I Did It!

I had my yard sale!!  Third time was a charm.  I planned it for one Saturday and just wasn't ready, planned for the next one and wound up in the ER (with a kidney infection) on Friday night with bed rest prescribed for the remainder of that weekend.  Needless to say, when last Saturday arrived I was SO ready!  I woke up the hubs at 6:30.  He kept mumbling something that sounded an awful lot like "crazy lady".  Hehe, I've been called worse.  I also dragged the kids out of bed too.

Since this was my first experience with hosting a yard sale, I had tried to do plenty of reading on what to expect.  No amount of reading really actually gets you ready though, does it?  The hubby and I carried out the futon we were selling and immediately people started pulling over.  It was the only thing we had out!  I couldn't believe how fast it happens.  We had most of the items we wanted to sell stored away in the garage so we didn't have to keep running in and out of the house.  That was really good.  I seriously could not have guessed that people would be so receptive.  

Anyhow, we managed to pull things out of the garage and for the first 30 minutes or so, it seemed like every time we pulled something out, it sold within minutes.  Once that first half hour was over, it was a nice steady stream of people milling around, haggling and making small purchases.  My darling hubby thinks I was far too quick to agree to reducing prices.  I figured, we want to get ride of it and I tried to price everything with the knowledge that people would ask for a lower price, so I didn't mind.  

We got rid of nearly everything we had hoped to.  The only thing that remained (that would have been nice to see go) were 4 kitchen table chairs.  They were all the same style but 3 were one color and the 4th was different.  This put so many people off.  I was shocked.  Not a single person asked for a reduction in price nor did they attempt to break the set.   That's the way it goes, hardly a big deal since we cleared out so much space!

Some things that I learned...You'll never be able to get everything out before people start walking into your garage and looking around.  Hehe.  Being prepared with plenty of change is essential!  I went to the bank on Friday and had nothing but 1's and 5's.  It was the smartest thing I did with regard to this whole experience.  I couldn't believe how many folks showed up and wanted to buy something for a buck and had only 20's.  Being friendly is a huge benefit!  A smile and a hello makes a world of difference in the way people view you and respond to you.  (That is kind of true in all aspects of life though, isn't it!?)  Just when you think no one else is coming, another wave of people comes along.  This happened more than a few times.  I would just be saying.."I guess we should close up shop" and boom!  3 or 4 groups would show up.  Keep things off the ground if you can!  I notice quite often around here that a lot of our neighbors who have hosted yard sales drop everything into piles on blankets on the ground.  I was able to put most of my things laid out on tables and it seemed to keep people browsing longer, as things were bought (some of the tables for instance) and things were moved lower, peoples interest in those items waned.  

I'm sure there's more to tell but I'll spare you the details.  Hehe.  I had a great time, cleared out a lot of the items I needed to and put a few bucks in my pocket.  All in all, that's a success in my book.  

It looks like I'm going to move shortly before Thanksgiving...who knows, maybe if I find enough stuff that I don't want as I'm packing I'll give this another try?!

A Little Weekend Decluttering

Since I had some free time today I decided to tackle a couple of cabinets and drawers.  It wasn't a whole lot of work and I only remembered to take pics after I was done with the hall closets, but I still feel good about doing something.

After playing Munchkin with the kids, I enlisted their help to clear out some books from one of the cabinets in the hall.  We filled two large bags we purchased for Costco trips(nice sturdy bags!).  Oddly, the cabinet is still totally full.  I think everything we fit into those bags was just overflow.  I'll have the hubs sort through his.  I know he'll give me the freedom to get rid of most, if not all of his books.  Since he got his Kindle and then replaced it with his Kindle Fire the books are just collecting dust.  I think I'll be the one with the most difficulty, I parted with a lot, but I can't bring myself to get rid of my cookbooks.  And I have a lot more than I remember.  Not too long ago, I forced myself to whittle down my collection of cooking magazines.  Dating back to 2005.  I spent a week looking through them, pulling out the ones I couldn't imagine getting rid of and ripping out recipes I wanted for the rest.  Then I scanned all of those.  I keep telling myself I'll be happy when we move and I don't have all of this stuff (junk) weighing me down.  It may not surprise you to find out that when the hubs saw the pile I was keeping he was shocked.  That I was keeping so many.  *wince*  I pared it down a bit more, but I still have plenty.

While I was in the area, I took a moment and pulled a couple of holiday plates out of another cabinet.  I think getting rid of a lot of the holiday stuff is going to be key in making this move work.

Moving on to the junk drawer.  Every kitchen has one.  Sometimes more.  I cleaned one of 2 and took on one of the lower cabinets.

Before:  As you can see, my junk drawer, is very junky.  Tangled wires, picture hangers, batteries, fast food condiment packets (loads of those >.<), paperwork and more.  Pretty much, a nightmare.

After:  I brought all the paperwork together and bound it with a rubber band I found in there.  There was also a bag of zip ties floating around so I used a few of those for the cords.  Birthday candles found their way into a sandwich bag and I neatened the rest of it up.  All of the collected condiments got rolled in the bag and stuck on top of a spare kitchen towel.  It's not perfect, but it's a heck of a lot better than it was!

Looking at the two picures now, I wonder why I didn't take the first one from a slightly wider angle...shame, most likely.  hehe.

 Since that took just a few minutes I went ahead and did another cabinet.

Before:  In this spot are all of my cake pans and cookie cutters, icing tips, cake plate and other baking miscellany.  I also have some spare plates, magic bullet and other crap stored away.  What a mess.  You want a little bit of truth on this one?  When I opened the cabinet, that round cake pan came crashing out.  D'oh!

After:  I made a couple of cuts.  Two Wilton pans will be landing in the yardsale bin, I tossed a try that was chipped, but mostly I just took a few minutes to neaten it up.  Much better!

That's about all the hard work I think I'm willing to put in today.  Haha!