Selling my soul from the garage

Claire is hellbent on having a garage sale.

She sorts through our things: DVDs, clothes, and toys, asking, "What about this mom? Do you want to keep this?"

I've hemmed and hawed and told her maybe in spring we can have a garage sale. The trouble is, I hate garage sales. I avert my eyes when I drive past them. I can't imagine spreading our cast-offs across tables, with price tags, and advertising for people to come paw through it all. The whole endeavor makes me squirm.

I haven't said that, because who am I to be too good for a garage sale?

Maybe it'd be an effective way to sell my manuscript... hawk copies for a few bucks each.

Comments

[kcinnova]

I appreciate a good garage sale, but I can see your point: strangers pawing through what was once yours and perhaps feeling judged by neighbors.
They are a lot of work (garage sales... although neighbors and strangers could be, too!) so I wonder... since you don't want one... what is your daughter's interest? Does she want to make money or get rid of things or ??

[Shelly]

Garage sales are just So Much Work for So Little Profit. I don't think I'll ever do another. I either sell stuff on eBay or Craig's List, or donate it and take the tax deduction.

Hooray for decluttering though! My kid wants to keep EVERYTHING then crabs at me for throwing away the tiny piece of paper she wrote a secret message on 3 months ago and never touched again. What insprired Claire?

[glasseye]

I hate garage sales too, from both ends of the project, but I'm rabid about clearing things out. Nothing makes me happier than having nothing. So strange ...

Can you vacate the premises during the sale? Avert your eyes and let Claire run the sale and keep the profits? Or is she too little?

[Chris]

I don't care for garage sales, either. My kids love the idea of selling stuff, and I mean STUFF. Anything that doesn't crawl away! I'd buy your manuscript. :) I have a nonfiction manuscript sitting with ONE MORE publisher. Trying to continue work on my fiction project... difficult to let go. Hang on.

[All Adither]

Claire's only 5, and I don't know where the garage sale idea came from. I think she just wants to be a merchant.

[glasseye]

Sweet baby. You've got yourself a tiny businesswoman, Angie.

[Bev]

When our kids were young, like yours, my BFF and I would have two garage sales a year at my house. My mom & dad would drive up with their stuff too, bringing my young niece, and everyone would stay all night the night before. As a business person, I enjoyed the business aspect of it. All of the kids thought both the slumber party and the sale were a blast, the husbands were all relieved to see so much "stuff" leaving their homes, and we pocketed enough to help buy next season's clothes for all our kids.

My point, yes there is one, is that if you can find a way to engage family/friends and turn it into a party, you might enjoy it. One final note, I hate going to garage sales because I cannot paw through the "stuff" of others. I've never found a "treasure" in "other peoples trash." I only enjoyed ours because of the camaraderie and the fun that the kids had.

[vanessa mcgrady]

Garage sales are GREAT. We met our neighbors, who became our best friends there. The other way to look at it is that you're helping someone who needs it, especially if you price stuff really low.

[amyg]

i'm with you. my neighborhood has one every year and i hide in the basement. i think i was negatively impacted by them at a young age when i spent every weekend with my grandparents who would go to every single yard sale in a 25-mile radius of their house.

[Su G]

Every spring and fall Heather and I clean out her room, take everything that it's time for 'someone else to play with' and sell it through the JBF (Just Between Friends) consignment sale. Heather has made enough money each season to get something she wants (Hannah Montana movie, DS) , we recycle and her room stays as uncluttered as possible. Bonus: It's EVERYONE's stuff, not just yours and someone else has to man the cash-box!