Wednesday, June 08, 2011

The yard sale of DOOM!


As those of you who read the "Attack of the Killer Plastic Toys" post know, we have been on a quest to rid ourselves of much of the junk we're drowning in, beginning with the Killer Plastic Toys.

We started out by spending the past few weeks sorting all our toys -- well, the ones we could hunt down, at least. That fun and exciting task took about 20 hours, give or take five hours. In the process, I threw away about five kitchen garbage bags' worth of broken toys, toys with missing pieces, etc.

Last weekend, it was time for Phase Two of our grand plan: a yard sale that would simultaneously relieve us of the burden of our superfluous things, ease our conscience by giving them to new homes rather than throwing them out, and raise money toward adoption expenses.

This epic event is going down in our family history as the Yard Sale of DOOM. It killed four days, between the set up, the actual sale, and the cleanup and redistribution of the remains. It nearly killed us, too, given that it was HOT (what, 90s, both days?) and that we were doing tons of hauling boxes back and forth. And it ended up not making that much money in the end. The words, "Never again!" have passed several lips.


See? Even Jesus is sad. He is thinking: "If only these people would have listened to the whole 'Blessed are the poor' thing...."

On the upside, we had fun interacting with neighbors and customers, made some pocket change, and ended up getting rid of almost everything (by donating the remains, not through the sale). Besides what we sold, we gave away seven big bags of clothing and about ten large plastic totes of toys, not including some large toys we got rid of. (The guy at the loading dock at Grace Place raised an eyebrow and tactfully commented, "Gee, your kids sure have a lot of toys," after the fifth box.) Lest anyone think us cruel, I would just point out that the kids' shelves and bedrooms are still overflowing with toy options.

Oh, and the kids acquired four new toys on Saturday, the same day we were busy getting rid of stuff in the yard sale -- two through McD "Happy Meals" (I forgot to say no toys), one as a belated birthday gift to Jaybird from our neighbor, and one from a treat sack that Mouse received at a birthday party she was attending.

Next up: "The Closets of Chaos" and "The Basement of Fatal Death." Stay tuned!

2 comments:

  1. Goodness, with these dramatic and enticing chapters, I am at the edge of my seat with anticipation!

    Good joy with the yard sale! I'm sure it was a fun one! (For the kids who received the toys I mean.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Closets are just about the scariest things ever and basements are even worse, I am looking forward to hearing what you will do with those next! I have to say that was a pretty impressive spread of toys on the lawn that you had, I am trying to figure out how you fit it all in your house!

    ReplyDelete