I have a love/hate relationship with stuff. On one hand, I’m rather sentimental and also optimistic that one day I will have a use for the various things I’ve collected over the years. On the other hand, clutter drives me crazy, I feel bad for things that never get used or clothes that never get worn, and I prefer that everything have its own ‘home.’ I also have a problem assigning value to my things–some stuff I’ve held onto because I think its too good to just give away to Goodwill but other things I’m ready to hand out for free should probably have a price tag on them.
My solution to decluttering my world is to have a yard sale. Summer yard sales are an American past time and I believe that regular yard sale goers have their own early morning rituals and missions to accomplish that allow those throwing the yard sale to succeed. When I realized the solution to getting rid of my stuff is to have a yard sale I got rather excited about putting it all together. My husband, who I fondly refer to as a pack rat, made it very clear that I am only allowed to sell my stuff and so I began an inventory of all the things that will be tagged for sale.
Items that I will be putting out range from knick knacks to clothing to jewelry to home accessories to books and items that don’t even have a category in which they fit. There should be a good variety of things for sale, all of which will be in good condition, and pricing on my things will probably range from an easy 25 cents perhaps up to $50 or more. As far as I know, yard sales are all about bargaining so I will be happy to discuss different price points if someone sees a “must have” item. In keeping with yard sale tradition, I will start at the crack of dawn (8 a.m.) on a Saturday, August 15th to be exact. My driveway, yard, and the sidewalk in front of my house will hopefully be covered with stuff that dedicated yard sale goers and passersby alike are just dying to buy.
Part of my desire to have a yard sale (in addition to decluttering) is to know what my stuff is really worth. My plan is to donate whatever is not purchased because I will finally know what things aren’t worth paying for. Either way, at the end of the day I will have a little more room in my closets and on my shelves and other folks will have some fun “new to them” stuff.
If you’re into yard sales or you just want to see if I can pull this off, drop me an email and I’ll send you the address: nataliefriton [at] gmail [dot] com. (I’m sure you can appreciate why I am not putting my address in this post.)
