Our Moving Sale is History!!!

The sale went very, very well. I cannot believe all the stuff we were able to sell. I tell you what, Darcy is an INCREDIBLE salesperson. She pretty much single-handedly ran the sale! She would greet the customers as they arrived and she would watch to see what they paused over and then suggest similar items that might also interest them (she is better at that than Amazon.com!). Her specialty was the little old ladies. She would just dote on them....offer to gather their selections into a bag and follow them around carrying their bags while steering them to other items they might like. She would tell them the prices (we didn't have any price tags on anything) and would keep a running tally for them so they would know how much they had spent, cut them extra good deals if they were high volume customers, take their money, make their change, and carry their purchases back to their cars for them. They were delighted by all the extra attention and lingered all the longer because of it. She did well with every age range and both genders....but, the great-grandma types just adored her....and she them!

Darcy thoroughly enjoyed herself these past two days...but she worked really hard, too, and was wiped out by the end of the sale. The last day of the sale, we challenged her to "move" a set of 1969 encyclopedias that were in a beat up, really scarred up, cheap old bookcase. The bookcase was to go WITH the encyclopedias. I told her I would give her a dollar commision if she could sell those encyclopedias. Though we had had around 150 people the first day of the sale (Grand Central Station), by the afternoon of the second day traffic had slowed to a sporadic trickle. We didn't have hardly anything left and some folks turned around and left without even getting out of their cars. It was the afternoon of the second day that we issued the challenge to Darcy to sell those encyclopedias. I didn't think she could, but she did!!!

We ended up closing the sale down three hours early. We loaded up what was left (a desk, a couple of swivel office chairs, a high chair, a stroller, some clothes and toys) and took them to the City Union Mission's thrift shop. We got rid of the entire upstairs garage full of stuff, which, in preparation for the sale, we had stuffed so full that there was only a single 18 inch path left open to walk through with things stacked solid five feet and higher!). We also got rid of a large portion of the contents of our basement garage, too... and a lot of our things that we had stored over at Mom and Dad's house and even some of their stuff that they wanted to put in the sale. We kept adding to the inventory all day yesterday.....digging out more things to put in the sale while the sale was in progress. EVERYTHING went. (Even a few things we didn't mean to sell! I was looking for our red dolly today and finally tracked down what had happened to it--Darcy sold it yesterday!) We do not have one single item left that we put in the sale....not so much as a toothpick!!!! Now that is MY idea of a sale!!!! (Gone, even, is the old metal swingset that I had no idea what we could do with it!)

We could not have had more cooperative weather or nicer customers. Folks would say, "I can't take (this or that piece of furniture) now, but I will come back for it later this evening." We secretly worried that they would change their minds and decide it wasn't worth the bother finding some way to haul those larger items and just leave us hanging after we saved it through the day for them.....but each one of the three sets of people who had us save obnoxiously large, items for them had returned to our home before 7pm that very same night (the first night of the sale) and picked up their items....one young couple driving over an hour and a half back to get to our house, and another couple borrowing a trailer to haul the purchases. God really blessed us and watched over us!!! It was a fun sale, too...I hadn't yet decided whether or not to sell our little tyke fort/slide and swing (they looked cute next to the sandbox), but, when a young mom with her first son (just a few weeks old) showed up, the decision was easy. She had looked thoroughly through all our baby clothing (all girl stuff) and had picked out the items that were somewhat gender neutral and bought a lot of baby toys and board books. On her way out..she asked if the fort/slide was for sale and I said she could have it and the matching baby swing (with its own little roof) for a buck. We washed them down (spidery-webby from being outside) and she she insisted on paying ten dollars. She was such a sweet young girl. I'm really glad she got the little tyke things. I'm exhausted tonight...but the sale really was a lot of fun...but, one a lifetime is enough fun, too!

(I'm sure all those who helped with the sale, will agree that one a lifetime is enough, too! Pastor and Alice helped us get things lined up for the sale (even preparing supper for us the night before) and made signs pointing the way to our sale and put them up for us! Mom and Dad C. were there every moment of the sale (from two and a half hours before sale time when we were trying to set up and customers were already arriving to several hours after the sale was suppose to have ended the first day when customers were still straggling in and then came back the SECOND day, too! Mom and Dad B. helped us all day the second day and loaded their van up when we were ready to caravan the hour's drive to City Union Mission's thrift store. And one friend kept us supplied in the best banana nut bread I have ever tasted in my life (and later brought us the recipe!!!). It sure is a blessing to have friends and family!!!)