Let there be light!

So...do you want to know what we did with the proceeds of the garage sale? We purchased coach lights for the side of our garage to include a matching front porch light and a post lamp at the end of the drive. The electrician still has to complete the trenching for the post lamp, but the coach lights are up and operating and they look beautiful if I do say so myself.

While my nephew was here for the Thanksgiving holiday, he installed a new light switch complete with a built in timer. Can you believe they can pack a digital timer in the small area of a switch, which auto adjust for your specific time zone and can be programmed for no less than (15) different types of lighting sequences.

In addition to the coach lamps we had security lights installed under the peaks of the roof on both sides of the house. This is a "must" have since our yard is fairly large and the dogs love to run to the section where no light is visible when they are out and about at night!

See all the wonderful things you can accomplish when you organize a successful garage sale. I am telling you know I love our new lights way more than I miss any of that stuff we sold and donated!

Garage Sale Success

Woo Hoo! Our garage sale was a big success. The weather was beautiful and despite deciding to "pull the trigger" and do it the week before Thanksgiving we still managed to have a large turnout and some of our "repeat" customers were at the front of the line!

A big THANK YOU to Mom's partner in crime Ms. "R" for assisting us with the sale. We would never have been able to do it without her. In addition to being the "official" money holder, she has quite the gift for gab as this one fella was heck bent on sharing his 'life" story with her.

We managed to close up early and loaded all the remains in the back of the truck and headed for Salvation Army. I was so happy to see it all go that I almost broke out in song. Of course I swore to my Mom this would be our last sale (right!) but you know when spring peeks it's head, I am sure I will be able to find the time to purge a few more items and do it all over again!

Gearing up for the garage sale

Ok, I know that I am affectionately known as the "garage sale queen", and as you can probably guess by the title of this post, I am at it again! I tell you, I just don't know where this stuff keeps coming from. I mean we purge on a regular basis. We have the rule in place "nothing comes into the house until something goes out of the house to make room." I swear this stuff is mass producing over night or something.

Well, I have been "stacking" it up in the corner of our dining room for months, this has been driving my mother crazy. Next, I moved into pricing it and arranging like items into totes. Now, I have finally tarped the garage shelves, erected the 8ft tables and relocated all the priced boxes and totes to the garage for arranging.

I am hoping to have the sale the first week of December. I had been aiming to have it much earlier, but with our month long hiatus in October due to H1N1, coupled with the buckets full of rain we have received over the last month or so resulted in a delay in my over all sale plan.

I am going to give a big "shout out" to one my friend in the sunshine state who taught me the secret to a successful garage sale...the FREE BOX. If your not familiar with this technique you should be as it works like a charm. You get a large box, place it at the end of your driveway, label it free box please take one item and watch the people flock on up for a freebie! I have already secured a large box from a friend and appropriately labeled it free box...take one item please!

So, I have a few more items to price and a few more things to purge and if the weather holds out we will be off and running the first week of December. I just keep thinking "one man's trash is another man's treasure." Here's to hoping my trash will be treasured by many!