Out With The Old

With so much of our relocation plans still up in the air the only thing preserving my sanity has been to try and prepare for the move as much as we can in advance. Without knowing our actual move dates yet the biggest area of focus so far has been cleaning out house of everything we don’t need anymore. It is amazing how much stuff you can collect in a short period of time. When we moved into our house 4 years ago it felt huge, after the 1000 sq. ft. condo it we felt like we were living in a mansion. Now just 4 short years later every closet and corner of the garage has been bursting at the seams. I’ve even heard myself saying, “You know one more bedroom sure would be nice…”

So over the last 3 weeks we’ve been moving from room to room cleaning stuff out. I was baffled by how many bath towels we have managed to shove into the linen closet. I now have a new rule, if you buy a new towel you must get rid of an old one. We have more board games than any one family should have and somehow we have about 15 baseballs. We also have some nice things that we have just outgrown. Patrick’s old train table has provided him with years of train and Lego fun. Kellen’s crib bedding is no longer needed now that he is a big boy in a big boy bed. So what to do with all of our random collections? I had my first garage sale on Saturday.

Cliff and Nicki’s neighborhood down in Renton has a yearly neighborhood garage sale and they graciously volunteered to let me use their garage and driveway on Saturday morning. So I was down there by 7:30 with both Patrick and Kellen in tow. Nick helped pull out tables for me and I merchandised our things as much as I could. I did get a few comments on how well organized or sale was; thank you 4 years of retail experience! I was ready for the huge crowds and to rake in the cash. Instead it poured down rain and everyone told me this was less than half of the normal traffic, too bad it rained…  Regardless of the low traffic it was for sure a learning experience. I didn’t think anyone would want the old towels I had collected but those went like crazy while the baseball gloves and skateboard had little to no interest. The cutest customers were the little kids. They were defiantly our target demographic since we seemed to have never gotten rid of any of Patrick’s toys until now.

Of course there was the jerky guy that had to barter every price, his son wanted a keychain I said .50¢ and he had to remind his son that the fun of a garage sale is the negotiation; the son got the keychain for .25¢. I think someone stole a watch from me, I was only going to sell it for $1 but I guess that was too steep. There were also some fun people. A lady expecting a little boy bought the full crib bedding set and was so happy to find it.

In the end I made a whopping $180, not sure it covered the gas to drive to and from Renton but better than going to Costco that morning and spending $180. Because of the low traffic we’ll be doing another one. This time at our house and hopefully in the sun.  I still haven’t gone through our kitchen cupboards so who knows maybe this time I’ll have 20 measuring cups to sell, I’ve been surprised by every other room. I think that after this big adventure my garage sale days may be over.

This weekend was also father’s day so happy Father’s Day to Jamie. He is a great Dad to both of the boys and I’m excited to see him lose all pretense of being a disciplinarian once he meets his baby girl. Also to Grandpa and Papa, just the look on the boy’s faces when we tell them we’ll be seeing you guys makes it clear that you rank much higher than boring old Mom and Dad. It’s for good reason you guys are the best!