Back to the grindstone

Woof. It was a little more difficult than I expected to get to work today after two long garage sale days. Of course that bed-wetting of a Bears game last night is not helping.

A much nicer day didn't seem to help with our selling as the day went on. Most of the leftover big stuff was still there when we wrapped up yesterday, but there is some online interest in the bike trailer thanks to craigslist. We took the smaller stuff we could pack up straight to good will last night, now we just need to get the big stuff out of the way.

Kind of gross to sell a mattress but the frame has lots of life left. 

sad Harbor Freight bike rack needs a new home. 

But the trains sold, and more clothes and small goods, so all in all we made almost $500 for the weekend. Not bad. And despite the mess the third garage is in right now, there's lots of room in the main garage again, which means I can start looking for a leaf blower to take up more space. Ah, suburban life. Next thing I know I'll be cleaning the garage again.

But I can get the bike in and out, so it's all good.

Maybe the crappy signs actually worked

Whew. Garage sale, day one, in the books.

The night before

And it was a success in that both bikes sold, and enough other stuff that we've built a small profit that makes me glad I did this. Despite a cloudy day that felt like it could turn into a rainy one at any point, we stayed dry and sold some good stuff. All the ND jerseys, both Bears jackets. The snow blower and the old corded mower.

The rush hour was already gone at this point, and the beater went soon after. 

Now I just have to unload the elliptical. The toddler bed. The wine butler. The bike trailer. Yikes, that feels like a long list.

But the bikes went to a good home. The same home, actually, a few hours apart. An older guy took the Raleigh down but his wife told him not to. So he came back later and bought it in his own. And then he came back and bought the beater a few hours later. My kind of guy. What does it say about me that most of my stuff sold to older suburban guys who were very excited to buy my clothes and gear? I don't know. I guess I'm an old man. 

OMG someone PLEASE buy these trains!

Lots of trains to sell too, but it'll give me and the boy more time to throw the football around so it's all good. One more early coffee run and we'll be ready to go.

DIY sign posts

If we're having a garage sale, one thing we need is garage sale signs. So I picked up some cheap ones, and spent a few minutes making some stakes with all the scrap I've got around.

I was tempted for about a millisecond to just buy a handful of the thin stakes in a bucket right next to these signs, but then I realized the whole point of a sale is making some extra cash getting rid of stuff, not buying more things I could easily do myself.

Six signs are perhaps a few too many, but I can double up on them and have them somewhere people can see them from both sides. Viola!

Between a few pieces of plywood and some split 2x4 chunks, I have plenty of stuff already looking vaguely stake-like. All I had to do was trim it and put a point on it.

With these in hand and most of our prep work done, I think we're nearly ready to host a sale. Fingers crossed we don't have to postpone a week b/c of rain!

Clear out the garage

August has really gotten away from me. I have another project on the agenda, but before I get started I wanted to clear out the garage. Time for a garage sale!

We've spent the 2 1/2 years in the new house dropping off a truly copious number bags at goodwill. They make it so easy with the drive up window. But I have some larger items I want to get rid of, including the wine butler I just copied the t-racks from and a few bikes I no longer see myself riding. The wife has her doubts, but she's given me the go-ahead to throw a sale the weekend after Labor Day. Woo hoo!

Cleaned and lubed. Time to find her a good home. 

Goodbye, artifact of our 20's. 

Name your price!

So between now and then I have to clean up some of the other stuff we're going to put out, like getting all the stickers off the kids' old toddler bed. Then I get to scour the house for other stuff to round out the sale, and the boy is even thinking of putting his Thomas trains in. We'll have to negotiate on who gets those funds, it's never too early to talk about the value of a dollar.

Doing this on top of wrapping up two more classes, including two 10+ page papers and a narrated presentation, it feels like we have a lot going on right now. But I don't see much harm in adding one more thing. Especially if it gives me an excuse to drink outside while we have it.