It's over! And we're relatively dejunked. I don't own a single appliance I don't use. No ugly towels, unused gifts, misshapen lamp shades. It's all history, abiding at someone else's house, or sitting on my driveway in an enormous pile, waiting for the truck to pick it up later today. And we had a blast! This is what it looked like pre-garage sale.

I'd say somewhere around 15-20 women showed up, carrying wonderful summer salads, trays of guacamole and chips, cookies as big as your face, and all their cast-offs. After a time of arranging their items, checking out what was being offered up to the first grab, then lots of fun chatter, we gathered in groups throughout the house and ate dinner together. We prayed, at the beginning of dinner, acknowledging that we live in a land of plenty, and thanked God that we could use some of our excess to bless others, whether it's girlfriends, or those who will take items from the Mission Store.

Dinner out of the way, we met again to cover the rules of the "sale". First grab gets it. The "safe zone" was the strip of grass up my driveway. Once something was dragged there, it could not be claimed by someone else. If someone took something you wanted, you could bargain and trade, but not steal. Everyone was strongly encouraged to take at least one item, and you were allowed to personally hawk your items, encouraging others to take them home. After about two hours of fun and laughter, a few women walked up the driveway with their one item, or their small box of new treasures. A few had to drive down their cars, and one woman filled the entire inside of her car and her trunk. She swears she was taking items for her newlywed daughter.

This is the inside of the garage and the spillover to the driveway and lawn.

A few photos of women with claimed treasures. For family in Texas who misses her, photo on the left - your sweet sister, finding items to decorate her new place here.

This is what the unclaimed pile looks like:

Of note, that bicycle is our son's. He stopped riding it 9 years ago, but was hanging on for memory's sake. He finally agreed we could pass it on to some other little boy. Fun memories we have of him on that bike, squealing through the streets with his buddies, Mark and Travis. The tires have a case of dry-rot, but I think there's still life in that bicycle for anyone 14 and under.

There's still plenty of stuff in here to sort through, but hopefully by the end of August it'll be done. It looks manageable now at least. I cut down my Christmas decor by half, my seasonal decor to a minimum. I'll now put one wreath on our front door, rather than another 10 or so on every single window. We kept the lights for the front porch, but I'm not convinced we'll put them up. They may be history too. I also took a handful of items to the Ebay place, and they expect we'll end up with about $200 from the sale of those items. I told the kids, any treasures we sell on Ebay - they can pocket the money. Leslie's Precious Places should bring around $50!

I've still got more sorting to do, and will likely have a good pile to take to the Mission by the end of summer. Then Leslie and I are going to redecorate the rec room, taking down all the sports memorabilia, packing away our son, Dan's treasures. We're planning to paint the bottom half of the wall a charcoal color, put a stripe in the middle, then repaint the upper half of the wall a light color. I'm then going to print family photos in sepia and black & white, and frame them in black or chocolate frames, and spend some time/money on making the rec room look like a nice place to hang out.

I only took three items from the sale. A sleep shirt from Victoria's Secret, donated by Susan; a pile of quilting fabric, source unknown, and I'm tickled to death that I got Mary Ann's 9x13 pampered chef baking dish. It's already nicely seasoned and saved me $35. Mary Ann is the one who took my Bread Machine.

So - phase #1 is finished. I'm off to Colorado later this week, for a family visit and a wedding, then I'll return home near the end of June. I expect no blogging for me the entire time, but I should have some great stories and photos to share when I finally make it back home.

Labels: Girl Talk