This past weekend my mom and I hosted a garage sale at our house. It was madness. I had NO IDEA how much work goes into hosting such an event. We put an add in four newspapers and put up signs the night before. Because our house is on the market, we couldn't even begin setting up for the sale until the night before around 7:00 pm. Moe was working so I had to recruit our good friends to come help me maneuver the furniture to the basement to the garage. Luckily, I had already priced everything so it was just a matter of "arranging" everything. By midnight when I made my way upstairs, the garage looked like a slightly organized dumpster truck! I had set my alarm for 7:30 am with hopes that I would get up, shower, drink my diet coke, eat my breakfast, and mentally prepare for the 9:00 am to 3:00 pm sale. However on the way to the shower, I noticed a car parked in front of our house. No joke, people were waiting outside with their morning coffee for the sale starting at 7:30 am. At 8:30 am, I moved my car around the corner to keep it out of the way and a man flagged me down and asked if I was opening the doors soon. I explained it would be 10-15 minutes. He then proceeded to pace in front of my garage door until we opened it. He bought $1.50 worth of stuff. SERIOUSLY?!?!?!
For the first two hours, it was a mad rush. There were 10-15 people walking through at all times. I was the "banker" ironically and realized how much I suck at basic math. It was almost like a day long crash course on addition / subtraction. I am pretty sure that for several customers that owed me $3.50 and paid with a $10, I gave them back $7.50 (pathetic I know since I am a "banker" in real life). There were a couple lulls throughout the day, but for the most part, I never sat down for the six hours of the sale. In addition to trying to make sure that no ghetto members of our neighborhood bought things at a "five finger discount", I found myself chatting it up with customers throughout the day. My favorite customers were these two gay guys that were hilarious. The one used to make jewelry and bought all my homemade necklaces from high school (never thought those would have sold). On the opposite side of the spectrum was a Catholic nun (who my mom befriended) who told me that it was a shame that I didn't have children yet. She then explained that she knows too many young people who lost their husbands to God early and regretted not having children with them to carry on their memory after they died. You should have seen my face. I have enough abnormal fears about Moe dying, I don't need some crazy nun reminding me about them in my garage!
As we wrapped up the day, I was all upset because a couple of my big ticket items didn't sell; however, as we were packing up things to donate to the church, but we had a couple show up and buy our speakers and entertainment stand (these were the same people who had come back twice "eyeing" these pieces). Minutes later another lady showed up and was looking for a chest of drawers! It was a perfect ending to the day. All in all, Moe and I made approximately $350 and my mom made about $150. I felt terrible that my mom didn't make more and keep losing sleep that we counted my sales twice or something. Overall, I'd say it was a success though. My mom was an tremendous help, and I can't thank her enough! It was an exhausting experience that either one of us wants to relive again for many many years!
- Miss J
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