my last garage sale

Yeah, so the thing about garage/yard sales is they always sound better in theory.  Because the day comes and you're like what was I thinking?

They are so much work!!!

And who in the world declared they should start so early???

I prefer that my Saturdays not start until the double digit hours please.

A few weeks ago my mama and I got to talking and she had a huge patio set she needed to get rid of and I had our old sofa still awkwardly sitting in our foyer because apparently scammers flock to my cr@igslist ads.  Seriously, I got more e-mails trying to scam me so I gave up on that.  Luckily, I watch the Dateline & the 20/20.

So we decided to do a garage sale this past weekend.  I had already had a few boxes up in the attic full of junk and knick knacks that I thankfully had already priced, so I just did a clean sweep of the closets and pulled items that we no longer needed.  I come from a place of no clutter and if you don't wear it in a year out it goes. 

We had it Friday afternoon and way too early Saturday afternoon.  Garage sales can be quite fascinating like why is it that the stuff you think will sell right away doesn't and the stuff that is terrible flies out the door? Or why do I have to tell people over and over again I'm sorry I don't have a shopping bag for the 1 item you purchased for $1.  Yes, many times this was asked.

By about noon I started getting nervous because the sofa was still there and it was not coming back in my house.  I was desperately praying that someone would take it home.  It was super large so that was not helping sell it either.  Mama sold her patio set and most of the clothes were gone too when a lady came to the sale and made the comment on what a nice sofa it was.  I made the joke if you buy it, I'll throw everything else in for free and she said don't tempt me and then proceeded to tell me about her business.  She handed me her business card and told me she buys junk that doesn't sell at garage sales and from people who have items to get rid of but don't want to have a garage sale.  She sells what she can online and donates the rest.  She told me if I wanted give her a call when were done she'd take it off my hands and we discussed a price for everything.

My response, "FOR REALZ!!"

I was super stoked and we chatted for a bit and then she got back in her car with her children.  After about another hour I was spent.  The sofa was still there, mom needed to get back home and I had a sunburn.  I called this lady up and we agreed on the price again.  She told me to box everything up and she'd be there with a truck in about 20 minutes.

Two hours later and many phone calls with no answer to her and y'all I got duped.  I was near tears because all this stuff was ready to go and I had closed the garage sale early.  My messages to her were all polite just inquiring if she maybe needed directions or got delayed.  I'm not going to lie and say that I did not want to call her up and chew her out.  I did not though.  I thought about posting her cell number in this post and letting y'all call.  I will not though.

This story has a happy ending though.  While I was waiting for her to come in the 2nd hour a sweet neighbor on her bike came by and asked if the sofa was still for sale.  She took a picture of it sent it to her mom, her mom loved it and her husband and her came and picked it up.  The sofa was gone, we made some sweet new neighbor friends and dropped the rest at Goodwill.  Couldn't have turned out any better!

Except for maybe the sunburn.

And bless your heart if you read this ridiculously long post. :-)