Thursday, May 17, 2012

THE Garage Sale!

So I decided to have a garage sale.  Nothing from inside the house, my wife would disown me, but I will tell you what happened.  It was a series of happenstance, not just  a simple situation, no single decision.
    I am not sure where it all began, there is no order to this.  It may have begun with a leaky roof.  Most of the roof over my studio/shop is very steep and the rains fall freely and fast.  That roof is 20 years old but good for a few more years I am hoping. The roof section, about 300 square feet, over my office and a storage room isn't so steep and sits under a fig tree that drops its unpicked fruit upon the roof.  That is hard on a roof and it was leaking.  My initial reaction was buckets.  That is pretty much a lazy man's way to fix the problem but my wife will not allow me on the roof!   That is difficult for me.  I built the damned house and shop and have put roofs on them twice in the past, three times actually for the house!  When I had cancer it turned me into a ninety year old man, pretty weak and feeble and although the cancer is gone and I am stronger I admit I am no longer the young lad I once was.  However, she went to Texas a couple weeks ago to visit my daughter and no one was here to reign control over me!  Should I have a party, invite lots of hot women over while my wife was gone?
Well, I am not in that good of shape but I could certainly put a roof on while she was gone!  I did have a helper and the roof was a little worse than anticipated.  Reminded me of the time, ten days before Christmas I had the simple task of replacing a dishwasher!  Simple except that I discovered some rot in the floor causing me to remove all of the lower kitchen cabinets to repair!  So, anyway, I had to replace a section of the roof, pulling damaged sheets of plywood off and allowing me, for maybe the first time in 20 years to actually look into my storage room from the height of the open roof!  I haven't been actually able to get in there for years but now I was looking at it from the top down!  Way too much stuff!
   I have many outbuildings on my property.  Attached to my greenhouse along the North wall is a shed that is supposed to contain my rototiller, the lawnmower and only a few rakes and shovels.  For years these have been put some place else and this area too has become a "catch all", so full of stuff "that I may need" that you couldn't get into it!  Just too much stuff!
   The final element to the decision to have a garage sale, well the penultimate reason, there is one more, is this lousy economy!  I am not only not selling my metal artwork, I can't get any one over to even look at it.  In the "old days" a few years ago, I could place an ad on Craigslist and get 15 phone calls, half a dozen people would drop by and I could make some sales off my lot.  Today I don't even get a phone call.
So I am thinking if I had a garage sale maybe someone might drop by and I will meet new customers?
    Finally, retirement is not as easy as it is made out to be.  It is a huge transition and rethinking of priorities, requiring a different evaluation of time itself and a sense of what is important.  Maybe I don't need 16 boxes only half full of specialized fasteners?  So, in going through all of my stuff the main rule I gave myself was if I haven't used it in the past two year it would go on the block!  The area from the front of my house to the back of my shop is 160 feet.  It is full of tables and displays and piles all along the way!  If I am talked down in my pricing that will be okay, as long as they take two!  I want to be rid of it all.  Open space and near empty rooms are appealing to me.  I will just have to refrain from filling them!  Wish me luck.


3 comments:

Barbra Joan said...

oh how I love yard sales!! Flea markets too. I'd be at your place first thing in the morning.. too bad I live in the southeast and you in the northwest..
How I would love rummaging all through your 'STUFF'. You know another mans junk etc. etc.
You'll have lookers, I bet some just want to see behind the walls of a guy who lives in the same house for 40 years, wears sandals and socks, and makes things. ! oh lucky them ..
Right now people are looking for bargains, it's life gone crazy .. they will offer you next to nothing but next to nothing is better than nothing at all if it's just taking space in your rooms..
Hope your weather cooperates, here we never have to worry about being rained out except for 4 pm .. Good luck J, if you see a lady with gold hoop earrings poking around, that would be me... BJ

Kay said...

I always think about doing a yardsale..like getting rid of bins of quilting material that i will never use up. One year we did a sale and sold off my Hubby's tools because we were both unemployed. Hardly made enough for the sale to be worth the time. When we moved from PA back in 1982..people lined up around the corner in the snow to get at our stuff in the house. Good luck!

Autumn Leaves said...

Luck is wished, Jerry.