But wait a second... it's almost the middle of November! Who has garage sales in November? Well, people who are moving in mid-December, that's who! And since Oklahoma weather is unpredictable at any season, having a garage sale at almost any time of year is a crap shoot as far as that's concerned. Well, the weather gods were smiling on us this weekend, that's for sure. I doubt there's ever been better garage sale weather in November. We held the sale both Friday and Saturday and both days the temps got well into the 60s. Yes, it was a little chilly in the mornings and Friday was a little on the windy side (What? Windy in Oklahoma? Seriously? :) ) but overall it was terrific.
I posted ads on Craigslist starting mid-week - and included pictures of some of the better items we had in the sale. I started getting texts and emails from people right away, which surprised me. I'd never posted a garage sale on Craigslist but people obviously use it to scout them out. If you post a sale there I strongly encourage you to post pictures, too. When I looked through the other ads, mine was the only one I saw with pictures. They don't have to be great... just take them with your phone. That's what I did.
We had people waiting for us to open the garage door at 6:50 Friday morning and had a steady stream all day. That surprised me. Don't these people work? :) Oh, wait... I was off work Friday, too. Nevermind. So we sold a lot of stuff on Friday but it seemed we still had a ton left to sell on Saturday. I wasn't sure we could do it.
Saturday started off a little slower... nobody waiting when we opened the garage door and I think it was about 30 minutes before anyone showed up. Once it got started though, there was a steady stream of people and they were all in the mood to buy. Things I thought would never sell seemed to sell quickly! It was bizarre.
Of course there were the people who would offer us $5 for something that was marked $30 (like the $125 coffee pot that was brand new, never used.) I suppose it was worth a shot for them... we could have said yes. But we didn't. We had things priced fairly and, while we did make a few people some really great deals, we stuck to our guns for the most part. Sweet hubby had taken the day off Friday to help and wow, is he ever a salesman! He talked people into all kinds of stuff they didn't plan on. :) It was great.
Heathen daughter brought a ton of baby clothes, a bunch of shoes (her shoe size went up when she was pregnant and hasn't gone back down!) and some other stuff to clear out their apartment. She got rid of almost everything and was very pleased to have made some money for Christmas shopping.
When we finally closed up at 2 p.m. Saturday, we loaded what was left into two small bins and took it straight to Goodwill. By 3:00, the garage was completely cleared out and not a single item came back into the house. When we added up our proceeds from the sale, it was over $800! Wow. How on earth could we, a couple of "minimalists", had that much stuff to sell? I'm not sure... but it turns out we did. Guess we earned ourselves some Christmas shopping money, too. :) Or better yet, maybe some shopping money for some new stuff for our downtown condo. Yeah, that's it. That's the ticket. :)
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Location:Edmond, OK
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