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.

***Photos are hopefully working now. I inadvertently posted this post on my other blog (You didn't know I had another blog, now did you?) and when I discovered what I had done, I simply cut and pasted the entire HTML post into a new post, but somehow the photos links didn't jive right or something. If they aren't visible, leave me a comment adn i will try it again. And, Thanks!

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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.

Back to my decluttering. I am tossing like crazy!

7 comments:

  1. The photos are coming through loud and clear now - THANKS!!

    That cake stand is WONDERFUL! Now I expect to see photos of it loaded with baked goodies 8D

    Having garage sales I think is our 'penance' for so much 'hunting & gathering'! I know quite often it is my 'logic' in buying something... "Well if so-and-so doesn't like it, I'll just sell at my garage sale" or "If it doesn't work the way I planned, I'll just sell at my garage sale"

    Isn't the 'lightening of the load' (getting rid of a bunch-o-stuff) an amazing feeling though?!!

    Good Job!

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  2. WHAT other blog? You stinker you! LOL!! I can see the pictures now! Love the cake stand but the money is the best! : )

    Jan

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  3. Congrats on surviving your garage sale! They are such a pain to put together. I have sworn never to have one again several times but I'm sure some day I will again. Until then I happily donate my stuff. I put out 3 large bags and 3 boxes of stuff just last week for pick-up and I've got another box started for next time. Feels so good to clear out stuff!

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  4. Have you recovered yet????

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  5. That great about that sale, I had some the past two years and I made practically nothing and I had the nasty friday people too!!

    Hey you cannot pass up a deal for 5 cents each!!!!!! and that cake stand it nice, I use them at my yearly Christmas party and people always comment on how cute it looks!!!

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  6. I have the same cake plate! I considered the yellow or the pink, but I ended up with white.

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  7. Jack was looking at your blog with me and he said, "So Dear, do you wanna go to that garage sale tomorrow?" when he saw your photos. LOLOLOLOL

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