Sunday, August 29, 2010

The Neighborhood Yard Sale!!!



Picture from Google Images



I haven't blogged in a week and it feels like forever. I've missed my daily reads and visits with everyone. It's been quite hectic here for the past week. This weekend was my neighborhood's twenty first annual yard sale. This happens every year at the end of August and it's a BIG DEAL. Our yard sale is well established, gets promoted and brings thousands of visitors to our neighborhood. Last time I counted there were over one hundred families participating this year. Since my daughter Kate graduated from university this May and moved to NYC (you can read about that here), our basement has been on overload. So, there was no doubt Buttermilk Cottage would be there with the rest of everyone else!






Have you ever done a yard sale? If so, you know the incredible amount of work involved. First is the sorting--what to sell, what to keep, what's not worth selling or keeping... Then the pricing, which we quickly decided not to agonize over, just price it already! The above shot is in our basement as we start the process.






Next, things get moved upstairs (oh my back!!!) into their staging position, before they can be moved to the driveway. My poor, and usually quite pretty, entryway was that spot.



Here we are ready for business. The offical yard sale day is Saturday, but because the sale is so well known, people begin to set up earlier and earlier each year. We set up Thursday evening, so we'd be ready to sell Friday morning. And, I do mean Friday MORNING. When we went out to remove the covers from our "goodies" at 6:30 AM, I found a man already there, perched over a table with his flashlight shining brightly!




A few of our "choice" items...





Did I tell you about my daughter's shoe fetish??? Actually, she's not totally responsible for the number of shoes we had for sale. Nancy and I contributed a few too.


This picture of Kate's old stuffed animals and the next one of her shoes, almost seem to capture her essence from babyhood to young woman. Ahhh....

Did I mention Kate's shoe fetish???



At last, OPEN FOR BUSINESS, and the customers! We did a brisk business all day Friday. However, our main focus was on Saturday...



Last year, we didn't have enough "stuff" to participate in the yard sale, so we did a "Bistro" on the porch. We had so much fun with it, that we couldn't bear not to do it again.



I'll tell you all about that next time!






8 comments:

Chicken Wrangler said...

That is a lot of work! I've had yard sales when the kids were small, and I have not forgotten all of the energy it takes to get ready. Then, when you have it for 2 or 3 days, you are simply exhausted from just sitting there and collecting money or answering tons of questions - and then - you have to put everything away or donate it to charity...That takes a while too!!! Your snack bar idea sounds like fun!

Unknown said...

Did you sell all the shoes? Some of those are seriously cute! Sounds like a lot of work for a weekend...

Linda said...

I agree with Chicken Wrangler....a LOT of work!!! I am assuming it was worth all your effort! Loved the shoes! I enjoy GOING to garage sales but I never really made much when I had a couple of my own. I sell on eBay now instead!

Brenda Pruitt said...

You managed to take a sale and make it fun! What a good idea! Hope you made some good money.
Brenda

Angela said...

You made it look like a lot of fun! Hope you made some serious cash!

Have a Great Week!
Angela

Unknown said...

This actually looks like fun! I love to clear things out..and used to participate in my room mates' "garage sales" years ago. Since that time though, I just drop things off at the thrift store at our church. Maybe it's time I help organize a neighborhood effort!!!

That bistro looks fantastic!
xo Elizabeth

Martha said...

Sounds like you had fun at your garage sale -- they are a lot of work for sometimes not much money per hour (if you consider ALL the work involved!!!) Like the idea of the Bistro -- did it do well?

Kim @ Savvy Southern Style said...

That is a lot of work. I have made good money many years ago in our first house doing that. We don't have them here because there is just no good place to park without tearing up our grass. We are on a busy fast street. Thanks so much for stopping by and your very sweet comment.

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