Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Yard Sale-ing

My Facebook status last Friday afternoon was, "Confession: I love going to yard sales. Trashy? Maybe. But I've seriously scored the last few weekends, and just had a very lucrative start to another!"  I got a dozen or so responses negating my suggestion that yard sales are anything less than totally classy. Hmmm....  well, whatever they are, I've been hitting more of them this summer than ever before in my life. I even make a list on Thursday night of all the ones I've seen advertised and mapquest them to find the best routes (cuz you can't depend on signage - people make crappy signs). Sometimes they're a big waste of my time, and it's nothing but junk at the sale. Or worse - overpriced junk. I get seriously frustrated with people who expect near-retail prices for their used - or even unused - belongings at their yard sales. Five bucks for a shirt? Sure, at TJMaxx or Ross. Not at a yard sale. Two bucks, max.
But I'd say over half the time I find something I actually really, really wanted/needed, for an awesome deal. Like this weekend - we needed a longer hose and a watering bucket. Found 'em - a few quarters each. I need some post-maternity clothes to wear til I'm in my prepreg clothes - found 'em! I bought some girl's collection of solid colored vneck loooooong tshirts (perfect for nursing and hiding the tummy pooch) for .50 each! And her new-looking Lucky jeans - size LONG - same price! This past weekend we also got beach toys, baby stuff, a present for mom, sliding organizer bins, a swimsuit for Brianna, 5 pairs of shoes for her.... I won't bore you with the list - but you get the point. I got cool stuff. For cheap. And a little bit of an adernaline rush along with it. Not joking - anybody else get a little high off of finding a fabulous deal on something you really wanted/needed?  *sigh* I'm going to miss my weekend yard sales when the babes come and I can't really go  (Brian works every Saturday - even when he technically has the day off).
Related story: here's a photo from a yard sale fundraiser we held here in Cedar (actually, the next town up in Enoch) for our La Leche League group:
I'm in the red shirt on the left. If you click on it, you'll see a belly photo. But that was back at 28 weeks, when I constantly was told how small I looked for carrying twins. That doesn't happen very much anymore :)  I promise I was actually helping at the sale, not just shopping. The whole experience made me appreciate how much work goes into doing a yard sale right! Organizing, pricing, advertising, crowd control, cashiering, negotiating.... ugh. I was pretty wiped out by the end. I doubt I'll ever hold my own yard sale - not worth the effort. I just freecycle everything I don't need, or sell via craigslist. Even someday when we're filthy rich (like - we can afford to actually own two cars) I'll still be a yardsaler. Brian says I don't do my part supporting the economy. Psh.   I just love the whole concept of one's person's trash being another's treasure.

1 comment:

DeAnne said...

I LOVE! Yard-sale-ing. I can totally relate to that HIGH