Minimalist Fail

Last Saturday the Boy and I loaded our trusty Civics to the brim and drove 45 minutes to sell our crap in my mom's community yard sale. I had been dreading this for weeks because although I have some stuff I'd like to sell, garage sales never work out for me.

The Boy however had a lot of stuff to sell, stuff that was taking up space in the attic, stuff that could actually sell and make money, so I went along mostly to help him and my mom. Sure I was hoping to make some money too, but deep down I knew that wasn't likely.

Are you wondering where the failure part comes in yet? Hang on, it's coming.

I was already grouchy as we packed the cars. The point of how much energy and time our useless crap takes up became crystal clear as I added up the time spent gathering crap to sell, cleaning it, pricing it, packing it, plus the hours of the actual sale itself. And don't even get me started on how much money I wasted on crap I never used or barely used.

At least, I reassured myself, this would be the last time I ever had to do this again. I promised myself I would never again stray from my usual method of packing crap up and donating it to the local Volunteers of America.

The sale itself went more smoothly than expected. When it ends, my mom is happy, the Boy is very happy, and I made my best haul ever, a whopping $50. Yes, 50 bucks for well over 8 hours of time by my estimates. Completely. Not. Worth. It!

The Boy had enough stuff left over that he announced he would be participating in our neighborhood sale next month. Not me, I said, I'm done. I'm out of the yard sale business.

So we begin packing up our wares and deciding what we would take home and what we would donate to the charity who came to take any worthy leftovers each year, when my mom offers to give us her donations to sell at our sale and keep any money made. The Boy heartily agrees, and even I, greedy with the thought of making some extra dough, said yes.

So we go from being able to fit everything in just the Boy's hatchback to....wait for it.....stuffing our cars even more full with crap to take home than it was when we arrived that morning. Yes, we left the yard sale with more crap than we came with.

I was fuming before we even finished packing the car. Mad at myself for getting so caught up in the prospect of an extra buck or two that I readily agreed to do another day's worth of something I truly detest. The lesson of just donate it that I'd promised myself I wouldn't forget? Already gone. Le sigh.

Self, repeat after me: Yard sales are NOT simple! Donating your crap is simple.

image credit: Jan Tik