The Rummage Sale

As a fundraiser, our 4-H group decided to do a rummage sale.  I was planning on taking a bunch of stuff to Goodwill but then thought, why not try to sell it first to raise money for the trip?  We were planning on asking other people for donations for us to sell but as you can see, I did a pretty good job filling the place up.  There were 2 other families that contributed but the majority came from my house.  I still can’t believe how much is still in my house even after donating all that.  Afterwards, I took everything that didn’t sell to Goodwill which was a great feeling.  One of the other families let us donate their stuff too but the third family took their stuff back home.  The mom from that family has been really stressed out so I was hoping she would let some more of it go.  She has made comments before about her husband wanting his garage back because she always has it set up for a rummage sale.

We had to have the rummage sale on pretty short notice.  I think I could have had a lot more if we would have waited a few weeks.  Unfortunately, it was really hot on the weekend that we had the rummage sale so we didn’t get many customers.  We made about $200 but with as much stuff as we had there, I think we would have done a lot better if it wasn’t so hot.  Originally, we were hoping to make around $500 but after the first few hours, it was obvious that we weren’t going to make that much.

This was one of the moms that was helping with the rummage.  She was able to fit into this costume that I’ve had forever. I love it and just couldn’t get myself to give it away.  It’s from the Disney Store and was quite expensive.  I’m sure that I didn’t pay full price but still.  I finally ended up selling it for $5.00.  Even though it wasn’t a lot, at least I didn’t have to donate it.  I think it would have ended up back at my house and as you can see, it takes up quite a bit of space.

This was one of the trailers full of stuff that we donated.  We took another trailer full there and then took a full load back to my friend’s house.  It was a lot of work!! The whole weekend, I kept thinking about how once again, clutter was controlling my life.  I spent an entire weekend moving it around, setting it up, advertising for the sale, sitting there waiting for people to come and then spent hours cleaning it up and taking it to Goodwill.  I spent money on gas hauling the third load back to the house of the people who wanted to keep it. All this clutter was controlling every minute of my weekend.  I think that’s why it felt so good to finally get rid of it.  I had held onto some of it through a few sales always thinking that the stuff was too nice to donate but this time, I decided my time was worth more than any money that I would ever make from it.

Quick tip of the day:  Don’t let clutter run your life!  If you don’t love it, let it go.