Worst Day Ever (Part 2)

I had closed the doors that I did not want people going inside of. Our personal belongings were in these rooms. Things I had already had a claim on. Our purses, our jackets, you get the idea. I’m not sure why I thought that people had enough sense to not go in these rooms. But they did. I walked in several times finding people carrying MY THINGS out. Not only in the rooms, but the cupboards of the kitchen, people were buying our laundry detergent, our napkins, our paper towels, our food. They even went through the dish washer. I couldn't make the signs fast enough that said “Do Not Open” but apparently people thought that meant “Do Not Open this particular drawer, but the ones all around it are fair game.” And while I was making these signs, people just kept opening the doors and taking my things! I found a woman GOING THROUGH MY PURSE that I had hidden under a coat in a CLOSED ROOM. I felt completely violated. On top of this, people were coming into the home through the garage, taking things, and leaving out the front door, robbing us. They took a beautiful painting my mother had done years ago for my grandmother. Stole it right out from under us, along with many other things.

Finally, 13 hours later, we had it all cleaned up. All of us were aching from head to toe. We got a lot of stuff sold and we learned some lessons.

1) Make signs, lock doors, or tape rooms/cupboards/closets off.
2) Have a person stationed in every room.
3) Price the more expensive stuff out on tags before hand.
4) Take some serious time to scour the house and get every little thing locked up that you do not want to sell. Even if it is a box of aluminum foil. People can be vultures.
This was the worst. I was so tired but could not sleep that night because the second I closed my eyes I would just see swarming people in my home asking me how low I will go on the price. I am SO thankful it is over. We now get to live in this beautiful home, and at the garage sale I got to meet quite a few of my new friendly neighbors. Yay!

The 4th Worst Day of My Life (Part 1)

Recently, my grandmother moved from her home that she has been residing in alone for a few years, to a nursing home. Her home was left in my folks care and they wanted to have a garage sale to clear out all of her many things she has been hoarding over the years. So for the past week my lovely husband Cody, my mother and I have been cleaning out her home. She was a garage sale shopaholic. Not exaggerating whatsoever. Every corner, every tiny little space was chuck full of stuff. Crap. Nonsense that NO ONE would EVER need. Most things probably hadn’t been handled since they were purchased. Many things were still in packages, or still had tags on them from the DI. She had 5 closets full of clothes that hadn’t been worn for years and years. Boxes and boxes (and boxes) of junk jewelry. Rooster statues, TONS of Christmas décor. Crystal animal figurines. This was work. We put it all out in the garage and finally, on Saturday, we had the sale.
Cody and I woke at 5:30 am and got there about 6. We set up tables and started putting things out. We still were not even halfway done an hour later. My parents came and started helping and just as I was setting out Jewelry people started showing at 7:15 with flashlights (serious garage sale-ers). They swarmed around the Jewelry table and from that point on, I didn’t have a second to breath til 7 hours later. People were everywhere. I’ve never seen so many people at a garage sale. Oh yeah, and it was actually somewhat of an “Estate” sale. People could go in the house and look at the furniture in the living rooms. That was the idea anyway. Here is where the nightmare begins.