We put on our very first garage sale in over eight years this past Saturday and now I remember why! It's so much work to get things organized, moved up from the basement, sorted and cleaned (the good ol' wipe down), promoted, etc. and then you never know if you'll be swamped with customers or counting the lonely hours under the sun.
We undertook a lemonade/brownie stand to get the kids excited about it and to give them a lesson in the value of a dollar. Sebastian worked it (when he was out there) like it was his calling in life to make sure everyone that showed up knew that you could get a brownie for $ .50 or lemonade for $ .50 and that if you bought both that'd be a $1! I literally had to tell him to stop following one guy around. Ha!
Ruby, on the other hand, was more interested in drinking ALL THE LEMONADE.
Pretty sure that's a health code violation, Ruby.
Don't worry, this was right before we closed up shop.
Or was it?
We got to visit with our new favorite Okie friend/babysitter, meet the other half of one of my new mama friends, get excited about our neighbor's new chickens together, finally meet some Instagram ladies, and visit with two sets of sweet people that came all the way from Littleton and Denver! It wasn't the overwhelming crowds of people throwing cash at us that every garage sale setter upper dreams of but we couldn't have asked for a more fun day visiting with all the people we know in town and a few new friends. My heart was full.
The most entertaining bit was when an elderly woman parked in the middle of the alley to browse our loot and told me my $4 nesting dish set was too expensive and that she could go down to the Wal-Mart and get one for $2.97. She went on to haggle me down to $1 for two vintage floral pillow cases and then turned up her nose when I asked $4 for a vintage floral sheet. I'm sure in her mind they were the same kind she'd had for years and were nothing special. She reminded me a little bit of my sassy Meemaw so it was fun to visit with her, comments and all.
A lot of vintage loving people on Instagram (I'm @smileandwave) suggested doing an online garage sale of sorts since we still have most of what we wanted to sell. I'm not 100% sold on the idea yet but I'll keep it in mind. We're planning on having another garage sale really soon since we've already got things organized so we'll see how that goes first. If we do I'll make sure to let you know in advance.
So, what is your best garage sale putting on advice? Next time we're not only doing a listing in Craigslist but also the paper because I have a feeling that's where the action is. Feel free to share your garage sale stories below. I find them highly entertaining.
-Rachel
