garage sales, free piles, the circle of life
I will start out by saying, I'm an introvert, I guess I've known this at some level all my life, but they recently made us take those personality tests at work, and in the test I'm all the way to the wall, an introvert. Which means I prefer to work alone, I make most of my decisions in my own head, I may not do great in an open office environment (which ahem, I work in, with really big headphones) and I'm not big on collaboration. So, i'm not outgoing, I don't perform well in social situations with new people..
Anyways.
So Garage sale
I feel a little queasy at the words
But the garage needed an overhaul/clear out
So I put on my big girl pants and we had a garage sale
And I fought against my recent workplace labeling of me as introvert, and MADE myself give a hearty hello, to every person who showed up, in my eagerness, i may have yelled "hello!!!!" Or "how's it going!!!" a couple times, until I got the volume level right..
It was ridiculously hot both days,
But tons of people came,
And I have to say, it was a really awesome experience
And a good reminder (for me) that everyone 'out there' is, for the most part good people.
We met more neighbors in two days than 4 years all together..
Everyone would make their purchase, and then blurt out who they were, and where they lived..haha!
I sort of knew this would happen, at our last house, when we were moving out, we had a gsale, and met all these neighbors we hadn't met in all the time we'd lived there, and they were all really nice! I felt sad for not knowing them sooner.
Back to present day,
One lady told me a story of the lady whose family we bought the house from, and how loving and kind she was..makes me feel honored to live in her house..
Our friends from cubscouts stopped by, and hung out for a bit.
Another neighbor asked if we needed any extra eggs because he has too many..
We gave away all the kids books for free, since books for kids should be free whenever possible..and they all marched away to different homes!! to be loved an read all over again. EEEeee..love fest - right here..
People told us about all their junk they needed to get rid of..
I priced everything low,
In secret hopes that it would be over sooner than later..
But once we were in the middle of it
It was actually - fun
And really good to know we're surrounded by really great neighbors, and one grumpy guy, who im sure is great too, in a pissed off kind of way (he wanted to buy some totally awesome 80s music cds, but someone had already taken them)
We made in two days, a whopping 110$ snort.. but it's better than spending money I guess.
Then, we moved the leftover items to the end of the driveway, with a big sign that said free on it
And so began chapter two
The free pile took on a life of its own
If we were outside people would chat with us about their lives while rummaging through
If we weren't they would strike up conversations with other people who stopped
Cars would go flying past then slam on the breaks..
Kids stopped and played with the toys
People trying to cram a table into their electric car
For the past 24 hours looking out the living room window has been more entertaining than any movie I've seen of late..
This morning, two older ladies stopped, and were out there, going thru things for about 1/2 hour...
they sounded like birds,
talking in happy sing-song voices,
giggling,
showing things to each other,
cackling
Sometimes, they would stop perusing, and stand with their hands on their hips mirroring each other
And were just talking
Then back to looking at stuff,
they finally both had armfuls, when Chris went out to get something from the car, and one of them said "oh you've given us such a thrill!! All this wonderful stuff for free!"
Some people were suspect at the free-Ness of the things,
and would look furtively towards the house/yard,
A couple even asked Chris if they should pay for something..despite multiple signs saying FREE!
Now,
The free pile is greatly diminished, and the remnants will go off the the Goodwill tomorrow.
But the whole thing reminded me of an ecosystem, or like we talk about at work, a self-healing process,
We have stuff we don't want anymore,
We sell some of it,
recoup some of the money spent,
Put the rest out on the street,
Lots of happy ensues,
Stuff gets reused
Second cycle
And we don't have to make 3 trips to the goodwill
To get rid of our stuff
Everybody wins
CIRCLE OF LIFE
and bonus!
We meet lots of nice neighbors
Feel more a part of our community to boot
Aww
if there was a rainbow or unicorn emoji on my phone, I would place them right here..
Thus ends my once a year gusher of goodness and light post.
I can go back to my cave and grumble about stuff again.
💖💛💚💙💜
Anyways.
So Garage sale
I feel a little queasy at the words
But the garage needed an overhaul/clear out
So I put on my big girl pants and we had a garage sale
And I fought against my recent workplace labeling of me as introvert, and MADE myself give a hearty hello, to every person who showed up, in my eagerness, i may have yelled "hello!!!!" Or "how's it going!!!" a couple times, until I got the volume level right..
It was ridiculously hot both days,
But tons of people came,
And I have to say, it was a really awesome experience
And a good reminder (for me) that everyone 'out there' is, for the most part good people.
We met more neighbors in two days than 4 years all together..
Everyone would make their purchase, and then blurt out who they were, and where they lived..haha!
I sort of knew this would happen, at our last house, when we were moving out, we had a gsale, and met all these neighbors we hadn't met in all the time we'd lived there, and they were all really nice! I felt sad for not knowing them sooner.
Back to present day,
One lady told me a story of the lady whose family we bought the house from, and how loving and kind she was..makes me feel honored to live in her house..
Our friends from cubscouts stopped by, and hung out for a bit.
Another neighbor asked if we needed any extra eggs because he has too many..
We gave away all the kids books for free, since books for kids should be free whenever possible..and they all marched away to different homes!! to be loved an read all over again. EEEeee..love fest - right here..
People told us about all their junk they needed to get rid of..
I priced everything low,
In secret hopes that it would be over sooner than later..
But once we were in the middle of it
It was actually - fun
And really good to know we're surrounded by really great neighbors, and one grumpy guy, who im sure is great too, in a pissed off kind of way (he wanted to buy some totally awesome 80s music cds, but someone had already taken them)
We made in two days, a whopping 110$ snort.. but it's better than spending money I guess.
Then, we moved the leftover items to the end of the driveway, with a big sign that said free on it
And so began chapter two
The free pile took on a life of its own
If we were outside people would chat with us about their lives while rummaging through
If we weren't they would strike up conversations with other people who stopped
Cars would go flying past then slam on the breaks..
Kids stopped and played with the toys
People trying to cram a table into their electric car
For the past 24 hours looking out the living room window has been more entertaining than any movie I've seen of late..
This morning, two older ladies stopped, and were out there, going thru things for about 1/2 hour...
they sounded like birds,
talking in happy sing-song voices,
giggling,
showing things to each other,
cackling
Sometimes, they would stop perusing, and stand with their hands on their hips mirroring each other
And were just talking
Then back to looking at stuff,
they finally both had armfuls, when Chris went out to get something from the car, and one of them said "oh you've given us such a thrill!! All this wonderful stuff for free!"
Some people were suspect at the free-Ness of the things,
and would look furtively towards the house/yard,
A couple even asked Chris if they should pay for something..despite multiple signs saying FREE!
Now,
The free pile is greatly diminished, and the remnants will go off the the Goodwill tomorrow.
But the whole thing reminded me of an ecosystem, or like we talk about at work, a self-healing process,
We have stuff we don't want anymore,
We sell some of it,
recoup some of the money spent,
Put the rest out on the street,
Lots of happy ensues,
Stuff gets reused
Second cycle
And we don't have to make 3 trips to the goodwill
To get rid of our stuff
Everybody wins
CIRCLE OF LIFE
and bonus!
We meet lots of nice neighbors
Feel more a part of our community to boot
Aww
if there was a rainbow or unicorn emoji on my phone, I would place them right here..
Thus ends my once a year gusher of goodness and light post.
I can go back to my cave and grumble about stuff again.
💖💛💚💙💜
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