Monday, August 08, 2005

Yard selling / teeth grinding time


Charles L. Peterson's Yard Sale Posted by Picasa

I don't know of too many guys that are into going to yard sales - most guys have a target, go in for the hunt, get the item and get out - unless we're at Home Depot or Lowes - for me, I like to audit every item on each of the shelves.

Yard selling on the other hand - I'm good for one every seven years. Moving back from North Carolina with three bedrooms worth of stuff crammed in a seventeen foot UHaul truck was a mental challenge. Do I rent a POD? Throw it all in storage? Buy a big shed? After alternative number 386 didn't work out, it was time to do a yard sale.

However something happened that was so cool !


Visit my home page yard sale.com Posted by Picasa

I posted some items - a complete bedroom suite plus a sofa and love seat on Craigslist. Within 30 minutes I got my first email from a med student moving to Nashville with just a suitcase - trusting fellow that I am, she bought it sight unseen. My neighbor and I took it over the next day and got it all set up. I have a heart for college students and especially for those who are strangers in a strange land - I took over the stray items that I had such as toilet paper, laundry soap, sheets, trash cans, bags, etc to be a blessing. Like Mike in North Carolina said - "pay it forward - be radical in your generosity." I'm delighted that I could be an ambassador for Nashville in a Christlike manner.

The next day, a law student purchase the sofa and love seat - so this CraigsList is really cool - to presell the bulk items was a load off my brain.

On another note - my wife hates clutter - my close friends know that when I croak, they will be at my front door (prior to the visitation in the front yard) to pick up Beatle albums for 10 cents and computers for one dollar. All ten thousand (which use to be one hundred thousand albums stored in a 10 x 20 room) of my remaining mint condition LPs with plastic wrapped covers will be in the gutter. So I'm a little paranoid and possessive about my stuff - but again, it's going to eventually burn up anyway.

So the yard sale happened - two things that amaze me - people buy junk that you think would go in the trash can (OK smart guy - so why did you have it in the first place??!!??) and what riles me up is someone who wants to buy a $20.00 microwave for a quarter! I would derive more satisfaction throwing that microwave off a bridge than selling it to that person. Man, I thought I was frugal -

I survived; made enough money to pay for the UHaul move, buy a new digital camera and only toted back in the house 4 boxes of stuff. God's grace at work - I am indeed blessed and highly favored by God.

"Yard Sale" by Charles Peterson - Country-Art.Com.

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