Out with the Old

Yesterday our neibhorhood had garage sales. I debated up until the last minute about whether or not we'd participate. It's not that we don't have any old junk to sell. We do. Boy do we. I've only had one other garage sale, back when I was pregnant with Charlotte, and it was a lot of work and not a lot of money. I finally decided to just try.

We have an extra clothes dryer that we still haven't gotten rid of, and an assortent of clothes (all adult ones, though--outgrown kids clothes have many takers), and other odds 'n ends. If I had about a week (plus a dumpster and a dust mask), I could have stocked the garage top to bottom with stuff that I'm happy to part with. With less than 24 hours notice, we had 2 tables, the dryer and a few larger items.

I also got fancy and decided that garage sale shoppers get hungry and/or thirsty while they shop. I always do. So I had a cooler full of soda and bottled water, a tray of homemade cookies, and a bunch of my sticky buns (made with a cappucino-maple glaze this time...yummy).

Overall, it wasn't bad. It wasn't a huge moneymaker. I think we cleared about $25. We still have the dryer (there's an ad in the post dispatch starting Tuesday!). The weather was beautiful--mid 70's and breezy. Therefore, I sold very few sodas (like 2, first thing in the morning when folks wanted a caffeine hit). The cookies were popular (3/$1!), especially with the kids-with-spending-money demographic. I sold one sticky bun. Char, Trystan, and I polished off at least 3 more ourselves. If I did it again, I'd stick to sodas and cookies. At a minimum, I didn't lose money on anything, as we will drink and eat all leftovers. Eventually.

After lunch and a too-short nap, Trystan began puking. He continued, pretty much every 30 minutes all afternoon until almost bedtime. I still don't know what caused it--excess sinus drainage from a cold he's almost over, potential allergy to pecans that Char ended up sharing with him, some piece of dirt/leaf/bug/godknows that he found on the ground while playing in the garage and front yard, or just a stomach bug. The rest of us are fine (knock on wood), so there's just no telling. He seems fine today, but low on appetite.

While moving tables into the garage, I discovered that one of our folding tables is structurally challenged. I'm lucky that nothing on top of it broke when I tried to nudge it forward and the legs gave out. It was actually the one that I had been keeping both of my sewing machines on in our office. Yikes. I've been considering replacing it with a real desk. Today, I dragged my husband and the kids through a local furniture shop and think I know what I want.

It's silly, though, the one desk I like is the same one that a friend of mine recently bought. Not to be a copycat, but the desk would actually complement other furniture already in our house. Too bad it costs more than $25, though. Now I need the courage to actually spend money on it. And a plan to haul it home.