Yard Sale: Part Deaux

The pictures I posted last week did not do the amount of items we had for sale justice.  Our living room, dining room, and front porch were stacked to the ceiling.  Not figuratively; literally.  In the week leading up to the sale, between 3 and 4 people showed up each day to drop items off.  Sometimes it was just a bag or two, but most times it was an entire trunk full.  (All the more reason I still long for a minivan, they can haul a lot of stuff!)  Sometimes people priced items, sometimes not.  Last Thursday I went to the grocery store with a 50 cent price tag affixed to my right breast while my left one was labeled “Not for Sale.”  I was pricing items in my dreams.  

And like every party I’ve ever thrown, I began to worry that no one was going to show up and all of this stuff was going to be left at my house.  So I made 10 two sided signs and plastered our neighborhood, and Lucks and Courthouse Roads.  I posted updates to Craigslist and various Yard Sale websites.  

People also loaned me their card tables.  Friday night, before going to bed early, we set out thirteen folding tables of various sizes.  They were joined by the three sets of wire shelving from my attic as well.  There was literally so much stuff that Sloan and I knew that if we did not have a schematic of where all of the stuff would be located, we would be lost.

Having gone to bed at 9, I awoke at 4am.  My goal was to get everything off the porch and house by the time my friends showed up around 6.  I figured we could sort things then.  I had half of the porch cleared before Sloan joined me around 4:30.  He helped me finish the porch and then began emptying the house onto the now clear porch while I began to do an initial sort or the items.  We were still emptying the house by the time our first helper arrived around 6:15.

As we sorted, my friends began snagging items they wanted and making piles for themselves in my now empty living room.  It will shock no one who knows her to learn that Rebecca Perry wins the "most things bought at our yard sale" award.  We began to get worried when by 7 no early birds had shown up.  But by 7:30, things were hopping.

We made over $500 before the yard sale “officially” opened up at 8am.  

From then on it really is all just a haze for me.  I was wearing my yard sale vest (Sloan’s old fishing vest with about a gagillion pockets.)  I had a pocket for ones, a pocket for fives and tens, and a pocket for larger bills.  I was the sole checkout lady.  At times there were lines.   

Because I was so busy I didn’t take any pictures, but here is one Sloan snagged with his phone.  Behind him was all of the furniture, hardware, and lawn equipment.  

It started to thin out around noon.  Which was good.  Because I wasn’t counting calories and I had an entire #12 Beach Club no mayo from Jimmy John’s to eat.  To be honest, Sloan and I were craving lunch around 10.  

By about 1:30, we were telling people they could fill a bag for $5.  By two, more friends showed up to help us bag and box and get things ready for the charity to pick it up.  

All told, we were completely D.O.N.E done with the sale by 4pm.  For those of you counting, that is a full 12 hours on my feet in my driveway.  I will certainly count this as labor pains.  I started popping 800mg of Motrin and could barely walk the next morning.  I’m just now beginning to return to “normal”.  But this labor was a lot more fun because I was surrounded by people who love me and my family so well.  

And it may or may not have ended with me in my kitchen throwing singles in the air while Sloan shouted “Baby, make it rain!”