Yard Sale Insanity

Do you know what people want?  What compels them to get up at the taint of dawn to rifle through other people's wares?  To have verbal altercations with other like-minded bargain hunters over ONE DOLLAR?  Answer: Yard sales.

Shug and I had our very first yard sale on Saturday.  The weather was perfect, as was the circumstance: our fence is in need of dire repair and we had been accumulating a room full of stuff that needed a proper exodus from our residence.  We posted on KSL.com and Craigslist, made bright signs, and were ready for the fun by 7am.

What I wasn't prepared for was the uniform the majority of the professional "garage salers" had adopted.  Almost all of the "professionals" had long gray or white hair, long scraggly beards, and the sweetest demeanor to antagonize their scruffy looks.  All of these pros had checklists and specific treasures they were hunting for and all wished us good luck on our sale without ever buying a thing.  Things of value: Barbies, musical instruments, and old toys.  We had none of these to offer.

What we DID have were mountains of clothes, dishes, and books.  And by the end of the day, Shug and I had made $324, just enough for materials for our fence!  The other advantage to selling our stuff was just the act of purging our lives and living space of things we were never going to use again, but were hanging on to for...no reason. 

I know there is a minimalist movement growing among many of the urbanites that adopted the organic and locally sourced movement a few years back, and I understand its draw.  To clear your life of unnecessary "stuff' is a lot like prioritizing your life.  Do we have "space" for superfluous, energy-sapping things in our home or schedule?  No.  Is it healthy to "make room" for the things that give us comfort, recharge us, and improve our lives?  Yes.