Score one for the savvy garage saler!
So today was the City-Wide Garage Sale in Reinbeck. No, we didn’t have one, as we’ve done in years past, but I had planned to actually go this year. It started off as such a glorious morning: I slept in, then woke up to find that Seymour bought the kids an old (and by old, I mean antique) school desk to keep their coloring books and things in for a decent price. When I realized that it was garage sale day and that he was out looking at things instead of working, I decided to get the boys up and do the same. I haven’t gone garage saling in years and it was a beautiful morning for a walk.
And that’s where things went downhill. Seymour found a train table that he wanted me to look at, so I tried to get the boys ready in a hurry so I could go look at it. Bubbles packed some milk and cereal to go for the boys and we were off…till Thumper dropped his all over the bottom of the stroller. The back seat of the stroller has a crossbar instead of a tray, so when he tried to set his cereal container down on it, it tipped over (and he refused to hold onto it). Then he screamed all the way to the sale and half the time we were there.
I finally managed to calm him down, and then Miss Tadpole tried to give him back his cereal, which started the whole thing over again. By then I wanted to scream, so we ended up going home. Seymour had some errands to run out of town and promised to stay with the kids when he got back so that I could still hit some garage sales early this afternoon, but by the time he got home, the garage sales were only scheduled to go for another half hour and at that point, either people have closed up or they’re starting to. *sigh* So much for my glorious garage sale adventure.
But as I was standing under a lovely shade tree on Park Street, trying to study the map of sales and struggling not to lose my temper in the rising heat, I was reminded of another garage sale day. Five years ago, I had my first taste of running a garage sale, and I was woefully unprepared for all the work that goes into it. (Holy crap, has it really been that long ago? Yikes!) The next year, Seymour’s mom and I ran the garage sale. The weather that day wasn’t nearly as nice then as it was today – we blew out a bunch of fuses, both in the house and the garage, trying to run a couple of space heaters – but at least it wasn’t raining, like it did the one year. Nothing went according to plan, it seemed, but we still had a lot of fun.
Of course, waiting for people to show up and buy our stuff seemed to take forever, so in the meantime, I tweeted. Okay, mostly I was complaining about how cold I was, but I also made notes about some of the people who stopped in to browse. By the time we closed up shop at 2:00 p.m., I had the beginnings of a blog post in mind. If you’d like, you can read it here. And who knows? Maybe I’ll post another garage sale retrospective next month – we’re having another one this year and for the first time in a couple of years, I’ll be working it.
Hey, who knows? Maybe all the time sitting at the garage sale will help me solve some more plot problems in my WIP! If a slow afternoon at the office can do it (like yesterday), then why not a morning spent working a garage sale? 😀
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Suddenly they all died. The end. 
I have never garage saled and we don’t have a special “day” here the way your writing implies you do. I am not a morning person and I always miss out on the wonderful deals. I really should try to become a morning person at least on a saturday or sunday so that i can be more frugal, especially when it comes to childrens clothing! I followed you on UBC. It is so interesting to take in what goes on in someone elses life. Hope you have a great weekend!
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We have city-wide garage sales here every year, once in the spring and again in the fall. They usually go for two days, but either I’m working or broke when they happen. Today I had the time and money, so I was disappointed that things didn’t work out better. But there will be other sales!
Thanks for stopping by! The UBC has been a lot of fun – I’m glad it’s kept going into May. You have a nice weekend, too! 🙂
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I’ve had my own garage sale, and I’ve gone to other peoples’ garage sales. The latter is much, much more fun!! There are certainly treasures to be found!
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The latter is much, much more fun!!
I agree! I remember going to garage sales with my mom and my sister when I was little and it was always a blast because you never knew what you might find. I still love to go, but it’s not as much fun if you can’t buy anything while you’re there, so I haven’t gone in several years. Oh, well. There will be other sales…maybe with more interesting treasures! 😀
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We don’t do garage sales over here; at least that I’ve heard of. We do boot sales and the police are always turning up to arrest people for selling stolen goods. If nothing else it’s interesting.
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That would be interesting! Working at a garage sale can be interesting, too, especially if you stay busy. You never know who will come in to buy (or just browse). Check out the post I mentioned above about the garage sale I worked with my mother-in-law; there’s a story about an interesting lady who stopped by to browse.
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Looking now
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I’ve done one garage sale. One was enough! But when my son was young I must have gone to hundreds of garage sales. We have a lot of neighborhood sales where I live in upstate NY – but no city wide sales that I know of.
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Garage sales are great for buying baby clothes, especially nowadays for what they charge! I know my boys had so many outfits that they wore one or two times, or not at all, before they outgrew them and garage sales were a great place to go to replenish their clothing supply on the cheap.
I live in a small town and a lot of the small towns around here do city-wide sales. I think in the cities, neighborhood sales are more common, but I don’t go there as often.
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It’s been years since I’ve gone garage saling! Your post makes me want to prowl the neighborhood looking for some now! We don’t have community garage sales here, though some of the churches have rummage sales. It’s more of an every man for himself kind of thing. But treasures can definitely be found! I love your tale for all of the trials and tribulations with that wonderful hint of adventure and hope!
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Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed it. Ah, the trials and tribulations of going places with toddlers, eh? The heat has been making my normally happy-go-lucky little guys rather unhappy lately.
Garage sales really are fun, aren’t they? I love browsing and finding hidden treasures, like the desk my husband found. It’s in great shape and when my kids have finally outgrown it, it will make a wonderful addition to my library. 😀
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