Random Crap Holocaust 2011

I have a humongous headache, folks. Here's why.

We had ourselves the garage sale this morning. And it was absolute chaos. We wanted to start the day off at 8am, so I went around the neighborhood in a mile radius or so, putting up directional 'Garage Sale!' signs and balloons and crap like that. By the time I got home, it was pushing 7am, so I figured I'd have at least an hour to set up the driveway before people started swarming our house.

I was wrong.

Folks began showing up at 7:15am! I hadn't even pulled anything out from the garage onto the driveway and they were digging through our wares. It was ridiculous. Evidently people in Central Florida don't know how to read. Or tell time.

Anyway, overall we had ourselves a pretty good run. We sold all of our big ticket items (items ranging in the $25 - $100 range), which was awesome, which the not-so-surprising exception of three of the four swords I was selling (I don't think God wants me to sell these swords, as I apparently must wield them in the upcoming apocalypse that will surely unfold once gas hits $4 a gallon this summer). We actually probably sold about 70% of the stuff we put out, and although people had to haggle on every, last item that we were selling, we ended up netting $337.60 by 1pm when we called it a day.


Booya!

The only downside to the entire day was the occasional haggle fest we'd get from these Haitian ladies that would constantly want to give you about 10 - 20% of what you were asking. They were after the baby clothes like rabid wolves, and would grab up piles of clothes - which, at Kris' pretty reasonable pricing, would cost about $100 - and want them all for $20.

That happened several times throughout the course of the morning. The first time it happened, Kris gave a woman probably $30 worth of stuff for free without even realizing it. A lady made off with a ton of brand new baby dresses, shoes, towels, etc. in her jumbled pile of clothes.

After that, Kris was on the warpath whenever those types of 'shoppers' showed up, and we didn't get taken by anyone again.

...I mean, seriously. Who the hell haggles 50 cent prices at a garage sale?!

- Brian

'Spring Cleaning,' or 'The Process in Which the Houghs Determined Which Items Around Their House Would Look Nicer in Someone Else's Household'

We've been spending a lot of our free time digging through crap lately.

And not the crap that fills either of our kids' pants, either (though we've been doing our fair share of that, too).

No, readers, I'm talking about the crap that is destined to wind up in our upcoming garage sale slated for March 12th. It's a huge ordeal, but we've got a ton of crap that needs to be offloaded as soon as possible in order to make room for more crap that we don't need.

A huge - if not the biggest - part of this whole garage sale preparations thing has been sorting, pricing, and categorizing baby clothes. We have a hell of a lot of baby clothes, much more than I think either of us thought possible. Our kids didn't even wear half of them. We received so many name-brand, high-end clothes from the parents who brought their kids into Kristina's class while she was at Primrose - some of them brand new - that our kids maybe more an outfit once or twice before they grew out of it and it went into storage. So the condition of these piles upon piles of baby clothes, in general, is 'like new.'


We're hoping that brings in the masses on March 12th.


There's a never ending supply of clothes in our house - things the Cannonball hasn't grown into yet, or else has grown out of and Abby can't wear yet - and we're hoping that we sell all of it so that we can make room for the eventual additional piles of kid clothes that we'll have to buy in the future.

'Cause that's how having kids works, folks: the turnover rate for clothes, toys, and gear is ridiculous. They outgrow things quickly, so you're constantly having to get rid of piles of crap, only to turn around and have to purchase more piles of crap for them. The cycle never ends (until their 18, I suppose, when you can throw them out of your house).


Anyway, besides kid clothes, toys, and gear, we're dumping a ton of other random crap.

I'm trying to sell a few swords (we'll see how that goes), a bunch of random kitchen and household items, piles of old knick-knacks and collectibles, old luggage and handbags, maternity clothes, office supplies, electronics, and a ton of other nonsense that has been sitting in the garage just waiting to escape our house.

Prepping for this garage sale has been a constant chore, but hopefully the pay-off will be well worth the effort we've been putting into it. Cross they fingers.

- Brian