I’m just now getting the chance (and energy) to post about my big garage sale this past weekend. It was HUGE. I don’t know what I was thinking by trying to do it by myself. I should have had at least 5 helpers lined up. My poor husband Jon was forced to help me, even though he had masses of homework assignments and studying to do. The truth is- I was actually in TEARS on Saturday morning, realizing what I was up against. I was awake at 4:30 and we still weren’t ready by 9:00. We had to put up the pop-up tents and we didn’t really know what we were doing, so we even dragged Devon out of bed to help us. (I think he heard the panic in my voice, so he came pretty willingly) We got those up without too much trouble, then we had to get the outside tables up and start bringing out the hundreds of books. Jon was fantastic. He spent hours just bringing more stuff out of the house. He said he had blisters on his feet from going up and down our front steps about a million times. The early birds showed up around 7:30 (posted sale time was 9:00) and even though we told everyone we couldn’t start selling till 9:00, some were very persistent! It was quite crowded and the street was lined with cars for most of the morning. It rained all afternoon on Saturday, but we had the shelters so it was fine. People just kept on coming and coming. If you want to know where the best place to advertise your garage sale is, I have one word for you: CRAIGSLIST

The first few hours were quite a blur. We had folks lined up to pay for armloads, bags and boxes full of stuff. I priced everything VERY well, so some amazing deals were had. I found it really interesting to see what people were buying. It’s not always what you expect. I had piles of stuffed animals and I was worried that I wouldn’t sell many, but they flew out of there. The price was definitely right though:-) I sold all of the kids’ VHS tapes. I was worried nobody would want those either. I guess you just never know!

We had hundreds and hundreds of books. (still tons left too) On Sunday I sold them 4 for a $1.00. People love a great deal. I sold LOTS of books. Unfortunately, we just didn’t have time to blow up all of the balloons to sell for the kids, but they came in handy for attaching to the street signs. We got many compliments on my signs. I should have taken a photo of one. I got the idea to tape them to a section of garden fencing. You know the little arched ones that protect the edges of the flower beds? I pulled mine out and they worked perfectly for holding my signs up and so I could push them into the ground so they would stand up straight.

The results? Drum roll please: over $1700 was raised for my Weekend to End Breast Cancer fund!

Thank you to everyone who donated items for the sale and to all the folks who came out on a cold morning to support this great cause, and thank you to everyone who helped to get the word out for me:  Rebecca  from Miss604 who gave me a shout-out on her weekly set on the radio and blogged about it several times and Jenn and Joe from the Morning Buzz on 1410 radio who plugged the sale for me on Friday’s show. Somebody told me they heard about us  on The Beat from the Kid Carson Show. How did he know about it?  I’d love to know- thanks Kid! Big thanks also to Terry from Starbucks who donated coffee with all the fixings and a great raffle basket of goodies. Even more big thanks to Tania from  Moja Coffee who emailed me and then brought me a  great gift basket for another raffle prize. It was nice to meet you at the sale Tania!

The biggest thanks goes to my fantastic husband Jon, who sacrificed his sleep and his study time to help me all day long and all Sunday morning too, and has the blisters to prove it. I love you Jon!