What is a monkeybox?

When I was a little girl, we had a pet monkey named Amanda. My Dad worked in the produce business, so each night he brought home that days culls in a big box - spotty cucumbers, pithy apples, limp celery, moldy oranges and the like. We called it a monkeybox. It was really just trash, but my Mom would take each piece of fruit and trim it, pare it and cut it up to make a beautiful fruit platter for Amanda. Even though it was deemed trash by one, it still had life left in it and was good for the purpose we needed it. That's how I live my life - thrifting, yard saling, looking for another's trash to be my treasure.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Yard Sale Completed. Thank God.

I had my Yard Sale this weekend. It was so much work. The Bean was by my side the entire time and worked as hard as I did. We were both completely exhausted by Saturday evening and I swore I would never have another sale. But, we all know that I will have another one. And another one.

Friday morning I was up and ready to go out and set up at 6:45. With our Homeschool schedule, I don't really get up until after that, so I didn't realize it was still pitch dark at that hour. But, by 7:15, the sun was up and I started setting up. I had my first customer as soon as I opened the garage door to start emptying out boxes. The mood of the customers on Friday was extremely disheartening. Rude, rude old people. Offering me $1.00 for a $5.00 item. I'm a low pricer and if I think it's worth $5.00 at a yard sale, then By Golly, it's worth $5.00. One lady wanted to pay 25 cents for five dollars worht of stuff. Was she kidding? No, she was not.


It was also very windy and things were blowing around and glass was shattering and pottery was chipping and I just got all P.O.'ed and QUIT. I shut it down and put a big nasty note in the driveway "CLOSED UNTIL SATURDAY MORNING".

I decided Saturday that it was a new day with new people. The first guy let me keep 50¢ change. Well, that 50¢ helped my mood and my self esteem so much. I had a much, much better day after that. I bet he would never dream that 50¢ would mean so much to me. People were friendly, having fun and looking for deals. They still wanted to haggle, but instead of an insulting offer, they just wanted 25¢ or 50¢ knocked off the price. That, was do-able. One family spent $45.00 and didn't even haggle one bit. I did, however, knock $5.00 off as that was my biggest sale of the day. I had two big heavy leather end tables from Target that I didn't want to get stuck with and I really didn't want to give them to the Salvation Army for them to sell for $50.00 each. (Tacky, I know). So, when they swooped in on them, I was happy for them and happy for me too.


I wound up with $352.00 at the end of the day. I boxed up one small box of things that I had put out thinking they might sell, but knowing I would pull if they didn't. I will try them on ebay or on here soon. I boxed up a lot of stuff and donated it to the Salvation Army today and put some stuff by the road for FREE. I got so much darned entertainment out of watching people dig in those free bins that I should have put it all out there.

So, now I have some money in my pocket and a big empty space in the garage. I made a resolution to cut down on thrifting and not bringing so much STUFF into the house and letting more STUFF go. I will still go thrifting and saling, but I will be pickier and more selective. If I quit bargain hunting, I would literally have nothing else to do except educate my child and organize the house. HA!

Sadly, that resolution ended this afternoon when I purchased 40 pewter Wal-Mart Keychains.

Apparently I have no willpower! I spotted these heavy pewter and leather keychains that say Wal-Mart on them today (at Wal-Mart, of course). They were $5.86, but today they were on sale for 5¢. Yep, a nickle. We go to the Wal-Mart Shareholders Meeting every year and people trade tchotkes for pins from other countries. I think these will makde great trading items and if they don't, a) It's only $2.00 and b) I can send them to you nice folks in swaps and Happy Mail! ;o)

I also got this fabulous cake stand. I have been coveting these on people's blogs. I have never seen one at the thrift or at a yard sale. So, when I spotted this in the after Easter Clearance today for $13.00, I treated myself with some of those greenbacks you saw above.

*You see no mention of Easter in this post because there was no Easter at my house. The Bean got a basket of goodies and some books because all kids deserve goodies on Easter in my book. But, no family, no dinner, nothing. Sickness in the family has postponed it until Wednesday. I will be happy to have a family dinner and have some fun. No Easter on Easter really sucks rotten eggs.

7 comments:

  1. Well it seems like you had quite a successful yard sale. Oddly enough, I like having them as much as I like going to them. That almost changed when I had to deal with the rude, rude people (not just old people) at an estate sale at my grandfather's house but I think I still like having them.

    That is a beautiful cake stand, I think I would have treated myself as well.

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  2. okay... how come h-d-m can view your pictures and I can't?? I'm dieing to see the cake stand!! Is it pink glass??

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  3. I can't see your pictures either! : ( I wanna see 'em!!! LOL
    Glad Saturday turned into a better day for you!
    There was sickness in our family Sunday, also. ME!! Had the flu! We aren't doing a make up Easter, though. *sigh* Hope you have fun!

    Jan

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  4. I can't see the photos either--is it me, or are they gone? I do notice that the text after where I think you posted the photos is closer together than at the top. Not sure that makes ANY sense or if it's related.

    $352 is not a bad chunk of change for stuff that's just cluttering up the garage! I will confess that although I love to go to them, the thought of holding my own garage sale makes me want to run and hide! LOL

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  5. Anonymous5:50 PM

    I couldn't see the pictures either, earlier, but just figured it was my computer or my connection. Thank goodness I can see them now! I wish I had been able to go to your sale; I'm sure you would have had *something* I just had to have. I like the cake stand, too, as well as the stool you're using to display it.
    --Mary aka MAMinCR from YSQ

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  6. Anonymous7:08 PM

    I'm glad you had such a successful ys. Sorry the first day was such a downer, but the friendly people were just waiting until better weather on Sat.

    I'm so glad you explained what you were planning to do with the Walmart keychains. I was shaking my head thinking "What in the world is she going to do with those?"

    Hope you and the Bean are having a good school semester. You sure do go on some wonderful day trips that tie in with what you are studying.

    Libby

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  7. I'm sorry the first day was such a downer--what's wrong with people anyway?? But all in all, it sounds like you did very well! I'm on a cut back on my thrifting as well, I need to reel it in and get organized as my life in general is getting too cluttered!

    On a very sad note--I'm sooooo sorry about the deaths in your area. How truly tragic. My thoughts are with the surviving family.

    ReplyDelete

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