Martin's First Yard Sale

Today we had our first yard sale. We decided to go in with another family and do it together. The sale took place at our house. The driveway and yard was covered with many items that we "had to have" and at some point lost their flair. A lemonade stand and Rice Krispie treats topped it all off!

So we started the sale at 8 because with 5 total children we figured it would be hard to get up and running. However, being the rookies that we are to the world of yard sales, little did we know that our start time really doesn't matter. We had people at our house before 7AM! These people are crazy. So our friends pull up and we start frantically putting stuff out to sell. So the four of us adults try juggling putting stuff out, negotiating with people, checking out customers, keeping watch that everything is paid for, and keeping track of whose money is whose, oh yeah, and watching kids. You try standing firm with a ridiculous offer while you have, "MOMMY, MOMMY!" shouting at you in the background. I found myself just saying, "whatever!" to these people as they walk away with a ridiculous deal. I mean this lady wanted a really nice pair of cropped pants from The LOFT for a dollar. I mean, come on, I paid like $50 for them. Yes, I'm a little disappointed that I can't wear them anymore and you can, but a dollar. Just give me three for it. I got a dollar.
The first hour was insane. My friend Janalee and I just kept laughing as we knew we practically were giving stuff away. So we gave ourselves a pep talk to be more hard-nosed. We had about 3 waves of people throughout the morning. Once we got all our stuff out of the house, we could settle more and enjoy it. All this to say, it was so worth it and we made around $280 for each family. Not bad for your first yard sale! It is kind of sad that we had that much junk! The best part is that we sold most of our stuff and took the rest to Goodwill. Nothing came back in my house!
Oh, the other drama was that our signs were mysteriously disappearing off the street corner. At least three people came and told us that an Asian man was taking them down. This man is our neighbor and in our house is known as Mr. Miyagi. He is an old man that walks in the neighborhood and has some strange behaviors. He "checks" everyones mailbox by looking in it, walks up and down peoples driveways, and apparently can't stand yard sale signs so he takes them down. Ed, my persistant husband, kept driving down and putting more up all morning. Mr. Miyagi isn't going to ruin our yard sale!