Why Hosting a Yard Sale is A Bad Idea for Me.

As I sit here exhausted and in pain, I am telling myself that I must remember why a yard sale is a bad idea for me. I know myself. I'm a bargain shopper extraordinaire. A "Penny Vice" I've been called. I try to get EVERYTHING for a bargain, and then want to make money when I'm finished with it too. I know that FLYLady says to just "let it go" and "bless someone else with our stuff", BUT, I'm preparing to move over 900 miles and I just have SO MUCH STUFF to unload! Certainly (I erroneously thought) I can have a yard sale and make a profit too.

Now, at the end of the first day of the planned weekend sale, I sit starting at a pile of cash. Did we make money? Yes. Could we have made more? Yes. Could we still make more? Yes. Was it a lucrative venture? Perhaps. Was it the best use of our time and energies? No, NO, NO!!!

I've only spent a week preparing. I started out by spending about an hour making flyers to invite the neighbors to participate. Then walked around with my neighbor handing them out (staying up past my bedtime and continuing a cycle of exhaustion). Then what? Oh. For a week I cleaned this place and that spot looking for things to sell off. I was completely inefficient in my cleaning adventures as well as constantly "stressed out". I moved things to the spare bedroom, then to the library, then to the porch.

Once on the porch, a friend picked up on my overwhelmed spirit (not a hard thing to sense by mid-week) and came to help me price and make signs. She even brought the supplies for this. (Tonight, in my “SHEness” I found some NEW supplies hidden away that would have worked just fine). We then spent FOUR hours together working on these things. (So I moved everything again.) Finally, this morning, we all got straight out of bed, hardly stopped to eat, forgot our normal routines (the house looks like a whirl-wind right about now) and ran outside ... to move everything AGAIN. I sat out in the "beautiful" morning... with pollen and dust and, oh, temperatures approaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit!

By the time I staggered inside I was hot, exhausted, and had a sinus headache. Here I am eight hours later and I still am exhausted and have a headache. I've taken more medicine today than in the past month... I suspect rest and water will be my best solutions.

During the yard sale, I did stop to write some lists of things I need to do for the move... over seventy came to mind off the top of my head. I have more lists for actually selling the house and moving, this is just the "get ready" list. Am I overwhelmed? YOU BET!!!

After this exhausting morning, we decided to load up the extra stuff and donate it, when it cooled down. We didn't get to wait that long. A HUGE dust storm blew in and we were running around in the street gathering things that were blowing around. So. Now my living room is full of all the stuff that we quickly brought inside. We have to move it AGAIN... to the truck then take it AWAY!!! How many hours have I spent? What is my time worth? We have about $130 in cash from today. But, we are still all exhausted and feeling ill. Hardly a fair trade.

My sons sold some toys and books. They sat outside for about two hours. They had fun. They made $30. I think they're efforts were worthwhile. I may allow them to set out their table another time. I however am FINISHED! My husband and I are too susceptible to the heat to be purposefully sitting around in it all day. Not to mention the dust and pollen and how miserable it's made my head.

I write this not to complain, but to remind myself the *next time* I get the brite idea that I should have a yard sale... it's just not worth it for me!

FLYLady is right. I'd be better off just blessing someone else and getting it out of my life!

Suzy