I have been to my fair share of garage sales over the years – and have indeed found one or two items thereat that have proved to be of enduring usefulness. I had not at any point until recently, however, been involved with the organisation of one such.
Regular readers might recall that I posted a missive to this forum a couple of months back, explaining how a smooth start to the year had been disrupted by a number of unexpected events and occurrences upon which our attention had to be focussed. The most significant of these involved the sad passing of The Girl’s step mother and The Girl’s subsequent taking on of the mantle of sole executor of the estate.
The news on this front is that good progress has been made toward the granting of probate – and that the final stages of the preparation of The Girl’s step mother’s condo for sale are almost complete. It is this part of the process that led recently to our involvement in the setting up and operation of a sizeable garage sale.
The Girl has a very long standing friend who lives in Duncan – part-way between Victoria and Nanaimo. This excellent and most obliging friend volunteers at a charity shop that supports the local hospital auxiliary. A fair quantity of the contents of the condo had already been disposed of by means of this channel, but there were plenty of other items that we considered to have some appreciable value, the which might reasonably be offered for sale.
Thus it was that The Girl and I once again spent a weekend away from home – working hard to try to maximise the return on our endeavours for the benefit of the estate. Our Duncan friend owns a decent sized property with a huge garage and plenty of driveway without. On the Saturday tables were set up and sale items dated, sorted and displayed. This all took around six hours to complete on one of the hottest days of the year to date.
Unfortunately the heat was to be our undoing. The Sunday was, if anything, even hotter than the day before and the expected crowds of early shoppers failed to materialise. As the day grew hotter and hotter so fewer and fewer punters made the effort to drag themselves around our table-loads of bargains. For us – once we had given up on the recalcitrant masses – we had but to re-sort, re-price and pack up all of the unwanted items, to take their turn at being shipped to the charity shop.
This second six-hour day in the blazing heat left The Girl and I (and our friend) completely exhausted. To make matters worse we barely covered the costs of mounting the extravaganza.
I think it is fair to say that if I never again have to help with the running of a similar enterprise… that would suit me just fine!
