Yard Sales Are Depressing – When You Are the Hostess

April 27, 2009

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Don’t get me wrong. I love shopping a good yard sale. In fact last Saturday I went to two yard sales in my neighborhood.

At one I got an awesome original piece of artwork for $5,  and at another I got a huge stack of like new clothing for my 6 year old daughter for next to nothing.

great big old yard sale
Creative Commons License photo credit: frankh

It’s Having A Yard Sale That I Hate

I’m not exactly sure why, but I’ve always found it depressing to host a yard sale.

For one, it’s a lot of hard work.

And there are so many things I would rather be doing on a Saturday than sitting in my front yard hoping strangers come buy my junk.

Maybe it’s also because hosting a yard sale reminds me of how much junk we collect.

I make a concerted effort to keep stuff OUT of my home.

I am a minimalist from the word go. I resent stuff.

But even I, the antiClutter Queen, somehow amasses too. much. stuff.  Where did all this junk come from? And why, pray tell, do I own THREE dust mops? UGH! It just disgusts me.

Umm, does this clutter make my butt look big?

I didn’t get to the gym on Friday which is a usual workout day for me (again – because of the stupid yard sale!), so I literally feel flabby. I think having a yard sale made me gain 5 pounds.

Not to mention, the city came around and pulled up my signs.

Good signage is everything when you’re hosting a yard sale.

Even though I live in an urban area, and there are tons of walkers/bikers/scooterers/cars around, we still didn’t get the traffic we needed in order to sell out. So I ended up having it on the second day too, which I didn’t want to do.

I’m done complaining now. :-)

I did at least try to be as eco-friendly as possible. I used cardboard that was lying around to make signs. I gathered up stuff that didn’t sell and it’s in my car, waiting to go to the nearest charitable organization.

How do you feel about yard sales? Love ‘em? Hate ‘em?

At least the weather was beautiful.

Posted by carrie | Filed Under Planet Earth 

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Comments

7 Responses to “Yard Sales Are Depressing – When You Are the Hostess”

  1. Lisa on April 27th, 2009 12:52 pm

    Love ‘em. Love ‘em. Love ‘em. Wanna know how I really feel?

  2. carrie on April 27th, 2009 1:01 pm

    I love shopping them, just hate having them!

  3. Christie on April 27th, 2009 1:05 pm

    Oh do I ever hear you! I loathe having yard sales. It is NEVER worth while with all the hard work you put in. Now I just freecycle, which is wonderful, I just leave the item on my porch and it magically disappears. i don’t have to store the item until the next yard sale so that makes me happy and it makes the person who is getting it happy.

  4. carrie on April 27th, 2009 1:12 pm

    @Christie that sounds great but the GA Freecycle group is strict. You can’t leave stuff out, you have to actually communicate back and forth with the person who is coming to pick it up. So for me, donating to the thrift store is easier.

  5. Tiffany on April 27th, 2009 1:40 pm

    Love going to them but HATE having them. And I plan on having one in a few weeks before we move and I am dreading it! Argh!

    Last year to keep the kids occupied we put up a big water slide and more than a couple parents at the sale had to take wet kids home, haha. The huge orange slide also attracted people I think.

  6. Jen on April 27th, 2009 6:11 pm

    Every other year or so I get the itch to have a yard sale and I’m always disappointed. It’s hours of time wasted in preparation and then sitting there waiting to sell $5 worth of stuff. I could be working during that time! :) I had one last year that was a total waste of time so now I post ads on Craigslist and either give things away or pack things up and have a charitable organization pick them up in exchange for the tax deduction. In theory, if you have lots of nice stuff to sell, I see how they can be fun but I guess we just always seem to have junk that no one wants! :) I love going to them though….especially for kids’ stuff!

  7. Carole on April 29th, 2009 12:24 pm

    I’m planning one with my neighbor. That makes it more fun. Plus, you get to empty out your house and make a few bucks. I can handle that once every year or two. Did them more often when my daughter was younger. She got all the money from selling her stuff, so she could go buy more stuff. She loved it.

    We live off the beaten path, so signs out at the main road, and an ad in the paper are a must.

    And when it’s over, we have a few charitable orgs that do regular pick-ups.

    It’s just getting the stuff out there in the first place that’s hard work… Once that’s done, it can be fun.

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