I live by certain garage sale rules…… Day one… the price is marked…. Day two …. let’s make a deal…. Day three… anything offered if better than packing it up and getting rid of what is left over!  Now, you can ask if I will take less, but when I say no, don’t come up with reasons why I should have to take what you are offering!  Just because you say “it’s for a church VBS program” does not make me want to give it to you for $1 when I have $2 on it. Goofball! Yes, it is your money, and there is no requirement for you to purchase ANYTHING at my sale.  And ma’am if you were the only one over the years that had reasons as to why I should sell my stuff for less, I guess I would look the other way – but unfortunately, “you” are all over the place!  And the best part is….. I am considered the rude one??? Rant over…

Garage sales…. I promised myself several years ago I would never have another.  I lied.  Here I sit, hoping and even praying that someone will buy the big stuff so I only have to dispose of the little stuff.  And I price to sell – by far the vast majority of my “stuff” is a quarter or fifty cents.  Now, I am not selling you a perfectly good, older model deep freeze for fifty cents, so be realistic.  But, I do my level best to recognize that while there is still good use in an item, I don’t want it, so maybe others don’t want to spend much for it.  Don’t misunderstand me – over the years, my garage sales have been very good to me.  I have had years that that I have made well over $1000 and was able to pay for vacations for our family.  Then there are the years that we only made a couple of hundred of dollars and we go out to dinner.  But – they are work and you lose three days of your life, that you never get back – bahahaha!

In the process of getting ready for this sale, a few things became apparent to my hubby and I.  First, all that stuff in the basement, well more than ¾ ‘s of it is not ours!  That is right folks, our adult children still have their “stuff” stored in our basement.  GET IT OUT!! To be fair, they have no place for it either and/or the distance to come and retrieve it is unreasonable.  Not sure what they are going to do if we ever move out of this house?  The second thing we discovered is that if they got their stuff out, we could store our Christmas decorations in the storage room instead of in the 2000 degree attic. And getting it out each year would be much simpler.  The final thing we discovered, is that a furniture set that my parents brought back from Havana, Cuba 68 years ago- that we were finally going to sell – may in fact be a collectible. So definitely not a garage sale item.  Ugh- so we keep that for awhile, until we figure out the value.

What is the value…. how do you do that in your life? How do you determine what to keep, what to sell/trade off and what to discard?  And I am not talking about material stuff.  I am talking about emotional stuff.  What do we own and what do we release? When do we say enough of your stuff, I need to make room for my stuff? When is it more important to reach out and take care of….. ourselves?  Figure it out – because, knowing yourself and caring for yourself has a pretty high value. If you can’t care honestly for yourself, you are not worth much to the others that you care for and about.

So… its day one….prices are fixed – buy if you like, walk away if you must.  Kind of like life – there are things that are absolutely non-negotiables and we need to be sure of what they are in our lives, so that we don’t compromise our values, ideas and direction.  Even when people ask us to do so, even if it is for their good cause, life should not always be about “let’s make a deal”.  Know your non-negotiables, know what day of the sale you are on, and hold on to your values.  Heavens knows, no one will do it for you!

PS  The lady who wanted my “stuff” for VBS?  She just returned and gave me the $2 I was asking for…… goofball!