"Garage Sale Frenzy..." 'Judith Whitehead' (Inspiration Sunday)

Judith Whitehead lives in Amherst New York and has worked in

the ophthalmology field of medicine for over 30 years.

Garage Sale Frenzy

 Once again it was the week of our neighborhood garage sale; every beginning of August for the last 10 years our neighborhood does a joint effort, advertises and combines all our efforts to have the biggest sale ever.  We even included the neighborhood behind us this year to participate.  Garage sales are a wonderful way to clear out unused clothing, items that have been treasured by our significant other that have outlived their usefulness and children’s  items  that  they have left after leaving the nest; they amount  to   treasures that they could not part with but did not want to bring to their new abode so they ask if they can leave them in the house for future use.  We have a whole lot of those things.

Garage sales can be exhausting to say the least; first comes the dredging   of closets and bringing up from the basement all the old stuff.  Then comes  the organizing and tagging of every item so as to make it clear for any shopper to identify.   Tables all organized and set the night before because anyone who has ever had a sale in their house knows that the times posted mean nothing to the serious shoppers. 

It seems that 8AM -3PM means  “come any time” and our first shopper was at our doorstep early Friday morning at 7:30AM.  Not to worry, I was ready for them; my first priority was to unload anything and everything I had hung out, boxed up or displayed for the public.  Prices seem to mean nothing as well; they translate into a conversation starting with “will you take half the price?”  Sure, why not just give it to you…Then there are those shoppers that want practically a warranty on the item that they are paying a few dollars for…I often got asked, “does it still work?” and “is it the real thing”? 

Towards the end of the first day I did sell my larger items that I was happy about; but was left tired and hot after standing in the sun for 8 hours pitching my best sales talk to so many for so few dollars.

I have made it a rule in our house that nothing comes back into the garage that goes unsold; all left over items get carted away to charities.  During the last few hours of my sale I will put signs on the items that are large that say “take me home - I am free” .  And my last ditch effort to get rid of those items that no one will take is to line up the leftovers on the curb; there is always a junk man who will scour the neighborhood after  dark to get some treasures.  Surprisingly this year I had a knock at my door after dinner time to ask me if he could take the items on the curb which I thought was very considerate.

So, I feel my sale was a success because it met my three criteria; I was able to get rid of a lot of unused items,  got a little chaching for my purse, and got a little tan to boot.  My husband always says “never again” after the sale is over, but we know better.  Come next  Spring we will be sorting again for our annual sale so as to not break tradition; it’s a great way to catch up with the neighbors and have a little friendly competition amongst friends.  We always compare notes at the end about our most  trying customers and biggest sales because garage sales bring out the best and worst in people. Every customer is a potential sale and I enjoy the challenge. 

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