Garage Sale

In a few minutes, Chad will walk in the door and ask me how I'm coming on the garage sale.

He has been after me for months to have a garage sale and I have really struggled to muster any enthusiasm for the idea. It is not that we don't have an excess of junk that may or may not be perceived as treasure for the hordes of garage sale enthusiasts that comb our street and every other one every Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. It's just I can't get into it this year.

I will admit that we have been kicking around the idea of moving since we found out Clayton was on his way. It is slightly embarassing to me that we can't make a house with 3 finished levels, 4 bathrooms, and 3 healthy sized bedrooms accomodate all of us. It really is fine for the people that live here. We could all have 2-3 rooms completely to ourselves if we wanted. It is all of our stuff. Really, by global standards we have a vast abundance of space. It is only by American standards that we are cramped (and I'd be willing to bet there are thousands of New York City dwellers that would take our floorspace in a heartbeat).

We also have about 12 years left on our mortgage. That means we could be mortgage free before we send our second child to college. We love our location, the kids love the neighborhood, and neither Chad nor I is really excited about the prospect of trying to keep a new house nice with our flock of messy little birds constantly into everything.

So we need to declutter. And Chad likes the idea of getting some cash for it. I'm okay with the cash part, but it seems like an inefficient way of making it. The last time we had a garage sale it was so massive that we had an entire truckful of leftover junk. And over the course of a week's worth of hauling stuff, setting up, and pricing and a weekend's worth of sitting at a table while attempting to herd little ducks we made a measly $100. I don't think I have an overinflated sense of my own worth, but I am absolutely certain that 40 hours of my time is worth more than $100.

I have tentatively made arrangements with my sister in law to host a garage sale this weekend. And so far, I have done absolutely nothing for it. So I am tempted to just say forget it. I am not interested in surrendering an entire weekend to it. I know we have plenty of crap to get rid of, but my youngest daughter is 2 and my youngest son is just 4 months. I can't give up much of my baby stuff yet. My standards for my kids' clothes at daycare and at home on weekends is extremely low. Any clothes I am ready to get rid of are not likely to garner much money. And I wear an extremely uncommon size. Everything I own must be purchased at a specialty store for the excessively tall, and is generally fairly expensive. Consequently, I don't give it up until far past its fashion expiration and shabbiness dates. Again--it would be an extremely niche garage saler interested in my cast offs. So, I'll be left with McDonalds happy meal toy my kids are sure to fall madly in love with as soon as I dust them off and put a price tag on them and the handful of stuffed animals my kids can live without (many of which we got out of the "free for the taking" bin at our neighbor's garage sales).

Ugh. Just writing out my reasons makes me even less enthusiastic about this whole endeavor. I believe I shall open the negotiations with my husband with an agreement to work on it with him if he agrees not to go to work after 3p on Friday and all day on Saturday. I believe I will also go open a bottle of wine.