Whose bright idea was "Yard Sale?" How 'bout many feet for sale? or Lawn Sale? And then frequently you'll see Garage Sale and even Porch Sale. I wouldn't mind buying a Garage.
When I was a kid, we had Rummage Sales. Many times the stuff was from big cardboard barrels that came from some "church up north." That's an anonymous place. And I understand there are places in the country where they have Tag Sales.
Which brings to mind "Flea Market." In Hawaii, they had "Swap Meets." That sounds a lot better than "Flea Market." Who wants anything related to fleas?
The Swap Meet on Oahu in the late 70s was held at a Drive-In Theater. People would bring their things in early in the morning (I'm assuming, 'cause I never got there till afternoon) and then got everything out before evening. Then it was open for movie goers. Oh, yeah, they could drive their car/truck right up to their spaces, which were usually separated by the speakers. I once bought two really neat wooden chairs for $2 each. I had them until about 10 years ago.
John and I have been trying to combine our households which has been challenging at best. We went from our separated living spaces to one. He lived in our house in Manchester that had about 1500 square feet. And I lived here in this house which has less than 1000 square feet. So you can imagine.
We had a yard sale last weekend: Thur, Fri, & Sat. Then we did a repeat Fri. and Sat. this weekend. It took him about six months to talk me into doing a yard sale. When we sold the Manchester house, we packed as much as we could in here and rented a storage unit for the stuff we weren't sure about letting go of. We promised ourselves that we would only keep it six months. And we did. We feel great about that.
We've had some nice conversations with people. Met some great neighbors. Renewed some old acquaintances. So, all in all, we've had a pretty good experience. We were rained out Sat. last week and we had to cover everything up today cause it started to rain. And we haven't made as much as we hoped we would. But there is actually some space in the house that isn't covered in stuff. And we're not bringing much back into the house.
Not much. Really! not much. A wing-back chair that needs reupholstered, a rattan chair that was his mothers and is very comfortable. But I got rid of a lot of fabric and yarn, which is a lot more expensive than I remembered.
But I guess the most important thing for me, is I have been thinking a lot before I purchase anything. I make sure I really need or really want it. And I've realized how much my stuff has owned me. I buy it, then I have to store and maintain it. I went to a workshop several years ago that left me with one very nice quote:
"They're called stores, because that's where you store stuff
until you need it."
Dear God, help me leave things in the store till I need them and can properly care for them.
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