Helpful tips for packrat therapy... LOL

We had a garage sale over the weekend...  I am a bargain loving packrat!!!  We had a garage sale last year and I brought all the things like fabric that I was going to use for ____ back home, yet the boxes got piled up and forgotten...

So this year I actually accomplished some decluttering of the house and learned a few things...  At first it was hard to get ready for the sale...  The excuses were flying...  You know the might need its and such...

Early in the week last week, my allergies were getting to me quite badly despite being on corticosteroids for a week prior, I got a pretty bad sinus infection...  Those corticosteroids were supposed to help me fight it, I thought...  Oh well, I had a slight cough that I do not really classify as a cough, but that thing had every muscle related to my back in pain...

So off to the doctor I went early last week, because I had to get ready for the garage sale and didn't have time with Vacation Bible School, my stepson's Math Camp, and the upcoming vacation to be sick...  My doctor gave me cough syrup with hydrocodone in it as well as something for the muscle spasms...

Now, given that combo and the kid's failure to clean their rooms, I found motivation to clean out the house...  My daughter claimed she could not clean her room by herself as all the My Little Pony, Polly Pocket, and Barbie things were strewn throughout her bedroom, closet, and some of the house...  My youngest son helped to accomplish that mess...  So we talked and decided that perhaps she should choose one of her character friends and stick with that...  Barbie is in the rest out...  That sure was easy...

The sale was being held at another house and we were all getting together, so further motivation came when we were loading everything up to go to the other house...  I was thinking about our upcoming vacation and how I'd rather be there than here...  Rather than seeing boxes on the trailer, I was seeing spending money for the trip...  So I ran back through the house and grabbed anything I could...  I picked up an item and said I haven't used this in a week-buh bye... 

Motivation was easy and I had no real clue what I was piling up and boxing to go to the sale, my mind was focused on the beaches of Sanibel...

Once the sale started, I was still thinking of Sanibel and spending money...  So that made me a bad candidate at first for pricing and haggling...  Then it came full circle and I changed my tune to I am not taking that back home I am too tired to deal with it...  Let's sell everything for a quarter or close to it...

With the combination of the medications, frustration with the kids, lack of sleep, and thoughts of a peaceful day on the beach, I let go of all the attachments and excuses...

Next came the addition of another family's stuff into the sale...  The couple was out of work and finally desperate as their utilities were being cut off...  My focus altered to helping them get what they could out of their stuff...  Having it combined the way we did, it was hard to give customers a total, but easy to keep up with whose money was whose...  So when the total was $7 and they wanted to haggle lower, I'd lower my price or throw my item in as a freebie therefore giving the desperate couple a little help...  Note that the desperate couple had their prices set quite steep and were not haggling much...

What was a one day sale became two, as the couple needed to clean out their storage unit...  We stayed up all night making signs and helping go through boxes that have been in storage for a couple of years...  I searched every bit of the internet looking for places to post free classifieds...

Sunday came and I was so tired I was never going to pack anything up and bring it home...  Even the children were falling over from exhaustion (they had been playing quite hard)...  So everyone left with something for free...  We were all at the point that we'd have loaded it all up on the trailer and taken it to someone else's home and let them have a garage sale with it all if they wanted...

It is all gone finally!!!  We loaded it up on the trailer last night, ate, and slept...  First thing this morning we took that trailer straight to the nearest charity thrift store drop off location...  I walked in my front door still groggy from the crazy weekend and stopped staring into the house...  I wasn't sure how to react it appeared that I had been robbed and vandalized to me...  Then it hit me-all the junk is gone!!!  Yeah I left things a mess in the put it in the sale craze, but now cleaning is easy...

My daughter can clean her own room once again...  I can see my floor and that storage room has real space now!!! 

I still don't know how much we made and I still don't care...  I am so excited the stuff is gone!!!  I love that it was so easy to get rid of and pray I won't get back into the habit of overspending on the kids and buying things I really don't need that I think I will use for something or other... 

The only part I am sad about is that I can't really go get great bargains at the thrift store, since they are stocked with our old stuff...  LOL

Then again, perhaps it will keep me away long enough to break the packrat habit!!!  The three children actually are happy not to have so many things and have commented today quite heavily about it...  They seem to like being able to actually play with what they have apparently...

Oh I feel like I am already on that vacation...  It's so peaceful here without the stuff caving in on us really!!!