Shew...it's done. I feel like I've given birth or run a marathon. Today has been a day of recovery. Much needed recovery. In the days leading up to the sale, I wasn't sleeping much. I would go to bed around midnight and then get up before six and make signs or post ads online for the sale. It was dark outside and I watched soapy dramas I'd recorded that Tom doesn't want to sit through. Then I would have a full day of school drop-offs, lunch-making, email-responding with lots and lots of garage sale sorting mixed in. I spent a lot of time in our garage and side yard. Despite giving people detailed guidelines about what to donate, we still got a lot of crap. I recommended that they ask themselves "would I buy this?" and if the answer was "no", then don't donate it. Not everyone took that advice.
We also got a ton of great stuff. Some items didn't make it into the sale because I snatched it for myself or my kids. That's the special bonus of running the sale, I suppose.
Friday afternoon, I had a handful of helpful parents (mostly dads) bring their big vans/SUVs to load up all the stuff at my house and take it to the church's gym. It only took two trips to get it all there. Once we were there, another group of parents came to help sort items that hadn't been sorted at my house or that arrived directly to the church. This was all happening while an indoor soccer team practiced on the basketball court. Last year, their arrival was a surprise which left us scrambling, but I was prepared this year. My volunteers went home about 7pm and I stayed only a little bit longer. I couldn't believe how much loot we had. Here's a blurry picture of all the "big stuff" piled up. We had close to 20 strollers!
That night I didn't sleep. I may have dozed a bit, but my mind was racing and my body was aching. I got up early, stopped by the store for ice and headed to the church. Another board member showed up shortly after me and we made a couple more last minute signs as we waited for it to get light enough to start setting up the parking lot. I had made a little map of how I wanted the sale set up and how the traffic/parking needed to flow. I had about 20 volunteers show up at 7am, so it was great to be able to hand them the map and not explain it over and over. The gym had been loaded in such a way that it was easy to unload in the correct order. I asked a very detailed-oriented, thorough board member to take a couple parents out on the streets to post some signs. People commented on how great the signage was, so she did a great job. Another board member brought doughnuts for the volunteers, but we ended up selling most of them for a dollar a pop. We sold sodas and waters as well.
Of course, there were plenty of shoppers milling around while we were still setting up. Here's all the big, "eye-catchers" close to the road.
Shoppers checking out our merchandise.
It was a non-stop day. I was making sales, instructing volunteers, answering questions. Working, working, working. It was never chaotic though and all the volunteers did such a great job helping me. My friends Jenn and Katie and their kids stopped by to say hi and shop. Doug picked out a couple of toys I had snuck out of Leo's stash because they were noisy and under-played with. He'll probably recognize them if we go over there for a playdate, so I better have a story ready. Tom came by with our kids and brought me lunch, which I didn't have a chance to eat because I was too busy. After a few hours, we were all hot and tired, so I started slashing prices. I made everything on the housewares table a quarter. Then we started our "five dollar stuff-a-bag" deal. Fill a bag with items and pay five dollars for the loot. We had a couple of people buy a tons of clothes to send over seas, which I thought was nice. For the last half-hour, everything was free. I pulled out a couple of items to list on Craigslist because I couldn't just give it away. The final volunteer shift of the day started at three and those parents just filled up boxes and bags with the left-overs, loaded them into their cars/trucks and took them to donation centers. We were wrapped up and the parking lot was cleared by 3:30. Amazing. I was so exhausted when I got home, but of course I had to count the money! I knew we had done well, because I saw a lot of big bills in the cash box. I made a deposit of $2,790 today. I was thrilled. I over doubled last year's total. I still have a few items listed on Craigslist so my total might creep up a bit.
It's funny that doing something for my daughter, took me away from her so much this week. Both kids were real troopers during this process. There was a lot of time spent exploring garage sale toys in the driveway while mommy sorted, sorted, sorted. At least they have each other. Here they are sitting close together for no reason other than they like it.
Tom was also amazing during this process. Last year, I missed the actually sale and only helped with the prep. We had a Tahoe weekend planned but it stressed me out to miss this huge event I knew I would most likely run next year. He promised me he would help me with whatever I needed if I went to Tahoe that weekend. He kept his word. He helped move boxes, tolerated tons of stuff in his garage, he took care of the kids all day yesterday and let me take it super easy today to recover.
I fully plan on serving on the school board next year. I will not do this job. Any other job, but this one. The board president was with me all day on Saturday and our Marketing gal was a huge help all week and Saturday. I'll be a super helpful person next year, but it won't be my gig. I can't handle it. I'm so glad it's over. We still have a lot of fundraising to do this year, but at least I can close the chapter on this one.
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