Doing a Garage Sale: Never Again
Almost two years ago, when I moved in with Bill, we found ourselves overrun with stuff! Two households of furniture, duplicate appliances, “must-have” gadgets we never used, impulse buys and a mountain of clothes (mostly mine) that should have been culled decades ago. So we did what all homeowners do when invaded by their possessions—we had a garage sale. Two days of sheer hell, it was hot and miserable; we vowed we would never do it again.
In the interim we remodeled and, good citizens of this great nation of consumers that we are, bought more stuff! So for the past week we’ve been preparing for another garage sale—and today’s the day!
Up early, I start the final preparations. Effie’s Homemade Oatcakes are a great little coffee biscuit, and with my favorite Norwegian gjetost cheese to go with, it’s a perfect breakfast on the run.
I’ve been helping my dad clean out his house, so all my childhood memories are out the door this time around. Old toys and games, the “K” that designated my bedroom door and, OMG, my old Easy Bake Oven!
It’s sad, but it is time for it to go!
By lunch I am starving. Bill runs down the street to Marco Polo’s, an Italian deli. We both opt for the meatball grinder to get us through the rest of the afternoon.
After the afternoon rush dwindles, I get busy and re-arrange the tables so it looks like we have a lot of goods to sell. Just look at all of the junk…I mean great bargains!
We pack it in around four and start the clean-up process. It’s a lot of work, but we raked in a little over four bills and got rid of unwanted items.
It’s almost seven p.m. when we start scrounging in the kitchen for dinner. The best I can come up with is a super easy vegetable pizza with a cornmeal crust. A no-yeast recipe is simple to prepare and doesn’t require a rolling pin. We’ve got mushrooms, red onion and zucchini slices that pinch-hit for pepperoni. It’s not a lot, but at this point, we don’t really care.
After dinner we collapse on the couch, in our newly uncluttered home—and once again promise to never go through that again!
I never forget to eat (ha!), but do you ever get too busy or tired to have a full meal or snacks? —Karen