|
Have you ever had a yard sale? Have you ever watched while people rummage through bags and boxes picking the most peculiar things? Have you ever tried to haggle with someone or talk something up with them in order to get a better price? Have you ever seen cars pass you many times, but never stop? Have you ever had a light rain to come, hurry to cover everything up, and as soon as you do, it stops raining? Well, we experienced all this and more this past weekend.
It all started with my father. He suggested we have a yard sale to de-clutter the house. This sounded great! Get rid of junk and make a little extra money, too. So we set the date, but as the time grew closer, the house seemed to be more cluttered than ever. You don't realize how much stuff you have until you bring it out into the open. We have a lot of books because when you homeschool, everyone seems to dump old books at your house. Yes, there are always a few gems, but as a whole they are not worth the paper they're put on. And, of course, we have old homeschool curriculum. Some friends of ours called and asked if they could bring their stuff, too. They had a huge trailer full -- we said the more the merrier!
All the week of the yard sale, I sat in the floor pricing everything, made sale signs, cleaned items, organized change, packed boxes, etc. It was a long process. The day of the sale we woke up at the crack of dawn and was immediately in a fluster. We had to get all that stuff outside and organized before our first customers. Or so we tried. When our friends arrived with their huge trailer, it became even more crazy. A little before 8:00 the S.Y.S.T.S. (Serious Yard Sale Treasure Seekers) arrived. You could tell by the looks on their faces they meant business. One woman looked as if she had eaten a lemon. She left very soon after arriving; we most certainly did not have what she was looking for.
During the morning we had a good stream of people. When people stopped coming Nathan and Caleb went down to the corner with signs to dance around so cars would hopefully stop. I guess they need dancing lessons, because they were not very successful, but don't tell them I said that. At one time we considered laying Nathan out in the middle of the road and then cars would have to stop.
I never realized how many strange people there are in the world. I think the best example I could give you was when an older man wanted to buy a large plastic crocodile. He haggled with me and later said that he and his wife put plastic animals on their dog's grave. Okay, I've heard some strange things, but this one tops them all!
What amused us the most is what people would pick up to buy. One of our first sales was a ceramic ostrich egg. You have to wonder what they're going to do with that -- unless you have an egg collection or have an Easter egg hunt where whoever finds the ceramic ostrich egg gets a huge prize.
At the end of the second day, we all made a grand total of $208 -- not too bad, but we still have so much stuff left! So we are doing it again in two weeks at another location. Whew, yard sales are a tough business!
| 
