Dispatches From the Yard Sale and Prepping to Sail

Previously, we told you we accepted an offer on our house and that shortly we would be houseless, but not homeless. The immediate plan was to sort, sell, pack, purge, and then move aboard Leilani. 

 “We should have bought more crap”

Now just days before closing, it is all beginning to sink in. We have really “done it”. Once we made the decision to sell the house, we are now tumbling down a path from which we will not turn back. This is going to be someone’s new house and we must be out of here.

As most Americans, we admit we have been on an acquisition spree for decades. Despite sorting and purging in our previous moves, it was overwhelming how much stuff we had. You too are probably grimacing as you ponder all of your stuff. We have seen that in our friends and neighbors. It’s OK, just do what we did - postpone the painful process and go back to doing anything else EXCEPT sorting and purging. It will be there when you think about it again. That’s pretty much how it all goes, and the years just go by and the piles get higher. We all need to face it -That pile of stuff represents chronic deferred decision making.

Chronic deferred decision making in the attic now demands attention

Living room BEFORE the sale and chaos

Living room AFTER the sale and amid the chaos.  These will eventually be taken to Leilani.

Fireplace room BEFORE the sale and chaos

Fireplace room AFTER the sale and amid the chaos.  These will eventually end up in a storage unit.

You will be surprised, as we were, with how liberated you feel once you start to unload that weight off your shoulders. Of course there is no way around it – it is a lot of work and it is exhausting. 

We chose a Friday and Saturday for the Estate/Moving/Yard Sale “EVENT” and advertised on CRAIGSLIST and Yardsales.net. We also posted several signs along the roadside. This was a real challenge and we are thrilled to have it over. No, it is not really bitter sweet as some of you have asked. It feels so good to get rid of all of that and we know some of it has gone to some good homes.

We have compiled some of those moments as well as some of the lessons we learned from the two day Estate/Moving sale event.   

Adults behaving badly

Apparently, it is a very common that estate/moving/yard sale people arrive early - sometimes very early. We heard that some early birds may arrive before sunrise armed with flashlights to “peek at what’cha got”. Despite posting that the sale would begin at 8:00 am, a few shoppers began to show up at 7:00. After suggesting to one of the early birds that he should just grab a cup of coffee and come back later, he grumbled to say, “No I am leaving and probably will not come back!” We began to realize, as others appeared, that this early bird behavior was not uncommon and not at all innocent. This was a buyers strategy to beat the competition. 

View of just part of the "organization" of the sale

That brings us to that smaller subset of the “professional” shoppers that are distinctly different from those simply looking for interesting items at bargain prices. We have heard them described as bottom feeders.

The joy of the selling and buying experience is completely lost on these folks. Its just business! They scurry around taking items and making a pile, which they protect aggressively, snapping at those that stray too closely. These shoppers are keenly focused and determined bargainers. The objective is not necessarily to find something special, but rather to reduce the price - no matter the original price. After dealing with one particular aggressive shopper who asked that we reduce the price of an item from $2 to $1, Tracy said flatly, “No!”. She had had enough of that. A short time later, the shopper paid the $2. However, another shopper gave a fist pump and exclaimed “I won!” when we relented and reduced the price on an entire box of items.

Just hours into the yard sale, things are disappearing.

Kids buy the darndest things

    

The sale was comprised mostly of adults, but a few children accompanied the parents and grandparents and showed us they were particularly good shoppers for all of the right reasons. They saw something they just had to have, even if the adults did not agree.

The hermit crab and the pink snake

A tall white-haired man holding the hand of a petite girl with oversized glasses walked slowly through the back yard. We said, “Welcome”, as the little girl gazed up at me through key lime green glasses. The man guided his granddaughter to the area where we had a box of stuffed animals, games and assorted toys. The little girl was very eager as we helped her sort through the animals and pulled out an unusual stuffed hermit crab. Grandpa handed me a dollar. Contented with their purchase, they walked down the street to their house.

About a half hour later, they returned. This time the little girl was even more determined and rushed to the toys as her grandpa explained his granddaughter needed to find a toy for her sister who was at school. The little girl sorted and selected a “pink snake”. Tracy was a bit concern about the selection and attempted to steer the little girl to the stuffed sheep that went “Baaa” when squeezed.  “But my sister’s favorite color is pink”, the little girl explained to the worried adult. There was no way to change her mind. Tracy turned to the grandpa, and suggested that he remove the identification tag before giving the “pink snake” to his other granddaughter. 

This stuffed animal is a GIANT microbe for the pox, syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease. Tracy had picked it up from the Infectious Disease Group when she worked at the Centers for Disease Control! She was concerned that the STD microbe might make for an awkward show-and-tell presentation if the tag, which includes information about the disease, was still attached. But, you know, you may never be too young to learn about STD’s.

Cute little STD critter "pink snake"

 DNA and thee - Don’t make a mutation

A dad and his son sorted through the remaining games and toys on the second day of the sale. By this time, many were sold, but the young boy picked up a container that resembled tinker toys. I explained that this was not really a toy but a real model for a DNA molecule. Although the young boy remained interested, the dad seemed less convinced that this was good choice. I said, “It appears you may have a budding scientist! ” I continued, “It is not challenging to assemble, but you might need to help. You certainly do not want to introduce any mutations.” The dad shook his head and remained unconvinced of the wisdom of the choice and, apparently, not appreciative of my attempt at a nerdy science joke.  The kid smiled and the dad handed me $2.

Capturing children

As we learned from selling the house, “staging” can be an important tactic in selling. Our attempts at selling a backpacking tent the previous day showed little interest, as it sat enclosed in the stuff bag. In the middle of the night it came to me that maybe the tent just needed some staging. Of course the next morning this was foremost on Bud's mind and just as he had imagined during fitful sleep at 2 am, he  assembled the tent, and moved it to the curb in front of the house. Bud thought it might highlight the yard sale. Little did we know that it would also attract children.

Within minutes of setting up the tent we had captured two children. These first kids did not convince their parents to buy it. Some time later the tent caught a couple of adults, but they escaped in a few minutes. Later, two more kids were found inside. They were opening a closing zippers, peering through windows and having a great time. The fun was not lost on the parents, our neighbors from two houses down. Bud urged the parents to buy the tent- a real bargain at $25.  

By the end of the day, our neighbors returned and walked with the completely assembled tent in hand to their back yard where the kids were once again captured. 

Sweet home Alabama- The thrill of the grill

Late in the afternoon of the final day of the sale during a lull in the shoppers, a pickup truck with a business logo on the door pulled up. Two young men, one with an “A”, for University of Alabama, T-shirt greeted us and asked if we had any fishing gear. A bit disappointed to hear the gear was already gone, they continued to sort through tools and the remaining goods. Tracy guided one fella inside the house to select a couple of novels, which he was happy to find for 50 cents a piece.

The Alabama boys explained they had the day off from working as contractors on the beach bridge. They cruised around town and stopped when they saw the sale sign.

At one point in their search, they huddled around our very old “Aussie” charcoal grill. We had cleaned the grill for the sale, but with a very rusty bottom and faded paint, it was one of those items that I assumed we would be taking to the dump. We offered it for $2. The boys walked around the yard a couple more times and then came back to the grill. “We are getting the grill!”, one Alabama boy explained, obviously quite pleased with their purchase.

“We now know what we are going to do for the rest of the day”. “Man, you made our day”, the other Alabama boy exclaimed. “Hey, wait just a minute” I said as I ran over to the shed and grabbed a broken bag of charcoal. “The charcoal is included!” They loved it and as they returned to their pickup, offered to run to the ATM to get more money to pay for the charcoal. We declined their offer, laughed and sent them on their way for what we imagined was going to be a fun evening.  

Happy hour as Bud and our friend Stein wind down after the yard sale 

How did it all go in the end?

We discovered that estate/yard sales are great for meeting your neighbors. We met so many new and old neighbors. It was challenging trying to balance the selling with all of the stories we were exchanging. One exclaimed, “You know your stuff is scattered all over around the neighborhood! YOU may be leaving, but some of you will remain.”

We probably sold about ½ of our stuff. We sorted then through the piles again and selected 3 pickup loads for Habitat for Humanity, 2 loads for Hope Mission, and 1 more load for the dump. Also we selected items to recycle including electronics and a printer. Nobody wants those. There is still more to sort and distribute. Considering that we had labeled a lot of things for $2-3, we collected over $2000! There were a lot of bargains taken by many.

Hope Mission was just one of the several places where our belongings now reside

NEXT TIME: Come back to see how we survived the move from the house and the move aboard LEILANI. Please leave us a comment below to let us know there is someone out there reading this.