Junk

We had a yard sale yesterday. Three or four households put their useless junk together in one driveway and the maddened hordes flocked to us. They paid us AND took our junk away. What more could you want? At the end of the day there were two garbage bags and two boxes of junk left which some charity will pick up next week for free.

The masses came even before the sign-erector (and a mighty nice sign it was, too) was back from his erecting. 8 am on a Saturday, and people were out looking for bargains.

The kids had a lemonade stand. They even sold some to non-relatives, although I'm not sure exactly how much drink made it into each styrofoam cup (the conclusion was that the cute factor was a much bigger influence in their $7.75 profit - the lemonade was donated by a benevolent Grandma hoping to keep them busy, and teach them something about entrepreneurship, for a while - than the juice).

I think the highlight of the morning was when Jack proudly showed me the booger he pulled out of his ear. The way things were flying out of the driveway, he probably could have gotten a quarter for it if he'd marketed it a bit.

All in all, I am glad we live in a culture of frugality and that it is perfectly acceptable, among some, to bring other people's junk home and call it your own. T says if someone else is willing to sell it at a garage sale, we don't want it. I tend to agree, but there is something to be said for recycling. I was happy to recycle my crap to reduce, at least for now, my burden on the landfill site.

And then, we spent our profits on Chinese food and wine, with enough left over for a couple of good steaks to barbecue tonight. Worth the work, I would say.