You've seen the neat pictures of French brocantes with all the lovely linens, old silver, interesting yard ornaments, and all sorts of things that you just need to have ... right?
Well, here in Central Virginia we have a little less style. After weeks of dragging Mitchell into the attic, and into the storage area under the house, and into his shed, yesterday we had our first yard sale in about 20 yea
The thing that we have learned is that in yard sales, as in real estate, it's location, location, location. Our last two yard sales took place when we lived on much busier streets with nearby apartment buildings. Here in the suburbs we had much less traffic. But still ... gone are all the small appliances and electronics; gone the Christmas ornaments and decorations; gone the kitchen ware; gone the lawnmower I no longer use.
We sold about one third, donated another third to Goodwill and sent the rest to a flea market with our neighbor who is skill in such things.
Money was not the object. What we have now is a clean attic and lots of clear space under the house. The shed is still pretty much too filled, but that is a battle for another day.
Doesn't it feel great to get rid of "stuff"? I am not a pack rat (Dan is), and moving from our house in Oregon after 30 years was a bit of an ordeal, but I felt liberated after we had our yard sale.
ReplyDeleteAnd now you do have some more money ... for more plants?
I know you must be exhausted. I need to clean out, but I don't think I can face having a garage sale. (It is the preparation and the folks showing up at 7:00 a.m when you post 9:00. You are a very brave woman in my book. I just donate and take the write-off . Rest well! Bonnie
ReplyDeleteWe have a clear out once a year and every year I still can’t believe where it all comes from and why did we buy this crap in the first place!!
ReplyDeleteGood for you! We don't have the courage for a yarad sale, so just like Bonnie, we send it to charity. Except it always seems to be "my" stuff, not Chuck's. I swear he still has clothes from before we were married! Elizabeth
ReplyDeleteI long to have a yard sale but like you we don't live in the busiest part of town and on a one way street to boot.
ReplyDeleteBut I've got the good, the desire, now if I only had a Saturday.
xo Jane
One of our guys at work just got divorced and found an apartment. Since he had nothing but a folding chair, we went "shopping" in the basement for him and found lots of extra/old dinnerware and furnishings. Having an emptier basement was even better than the feeling of helping him.
ReplyDeleteOh for a clean shed! Good on you for getting rid of stuff - I keep planning to do this, but I seem to only get round to shifting things from one part of my house to another! Paula x
ReplyDeletep.s. Your comment on my blog about Marina Hanbury's dress made me laugh out loud - thanks for the giggle! x
Congratulations on the clear out, it must feel good to have a clean attic :)
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me that the brocante in my village is in a couple of weeks. Time to batten down the hatches and prepare for invasion!
I TOTALLY would have taken that luggage off your hands. Why is it that every time we get home from a trip where we had to fly, our luggage looks a little worse? I am so anti-yard sale simply because of all of the work. The pricing and the haggling and the Yard Sale junkies that emerge from their winter cocoon each April. But I'm glad you met your goal of a clean attic. As we prep for our next move, I'm looking at all of the stuff we've accumulated just in the past 2 years and I'm thinking "Goodwill is JUST off base..."
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