where you want.

After an hour of people scoffing our prices I realized that if I didn't lower my prices I would be sitting there with no money and crap I didn't want. I priced Doc Marten's for .50, a ton of barely worn clothes for .25 and a snowboard with boots and a bag for $15.



While we did get an occasional nibble, nothing really sold. It was weird and nothing like my romantic memories of our family garage sales as a child. A truck would pull up and buy everything in one felt swoop and the rest of the day was spent playing in the sprinklers in the front yard. Instead we stayed out enjoying the weather and the company of my brother-in-law while drastically reducing prices. By the end of the day you could've taken everything for $1 and we would've been happy. 

7 hours and $45 later we closed up shop. Our leftover crap now resides in a box on my driveway that I am trying to decide what to do with. Donate to a charity that will in turn sell it to Savers or have another sale where everything is a quarter or 10 for $1 so at least the money's going to the Sunderland charity of unemployment.

All was not lost, however. It turned out to be a great reason for seeing family members, friends and neighbors we don't see often enough and a nice excuse to sit outside in the lovely weather all morning. 

That and my brother-in-law treated us to a maple bacon donut. It was delicious.

P.S. The sun hat Gwen is wearing in the last picture is from Costco and AMAZING. I highly recommend it if you've got a child of any sort.