This housecleaning job is never ending. I have found mountains of material and sewing patterns. The books that I would never use or read were carted off to the library for their book sales and helped to benefit by raising money to keep them open. Today I found lots of sewing machines, 8 in total. Also found many family photo's and pictures of people I don't know. Alas, I found more boxes of old paperwork just when I thought I had them all cleared out and shredded. UGH! But with all the clearing out and rearranging I managed to shove another dresser out of the hallway and into a small bedroom. In order to finish my floor painting job in a different post (painting sub-floor), I need to move one more dresser out of the bedroom and into the narrow hallway. I am almost able to too that now. While I have given away most of the clothing and had my first yard sale on Saturday, it seems that I will be having more yard sales this summer. Sell what I can and give leftovers to Goodwill. Then do it again by stacking another pile of stuff for the next sale. Have you had yard sales? Do you enjoy doing it? Any funny stories or things that annoyed you to share? I had such low prices I was almost giving it all away and yet had some people wanting to bargain for less. If nice I gave in, if rude I said no. And yet in the end I had some extra cash. I think it is more fun to have friends help in setting up don't you. Time goes faster and telling stories about family and friends, and the good ole days mixed with lots of laughter, make an otherwise dull day enjoyable. Share your thoughts.
I have a friend who sells a lot of patterns on eBay and Etsy. She's collected some over the years, and also purchases others at garage and estate sales. It seems like a lot of work to me, especially since she doesn't charge much, but she seems to feel she's contributing to the household budget that way. It sounds as if that was a lot of work for you. I agree, joint garage sales are much more fun than single ones, and plus, it gives the shoppers a wider variety of items to choose from, so more show up, and some come back a second day, if there is one.
I need to have a yard sale so badly, but either the weather is going to be bad when I want to have it, or I don't have time to get the stuff together. My biggest problem right now though is all the books I have. I sincerely want most of them...so it is really hard to let them go..but I am clearing out the room that has all the bookcases..and when I move I don't want to be moving 1,000 books, most of which I will never use or read again anyway. I have tried to sell some, but I never get a good price. I donated some the other day when I was at a church thrift shop sort of store,,but I didn't like it, even though it went to a good cause. I had hoped to sell one of my tall bookcases..cuz if I don't have places to store them I have to get rid of them...but all I got was lookie loos.
I have a friend that holds yard sales twice a year, once in the Spring and again in the Fall. She gathers things from family and friends in between those times along with stuff she has and stores these things in a big shed in her back yard and her attic. To her yard sales are a hobby and since she has been doing this for quite a few years, she even has regular customers that come back each year. I did it with her a couple of times when I had enough stuff to make it worthwhile...and I did find I enjoyed the yard sale much more doing it with a friend. Maybe you don't make a lot of money..but if you are able to get rid of things you no longer use or need...then it is better to make a little off of these things than nothing at all. Whatever is left over after the yard sale is always donated to a good cause. We have even sold bottles of water and homemade bake goods once or twice...and these things always sell out fast.
When my parents passed away, I had to go through all of their belongings, too; so I can understand the problems that you are having, @Sandy Wood . I ordered one of the large dumpsters and kept that for several months while I was going through stuff; because some of it had been in the old grocery store building and the roof had started leaking in some areas and ruined things; so there was a lot that (sadly) was just not salvagable. Then, I just had an every-day yard sale and added to it as I found usable, sellable iteems that I didn't need or want. People would come by every day to see what new stuff I had found, and some even gave me requests for "if-you-find" items that they wanted. I hired one of the out-of-work guys from our church to help me (I had a badly broken leg and was hobbling around on crutches almost a year) and we sorted stuff into several piles. One for dumpster, one for yardsale, one for things I wanted to keep. What didn't sell at the yard sale, I set in another "free" section, and so people were also able to go through that stuff and take anything they wanted from it. Most everything was disposed of this way, with me not having to take anything anywhere, except antiques that I thought were valuable and sold to the antique collectors.
My wife has been going thru boxes/plastic storage bins full of church and college stuff she no longer needs. As it is, we will have somewhat of a high cost for transporting (moving company) what she does have. This coming Fall, we will be in our Community Garage Sale and selling a lot of Florida décor that we've bought since living here. One thing for sure, Florida décor sure doesn't go along with living in Colorado! Along with the Florida stuff, we plan on putting in stuff that we have on Craigslist right now.......if those things don't sell on there.
There is nothing better than a good clear out,get rid of everything you no longer need,otherwise you will just hoard it away,no use for them.
In the Fall when I'm starting to put away my Spring and Summer clothes, I sort through my closet and anything I haven't worn and know I'm not going to wear again I put in a donation box. I also do "Spring Cleaning" at the beginning of Spring and Fall and as I'm doing that thorough cleaning of our home I always find some things that just aren't useful or needed anymore so this stuff gets donated or trashed too. After watching some of the nightmare TV shows on Hoarders and seeing their homes I find I can't even stand it when our home becomes a little cluttered now and then. I never have enough stuff to have a garage sale anymore but if I know someone who is having one I might put a few things in it. Not to long ago I added a few things to the one my daughters and one of their MIL's had and made $50 which went into the dining out and entertainment jar.