I sure have missed yard sales this summer. You know, I miss going to them and I miss having them. ‘Cause as I’ve said before, if you go to a lot of yard sales, you gotta have a yard sale every now and then to get rid of the stuff you bought at the other yard sales. I miss catching up with folks, discovering treasures and dickering over prices. I miss turning clutter into cash. It’s never that much, of course, but it feels like found money.
I’ve seen a few people braving it and doing a yard sale anyways, despite the global 
pandemic. Now, that’s hard core! But I haven’t been motivated to attend. Pawing through someone’s cast-offs can be dicey at the best of times. I mean, I love garden gnomes and all, but not enough to risk my life for ‘em. Even if the little fella has a cart and a donkey!
Last April, when my dad, who’s down to Mahoosuc Green, went from independent to assisted living with a roommate (which is a whole other blog), there was a bunch of furniture left over, stuff he suddenly had no room for. The folks at Mahoosuc Green stacked all the cast offs in their loading dock for us to pick up. Because they were in lock down, we couldn’t help with the move, and worse, we couldn’t be with dad as his world proceeded to get a little smaller. Heartbreaking!
Anywho, we stored the boxes and furniture in our garage so it’d be ready to go in our annual June yard sale, but of course, that didn’t happen. Beginning of August, Charlie says to me, “Ida, come winter, we’re going to want to put the cars in the garage, so we need to do something else with your dad’s stuff.”
“I know, sweetheart. But nobody I know wants the furniture. It’s nothing special to look at, but it’s solid. I’m just going to have to get creative.”
I’d sold stuff on Craigslist before, so I posted there. No takers. Then my niece Caitlin reminded me about Facebook Marketplace, which I’d never really gotten into that much. So I thought I’d give it a try. OMG! I sold all the furniture in a week! It’s wicked easy to monitor because I’m on facebook, anyway. Plus, you can get notifications of messages on your phone, so things move along fast.
Once I’d made an appointment for someone to come over and take a gander, I’d put “pending” on the item, lickety-split. That way, folks would stop asking about it. I’d message the person and tell ‘em up front, “Cash only. Please wear a mask.” And everyone did. Plus, if they were running late, it was easy for folks to let me know through messenger.
Dad’s stuff went from weighing us down to lifting us up. It was so nice seeing how 
happy folks were with their new furniture. Plus, dad made a little money, which is a good thing because they aren’t giving that assisted living away, that’s for sure. So, it was a win/win.
The whole experience motivated me to look through the two boxes of dad’s kitchen stuff we still had in the garage to make sure there wasn’t anything of interest. Nope, there wasn’t. So I took it all to Goodwill. Done and done!
Got stuff weighing you down, cluttering up the house? Maybe it’s time to let it go. You’ll feel lighter. Guaranteed.
That’s it for now. Catch you on the flip side!
Hear Ida Tell It: Lightening the Load