Garage sale rookie no more

Last weekend was my first experience on the seller’s end of a garage sale. I was pretty enthusiastic about having a garage sale. While I was pregnant, I swore I’d give myself a year to shrink back to my college-size body. Unfortunately, that deadline passed and I’m still a size over. Not to mention, some of the stuff was more of a “out with the girls” style than “chasing a one-year old” appropriate. A lot of clothes I pawned off on my sisters. Some they wear, but I have a suspicion most are clogging up their closets now. Oh well. Better theirs than mine.

When I did spring cleaning in March, I made three piles ( ala “Clean Sweep” on TLC). My “keep” pile contained the things I could still wear, things still useful or items of real sentimental value. A few old favorites, like a pair of jeans now too tight, made their way into the pile. I guess we all need goals.

Next, I picked out a big box left over from moving eight times and made it my “sell” pile. Most were items I thought were cool in college, gifts I didn’t need, stuff I bought and didn’t use, and other things that I just didn’t need anymore. I tried to pick items to sell that were still good enough that someone else might find them useful...for the right price. Lastly, I made a big “toss” pile: old boxes, college papers, brochures I’d collected on vacation and other miscellaneous junk. My plan was to roast marshmallows with it, but spring got away from me. Sadly, it still takes up one corner of my garage.

Originally, my mother-in-law, her sister and I had planned to have a garage sale in June. But summer sort of got away from us and then it was August. Last weekend was the last chance before school started again.So Thursday, I hauled my big garage sale box, along with several smaller boxes I collected, to my aunt-in-law’s garage.

Then it was time to price, something I was dreading. As much as I wanted some of it gone, I didn’t want to just give it away. I used a formula based on what I thought it was worth combined with how much I wanted to sell it. If I wasn’t 100 percent sure I wanted to send it to a new home, I priced it a little on the high side.

The first day of garage sale was while I was at work, so I was eager to check it out that afternoon to see the progress. Traffic was slow, and Saturday wasn’t much better. I guess people are just garage-saled out for the year. I met my goal of $20, but a set of dishes I really don’t want to bring home is still sitting out. We decided to try again this weekend and maybe catch some of the Labor Day crowd. We’ve still got nearly a whole garage full of random knick-knacks, but hopefully more will sell. If anyone needs to know where to get a Toronto Blue Jays stadium cup, I'll direct you my way.