Garage Sales and Flea Markets...

 So our town has a city-wide garage sale every spring and my neighbor, Jena, and I decided to get rid of our junk. I have been reading Peter Walsh's book, "It's all too much" and it helped me purge quite a lot of stuff that I didn't need or love and could definitely live without. Shari, my mother-in-law, helped me price items the weekend before. She's in the "know" since she volunteers in her school's resale store.

 We both took off Friday from work to sit around in camping chairs (that reclined) and watch people take away our clutter...and pay us for it (best part). Marvelous. Chris was around in the morning before he had to leave for work and helped out a lot. He also transplanted some Hostas to other parts of the yard (pics to come later). We had a pretty good turn-out on Friday and made about $150 a piece. It helped that Shari visited and assisted with product display (she does the windows at the resale store). People kept commenting on how nicely organized our sale was which was nice to hear...even if they didn't buy anything. Plus, we traded a few items between the households.

We had this cutie stop by on Saturday...Jena's son, Finn. Unfortunately, he was not in the market for a purse or any teacups. Around 10:45 am, I offered Jena a deal that we could close up shop if we didn't get any customers for 10 minutes. We got one customer around 8 minutes but I still was done. 

 Why the rush? The Kane County Flea Market started at noon. And, we had to drop all the items we didn't sell off at Goodwill on the way. P.S. Thank you to Jena's hubs, JJ, for the use of his truck to make the trip to Goodwill possible and thank you to Chris for helping us pack up the truck.

 Oh my goodness gracious. The flea market was packed with both vendors and customers. Much better vendor turn-out compared to the first weekend in March. 

It was crazy. Crazy busy. Crazy overwhelming. And, I was having a hard time parting from my well-earned cash. I searched the furniture vendors for a kitchen island piece with no luck. At the end of the adventure at the fairgrounds, I ended up with two veggie eggrolls and a can of Coke, in my belly. Oh yeah, and some amazing kettle corn. 

On the way home, we stopped by Home Goods. I saw lots of goodies but I was feeling rejuvenated by the ridding of excess stuff at home...and again, had a hard time handing over my cash.

Eventually, I splurged on some root beer from Maine. It was the same kind Chris and I drank on our honeymoon to Maine. Isn't that sweet? And, know what's really sweet? I paid for it in change. $5.04 in 20 quarters, 1 nickel and 3 pennies. My wallet felt much lighter. 

On the way home from Home Goods, Jena and I stopped at a nail salon and pampered ourselves with pedicures. I finally handed over some cash...and it was well worth it. My feet were very happy. And so was I. I held out and didn't buy anything I didn't need, love or couldn't live without. And that makes me happy. One small step for home-kind.