Our street has come together each year to have a street sale in early June. However, the lady who organized the sale moved in January, leaving us all wondering if or when we will do it this year. I asked a few neighbours, and volunteered (was volunteered) to gather everyone together.
Unfortunately, I don't have everyone's email addresses. I asked a few people to send me the list and that didn't happen either. So here we are, approaching mid July, and I want to get rid of my junk BADLY.
So I picked a date, checked with a few neighbors, made homemade fliers (with rainbow markers), and passed them out.
I feel so guilty. Why? Because I probably didn't get all the people who are interested (some people on adjacent streets jumped in last year too)...I didn't give people a ton of notice (but people have been asking me since June, so clearly its either on people's minds, or it isn't)...and the people I did email about the date, didn't get back to me until AFTER I passed out the flyers to say that the date doesn't work well (a lot of good that does me)....
So here we are...getting ready for a garage sale on July 16 (I passed out the fliers yesterday, I was waiting to hear from a couple people)....whether or not the neighbors participate. Its probably going to be one quarter of the size of last year's sale....I will admit...I'm pretty competitive...so that little fact bugs me. BUT WHAT CAN I DO? Maybe I will put a sign up in our yard...except I need to water the new clover sprout-lings in the front twice a day. I guess I could move the sign twice a day...Maybe I will pass out more fliers? At least its good advertising? But I don't want to annoy people either!
I guess its not really complicated...I just feel guilty, so I am trying to talk myself in, or out of the guilt!
How much time would you need to gather stuff for a garage sale (I need, honestly, 2 days tops). If you were in my shoes, what would you do? (Hopefully you say, 'don't worry about it! have a nice day!' or like my better half says, 'its impossible to get
everyone on the street together on a summer weekend')
ps. If you come to my house before the sale, you can take away any of this stuff for free! That's a deal! :)
pss. OR I can meet you somewhere downtown (neutral territory) if you see something you want...but I may charge you a TTC token!
psss. Getting rid of toys is harder than it looks!
hahaha...that pic of your son looking in the bag is so cute!!
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely impossible to get a lot of people together all at once, especially in the summer. And regardless of how many times you stalk them (email, flyers, phone calls, etc.) people will do what people do. Or not. I say go ahead and have the sale, use some of the proceeds to treat yourself to ice cream and donate whatever is leftover to charity. Folks will participate or they won't, but don't let it ruin the day! (and for the folks who came too late to the party saying the date didn't work for them, offer to man their stuff if they want to drop it off, for a small management fee!)
ReplyDeleteyou won't get everyone.
ReplyDeleteJust make sure whatever you put out doesn't come back in the house.
I Just saw this post after reading your comment! I've spent two days getting stuff together for our yard sale but mostly it was easy - I've known for awhile what I wanted to get rid of and I've just spent this morning pricing stuff with "funny" notes (ok I think they're funny) I've probably spent way more time on this than I should have but it was kind of fun (too many years in retail!) but I thought I'd have a better chance of selling stuff if I wiped the dust off of it and made it more appealing.
ReplyDeleteGo ahead with your sale. Lots of people troll neighbourhoods looking for yard sale signs so I'm sure you'll get lots of drive bys and I'm sure you'll get rid of some stuff. April's idea is a good one - offer to sell people's stuff for them if they can't make it.
Don't feel bad for not getting more people together -you may still hear from some people at the last minute and maybe just try to get organized earlier next year (of course - you'll have a new baby so chances are you won't be shilling stuff in your driveway....) Just go for it. You tried and you can't make people get their act together.
I"ll email you my address in case you want to hit up our yard sale tomorrow! I have lots of books and it looks like you and I have similar taste! :)
thx guys! Good suggestions! everything that doesn't go on Sat will go to goodwill...we could have sent it directly to goodwill without the hassle of a sale, but we wanted to be neighbourly...(neighbourly on our terms, is that really neighbourly?)
ReplyDeleteI Just saw this post after reading your comment! I've spent two days getting stuff together for our yard sale but mostly it was easy - I've known for awhile what I wanted to get rid of and I've just spent this morning pricing stuff with "funny" notes (ok I think they're funny) I've probably spent way more time on this than I should have but it was kind of fun (too many years in retail!) but I thought I'd have a better chance of selling stuff if I wiped the dust off of it and made it more appealing.
ReplyDeleteGo ahead with your sale. Lots of people troll neighbourhoods looking for yard sale signs so I'm sure you'll get lots of drive bys and I'm sure you'll get rid of some stuff. April's idea is a good one - offer to sell people's stuff for them if they can't make it.
Don't feel bad for not getting more people together -you may still hear from some people at the last minute and maybe just try to get organized earlier next year (of course - you'll have a new baby so chances are you won't be shilling stuff in your driveway....) Just go for it. You tried and you can't make people get their act together.
I"ll email you my address in case you want to hit up our yard sale tomorrow! I have lots of books and it looks like you and I have similar taste! :)