Nothing to lose and $6.75 to gain

In January 2005 I moved from my two story, three bedroom, three standard closet, four walk-in closet, full basement home into what we now refer to as Chez Ragged. In downsizing I had to rid myself of most of my clothes, some furniture and my tape collection.

Since it was January and certainly not garage sale season I held a "by invitation only" event. It was very exclusive and I even had flyers at the door with a pricing list. Call me Martha Stewart. What was left went to a local charity that actually picked up everything! I ended up with over $600 and a tax deduction. I was so thrilled. It was the stuff that legends were made of. My colleagues are still amazed that I managed to make such a profit on a bunch of junk. It's all in the marketing and target audiences, I tell ya.

It wasn't easy parting with some of the stuff such as my VHS tape of Footloose, but what I ended up with were my treasures, my necessities and what means the most to me. Still, it was a lot of stuff and is partially the reason (that and the neighbors who recently constructed a dog pen out of chicken wire along the perimeter of our property) we have such a need to find a new place. We need a place for all of my stuff, all of his stuff and all of our stuff.

Recently, in an effort to lighten our stuff load, I cleared out my closet and drawers and assembled enough crap not for my own yard sale, but enough to contribute to someone else's. It was a sad, sad stash, so much less than what I had parted with a year ago, but nonetheless, it was worthy of hauling across town. Sweaters, coin counters, water bottles and the like.

The sale began today and unfortunately I had to be at work bright and early, so I missed it when they "opened the doors" so to speak. I called for an update and it seems that thus far I have made $6.75. To be honest, I had expected to have made less than that. I am not balking at my $6.75 as I am not sure if my whole load in truth was worth that and it covers the cost of a movie. Who am I to complain.

I am certain I came out ahead in a few other ways. For instance, as I perused the items brought by other yard salers, I spied "Handknit Holidays" and "My Sister's Keeper" in the stack of books. The former hadn't been read or opened, received accidentally via a book club order gone wrong by the yard sale hostess. The other had been passed around and every reader felt the need to encourage me to take it, read it and enjoy it. Both were free to the first finder and that was me.

I will check in later to see if I have earned enough for a bucket of popcorn.