Our first and very last Garage Sale

Well, thank goodness it's over. Yesterday was our first, and also our very last Garage Sale - what an experience! We had to succumb to this activity due to the fact we cannot store our plants, and as we are planning to down size, we also needed to get rid of some of the older and larger garden furniture etc.. On Thursday and Friday I raided the kitchen cupboards clearing out anything we hadn't used for yonks, we sort of set up and priced items on Friday afternoon with help from our friend Arthur, whilst being continually interrupted by people just wandering into our garage (closed to the public as everything we were keeping from the garden was in it) wanting to buy all that we weren't selling. Told them to come back at the advertised time of 9am on Saturday! One lady wanted me to go up stairs and go through my jewellery then and there (which includes some of Mum's) to see what I could sell - Bye Bye maam!!! Saturday - we were up at 5 a.m, fortunately it looked like being a glorious day, so we were able to set up everything outside on the driveway with the furniture and plants etc, upstairs on the deck. At 6.40 a.m the first 2 women turned up (these I discovered later, are the local garage sale harrassment duo), as we were far from ready, and I had no inclination to play nickle and dime with these two at this hour of the day, I advised them to come back later, they left muttering as they walked down the driveway, don't think they were used to being turned away. Then within minutes I turned around to find the jewellery pest was back again. No - I had no jewellery to sell - Bye Bye madame. The day was not looking good at this stage - my tolerance level was already being tested, I was starting to doubt if it would stay in tact for another 7 hours??? By 7.15 a.m. they came in their car loads (too many to turn away - 2 against 13 were not good odds in our books) - so guess the Sale had started, we are still in our old dirty gardening gear, and Frank is yet to put out the signs and Arthur isn't coming till 9 a.m. Ross fortunately decided to come down early to see what he could do to help - that meant Frank could finish off his tasks and put signs in various places around the Surf Beach (which by this time we were wondering if the word CANCELLED should be scrawled across them)!!. The early arrivals are the professional garage sale attendees, they have no compunction in arriving way before the advertised time (it is their right), and just wander all over your property, even though it is very obvious where the items "for sale" are. This mob don't buy much, they chat to each other, discuss other garage sales they are going to, and compare health notes and in general trivial gossip. By 8.30 a.m the real people started turning up, apologising for being early, but of course when they saw all the other cars - thought why not go in! These people were here to buy, and the rest of the day went very well, gorgeous weather, lots of laughs, plenty of good natured bartering, ending up in an excellent clearance. The only unpleasant moment during the rest of the day was when the original 2 - the harrassment duo, came back - made a huge fuss about us letting others in before 9am, I didn't get a chance to convey to them my thoughts, that was beautifully handled by one of our buyers (a neighbour) who recognised these 2 serial pests from other garage sales. She was given a round of applause from other purchasers who were up on the deck with me, and the duo quickly left, after all they had been exposed!!!!. After closing up at 2pm, we happily counted the proceeds, farewelled Arthur, I had a long hot bath with loads of Radox accompanied by the dulcet tones of Julio Iglesias, then Ross and Nalda came down for a drink and nibbles. After which we relaxed and watched the DVD on our trip around OZ in 2004 - this reminded us of why we are putting ourselves through this suffering - to move to something smaller with very low maintenance - a place to lock up and just head off. All of a sudden it seemed worth it again, just sooh pleased there is a good reason for doing what we did yesterday!!! There is a pleasant finale - one neighbour is very pleased with her purchases and the fact Ross and Frank delivered them to her this morning, so she has invited the 4 of us for drinks and nibbles next Sunday, Laura wants to show us where her purchases fit into her newly transformed garden.