When we decided to move out of our apartment in Walnut Creek to live with family, it was the perfect opportunity to de-clutter. My goal was to move to Arizona as a minimalist. That turned out to be hard to do because I have a lot of junk...uh...I mean...treasures. I figured it was time to dump some of it. Then the bright light went on and I thought, 'Hey, I should have a yard sale.' So, I gathered stuff from what seemed like all corners of the earth: our apartment, the Hunt's storage, the Hunt's garage, my grandma's garage, my grandma's attic, and my parent's attic.
Before the big day arrived, I read several articles on how to host a successful yard sale.
Here were the most popular suggestions...
You gotta be organized
(So, I got 4 hours of sleep and woke up at 5am to try to accomplish this...)
Avid yard salers like a good 'flow'
(Definitely worth doing, but a pain, especially at the end of the day when it looks like a tornado came through)
Make sure prices are visible
(Which I didn't do...tried, but those darn early birds ruined that plan)
Always, always have signs leading to your yard sale
(I worked on so many colorful signs the night before. I woke up that morning and started setting the yard sale up in the driveway, only to realize that I had trapped in all the cars that were going to be used to set up signs...major FAIL)
Despite not utilizing any of the above suggestions, the yard sale was actually a real success. There was a mad rush at 8am when we opened the gates and it seemed as though things didn't really start dying down until noon. This was what it looked like after said-mad rush. I promise it was more organized an hour earlier...
While the whole yard sale thing was hard work, it totally paid off. We ended up making several hundred dollars that day (it all went to paying for my board exam, but whatevsy). And it was actually kind of liberating to see all my treasures go.
Now, don't get me wrong, I didn't sell everything. I came across things that were just too good to let go. Take a look at my Senior Will from my high school days...
Seriously? What kind of friends did I have that gave me the nicknames Hoochie mama, Skanky, and Pissy? And I had to laugh at all those pet peeves I listed because I instantly remembered exactly who I was talking about when I originally wrote it. Passive-aggressive much?
Anyway, thanks to all my family who let me store random things in random places in their homes. By the time we leave for Arizona, it will really all be out of your hair. (It's okay, I won't be offended if you do a celebratory dance.)
