Today I worked on our neighborhood garage sale from 8 until 5 with an hour break for lunch. The sale is being held across the street from our Texas home in a house we are currently renovating. The work-in-progress house has no air conditioning so the 100+ degree heat here in Texas over the past 3 days has been a major factor. Still, I unboxed lots of stuff from daughter Sarah, who has moved back to California, and my nieces, Leslie and Katie, who have recently moved to Austin. The most interesting items from them, I thought, were the hot soup cup complete with cord
from Sarah and the muscle massager with the feature of HEAT
from Leslie and Katie. In addition to these, there was the usual garage sale fare: mugs, coffeemakers, Christmas items, small shelves, pans, baking dishes, coffee tables, bookshelves, and lots of clothes. Among our pieces, probably the most impressive is a 70 piece set of Mexican green glassware with beer mugs, wine glasses in two sizes, stemmed water glasses, regular water glasses, iced tea glasses, dessert cups.
Ray and I bought this set over 20 years ago when we were in Mexico buying for Chili’s restaurants and after being in our glass cabinet for 10 years, it has been stored for another ten after we moved to LA. Now we’re ready for all this to go, and we plan to price it to sell.
Selling books is the hardest part of this sale for me.
Left to my own devices, I’d keep every book I’ve ever bought. But, alas, that becomes slightly prohibitive given the fact that if I never sold a book, then I soon would find my home looking like a library. I keep having to remind myself that libraries exist exactly so I don’t have to house all of these books, but I still would prefer to have more than less. After all, I might want to read The History of Music some night when I can’t sleep or maybe every Tony Hillerman mystery.
Tomorrow all the neighbors will be bringing over their goodies for the sale and that’s when discipline comes in. Otherwise, I’m just going to replace what I might sale with new items from my neighbors’ houses. Now THAT is not the goal. We are supposed to be clearing out, not simply substituting one item for a new item. Alas, it will be a challenge. I’ve already felt my heart quicken at the mere mention at what is arriving tomorrow.
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