I'm Going To Put on My Shirt and Do This Thing. Do You Think I Need Pants?

Today is Friday. The day that I and all other Monday-Friday workers look forward to. Today is the last day of "paid work" and tomorrow starts the weekend of "unpaid work". Housework, garden weeding, laundry, garage sales, and home improvements all seem to be the work that piles up over the work week. Some people are super-people and do these things throughout the week - I am not one of "those people". The work is there to joyfully greet me every Friday night as I stumble into, I mean through, my front door. The next morning is when it all starts - Saturday morning.

Saturday mornings, well, there really is nothing like the smell of Pine Sol. The kids are still in bed, and most likely the boyfriend is too. I get up, ready to take the bull (my trashed house) by the horns and show it who is boss. Riiiiggghhht.

So, this particular Saturday morning I am going to complete a task that most people only dare to do once a year at the very most - I am having a garage sale. The first weekend of June is the Annual Auburn Garage Sale, and tons of deal scavengers come to our small town to see what junk they can pile into their trucks and what bargain basement prices they can pay for it. You would not believe the "folk" that come out to see our wares. I have never seen so many Rascals on one street (except for that time at the Kansas State Fair) at one time.

Having a garage sale always seems like a great idea. Sell your junk to someone else and hope you make enough to buy something cool, or at least justify the work you put into getting it ready. That brings me to my next point.

Garage sales take ALOT of work. You have to take it all out of storage (that pile in the corner of the garage) and arrange it attractively on flat surfaces (old doors on chairs), then you have to price it all with stylish price stickers (masking tape and majic marker). The one thing that I always forget is to get change. I mean, if they give you a $20 for $2 of merch then you have to give them back the $18. Its not like they are going to tell you to keep the change at a garage sale.

My entrepreneur-like brain is trying to think of other things I could sell. The kids perhaps....they are cute and smart....probably not. I think I will stick with ice, bottled water, and sodas to sell along with my "stuff". Garage salen' makes folks thirsty.

My favorite thing to do on garage sale mornings is to cook cinnamon rolls and make coffee. I can be found sitting in the shade with a cup of joe, reading a book, and waiting for customers to stream down the street. It is fairly relaxing during this phase (unless you live in Kansas and the humidity is up to 65% and even breathing makes you sweat).

Another factor in the success of a garage sale is the weather. There is NOTHING more frustrating than when you work your tail end off and get the sale organized, and along comes a happy little cloud that will drop torrential rains all morning long. Profits are greatly affected and then you are forced to have the garage sale yet another day.

The last part of the Garage Sale Debacle is when the sale is over and you have tons of junk to get rid of. More work. We usually end up loading it into the truck and visiting the depository-of-all-things-not-quite-trashworthy: the Goodwill.

The best part of a garage sale is the good feeling you have when you walk into the house afterwards, cash in your pocket, and realize that next weekend you will have approximately 30% less stuff to pick up. That is like a vacation in and of itself.

Have a great weekend everyone!