Nostalgia, a Garage Sale and the Value of Money.

Have you ever had been full of both excitement and dread?

For the past week I have been counting down the days until Saturday.  Saturday is the golden day when 5 of my favorite ladies and I are set free and childless in the Olympic Peninsula.  More then 24 hours with no one to take care of but myself.  That is the, over the moon, excited side of me.  Now, on to the dread.  A few weeks back, my husband and children planned a garage sale for tomorrow and Saturday.  The screeching breaks to my happy side that already starting to stroll out the back door.

The idea for the sale is a great one.  Knowing that our family is very much full and complete (except for the baby vizsla pup that I am expecting in September), it is time finally get rid of some of our crap  gently loved baby and toddler gear, toys and games.  My very practical John saw this as an opportunity to teach the kids a lesson about the values of money as well.  To his credit, he and the kids have taken this on themselves.  They have been planning and preparing items for sale.  To my discredit, I can't keep my hands off.  Having spent years in retail merchandizing (yes, thats right I worked at the GAP for 7 years), I can't leave well enough alone.  Here in lies my dread.  One day and zero dollars to turn my slightly leaning garage into the Fall I line at the GAP (circa 2000 of course).

There are other hurdles aside from the set up.  One of the hardest part is that we really don't have all that much to sell.  We are saving some baby items for family and hoping to turn others into heirlooms.  My 3 year old is having a hard time parting with anything.  In fact, we are really keeping him out of the loop and hoping for a miracle at the sale.   Another problem is that my 7 year old is viewing this experience as a "get rich quick scheme".  He plans on selling broken toys, used erasers and stained clothing with a large price tag.  He also has plans to turn a horribly tacky gold painted 1970's wall decoration from our cabin for $8,000 by claiming that it is real gold.  This is exactly why the lessons in the value money (and apparently honesty) are needed. 


So off I go to create signs, hang clothes and empty closets.  I will try to keep my nostalgia in check and Jack will work on his greediness.


Have you ever had a successful garage sale.  What worked?  What didn't?