redistribution

The yard sale was a smash hit. Several families on the street joined in, so it was well-worth coming to our end of town, and I think everyone did well. We worked all day Friday setting things up. What a job. We had no idea we had that much un-needed stuff. Astonishing. I hope we've learned our lesson. By the time Karena came over to help, we were already pretty pooped. I said I thought we were being punished for our gluttony, and I hoped we'd be rewarded for our willingness to let stuff go. We had a Friends Preview on Friday evening, and several friends showed up to haul some of our stuff to their own houses. We love our friends.



Saturday morning started at about 5:30 for me. It was a great day. People showed up, bought stuff, and lightened our load at a steady pace for several hours. After all that satisfying Stuff Redistribution, things quieted down enough that we had time to be silly. Karena played dress-up for a while...



And then we spotted Big Blue, the enormous suitcase no one had snapped up yet. When you're going to Hawaii, and someone says, "Put me in your suitcase", this is the one you need. Sally went in first...






Then Karena...





And then Rick tried it. OK, Big Blue isn't that big...




It was a one day sale, so on Sunday, we re-stacked what was left, and put a FREE sign on it. A lot more went away at that bargain price. Now we have a small stack of leftovers to take to the Re-Store, the used clothing store, and the Free Box, so we're feeling pretty good about the whole event. We do have two large items left that need to get gone... The lovely little sofa-bed from the trailer, and the Big-Ass Display Case. I have them listed on Craigslist. I really want them out of my driveway...




Yard sales are a lot of work, and I still think they're some kind of cosmic thump on the head for our hoardingly human ways. A project like this forces us to dig deep and really "deal with our own shit", on many levels. The process of touching each and every once-precious item can be terribly difficult and emotional. To place those treasures in one's driveway and watch total strangers pick through them and place their own piddly values on them can be humbling and sometimes insulting. But by agreeing with ourselves to do all this, we force ourselves to open our hands in the simple but huge act of letting go. And when our hands are open, and what needs to be set free is gone, those same hands are then open to receiving things we don't even know are out there. It's not easy, but I know it's worth the effort.