It’s garage sale time again! Yippee.

I know, I know…every time we have one I say I’ll never have another…but I can’t stand the thought of losing out on some cash so we inevitably have another when it’s time to move.

It didn’t seem like quite as much work this time, though—maybe because we’d already pre-sorted lots of stuff while getting the house ready to list. It was still work getting it priced and set up, of course—and things got hot and sweaty more than once—but it just felt like less work overall. (It also helped that a mommy friend came over to help me get started—I had just been STUCK.)

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We had advertised the hours as 7a-2p with NO early birds, so of course the first people showed up about 6:15.

Tom: Sorry, we don’t open until 7.
Earlybird: Can I just look around?
Tom: Sorry, we’re not selling anything until 7.
Earlybird: But I have to be to work at 7!
Tom: Sorry.

Guess who then said they’d be back at 7? 🙄 I think we turned away three people. We gave up at 6:50 because the street was full.

The haggling wasn’t TOO bad—I actually expected it to be worse—except someone wanted a discount on the very first item that I knew would go quick. Nope, sorry. (It sold full price about 30 seconds later.) And the people who would hold out an item to you asking how much it is when the price tag is right in plain sight. Or the people who just hand you money trying to shield the tag just hoping you’ll take the money. Or the people who asked for a bag for stuff they were carrying, then tried to bury other little stuff underneath. Or the lady who asked “How much for the whole bin of clothes?” And I said “Well let’s count them and then I’ll give you a deal. I can’t give you a fair price otherwise.” And she refused and said she just wanted a price. So I said $30 (there was probably 50 pieces in there and they were $1 each). She looked at me like I was crazy. Oh well. I don’t have time to deal with stupid crap like that. And I know it doesn’t make sense, but I’d rather donate it then take the pittance I’m sure she wanted to pay—which she never even offered anything! Frustrating.

The only other bad thing was the weather sucked. It was humid from the get go, but at least it was overcast. But about 10 or so the clouds disappeared and it was hot. as. hell. You could stand in the garage to get out of the sun, but then there was no air movement. If you stood outside to hopefully catch a breeze, you were in the blazing sun.

And as usual, some of the things that sold/didn’t sell just baffle me. An old swimsuit of mine that I put out on a lark sold…but a ton of kids’ toys didn’t. A St. Augustine koozie sold…but a Little Tikes slide didn’t.

Even though we said we’d go until 2, it was dead at 12:30 so about 1 we started packing up boxes to take to the donation center and we were all done by 2! The back of my car was FULL with about four huge boxes and a huge lawn waste garbage bag of kid clothes. There was even stuff in Owen’s car seat! I think that was worth at least six days of #40bagsin40days. 🙂

40 Bags in 40 Days—Day 20

I haven’t been keeping great track since the brunt of our sorting and organizing is done…but we have still been tossing stuff here and there, adding to the donate and garage piles, and deciding what to sell.

But today Tom got rid of the raised garden bed (and burned the wood) and I sorted my bedside table top drawers. I forgot the actual Before picture, but I did take this picture of everything that came out of the drawers…

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Proof they were actually empty!

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And then back in, somewhat organized, with a bunch tossed.

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It still needs more paring down but it takes baby steps—and I have two drawers to go!

40 Bags in 40 Days—Day 17

More garbage, more recycling, more garage sale, more donations… It’s little bits here and there but it all adds up!

Plus someone came and picked up a big item! I hated to get rid of the tray tables (they were a wedding present) but we couldn’t even remember the last time we used them—and they’re HEAVY—so we made the decision to let them go.

40 Bags in 40 Days—Day 15

We were STILL working on the storage closets/living room tonight…and ended up with another half bin for the garage sale (including a printer!), an entire bin of blankets, another shopping bag of recycling, and a HUGE garbage bag of clothes. Tom is REALLY getting into the spirit of this as most of the clothes have been his! (Or he’s just more of a clothes horse than I am!) 🙂

40 Bags in 40 Days—Day 11

And I thought yesterday was a banner day—HA! Today blew yesterday out of the water!

  1. A garbage bag of my clothes
  2. Two garbage bags of Tom’s documents shredded
  3. A stack of Tom’s magazines recycled
  4. Almost a full garbage bag of AV cables
  5. Two more bins of toys
  6. The decision to try and sell part of our entertainment center (the end towers)
  7. The decision to try and sell a storage cabinet
  8. A floor scrubber
  9. A set of bath towels

And I feel like I’m forgetting something…

40 Bags in 40 Days—Day 10

Today was a banner day!

While the kids were downstairs, I was upstairs sorting toys. The keep pile was very small and the huge Rubbermaid garage sale/donate box was overflowing!

Then, as you can see from my earlier post, I cleaned out both Katie and Owen’s rooms…taking out at least one bag of clothes from each room, in addition to assorted toys and books…plus the glider rocker and ottoman!

Of course, all this stuff is still somewhere in/at our house…but it’s planned for eviction soon! 🙂

40 Bags in 40 Days—Day 8

Today was a technology day—I cleaned out my email Inbox! I’m pretty good about keeping it somewhat empty by Archiving and Deleting, but it was getting out of control. A few 15-minute sessions throughout the day and I went from 750ish to 299! No, it’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things—and it doesn’t help with decluttering the house—but it’s something instead of nothing!

40 Bags in 40 Days—Day 5

Okay, I’m back in the saddle again after being on vacation and cleaning up from the flooring we had installed (yes, I’m still finding stuff that needs washing)…

Today was actually an easy day, as someone bought the office desk we’ve had listed on Lejeune Yard Sales [for months]. But, we also organized a horribly awful useless-because-it’s-overstuffed junk drawer…and threw out quite a bit (not a garbage bag, but I still feel accomplished).

40 Bags in 40 Days 2014 Decluttering Challenge

A friend posted a link to the 40 Bags in 40 Days 2014 Decluttering Challenge on Facebook…and considering we know we are moving soon, I figured it was perfect timing.

What is 40 Bags in 40 Days?

A forty day period in the spring (coinciding with the 40 days of Lent) where you focus on cleaning one area per day. In this one area you challenge yourself to declutter, simplify, decrapify, and get rid of things you don’t need. The goal is one bag a day but you can have more or less.

I want to be held accountable so I am going to be posting my daily results. The goal is one bag per day, but it’s not hard and fast (see site) as the main gist is to just get decluttered—one day might be a piece of furniture, one day might be three bags of clothes for donation, one day might be sorting through 10,000 emails, and one day might be skipped all together.

So without further ado, my day one:

Day 1—Pantry

One huge box of snacks to Tom’s office and one box of way outdated stuff tossed; the box to donate will come closer to moving day.