Thinking Ahead

So, it looks like our garage sale is going to be on April 16th! We have never had one before, so it's kind of exciting. Our next door neighbors (our daycare people) are going to do one at the same time, which means we will have good company out there! But it also requires planning. Mostly just figuring out what items will be for sale. And holy cow, that's a lot of stuff!

I really, really, REALLY (x1000) don't want to move things across the country that aren't in use anymore. That being said, it is SO HARD to go through the kids' toys. Ok, it's not hard. But it's hard when I get together a pile of toys that haven't been so much as LOOKED at in a year, transfer said pile to the garage, and then Nikos walks by and declares that he absolutely MUST have THAT SPECIFIC TOY because it's his FAVORITE. Note to self: Nikos can't go in the garage for a while. Ugh! It's so frustrating, because the toy inevitably gets tossed aside again, and I end up sneaking it back out to the garage. Two steps forward, one step back. This even happens with the toys he specifically told me he was willing to part with. Of course. He's three. What did I expect?

Today, though, the focus was on my own clothing. I emptied out my drawers, which were jam-packed with clothes I hardly ever wear, and took a good hard look at everything. I decided to part with more than half of it. Maybe even more like two-thirds. I still need to go through my part of the closet, too, which I am certain will produce a lot more for the garage sale pile. After I was done with the clothing, I dug out some of the "big ticket" items to photograph for our CraigsList ad (which obviously won't be posted for a while, but I wanted to be prepared). I also debated how to price things, and decided on the method our neighbors employ when they do garage sales: When someone asks "how much?", just spout out whatever number seems reasonable at the moment, and haggle. haha! I will definitely put price tags on the bigger things, but for items like clothing, CDs, etc. that won't be worth a whole lot (and that vary a lot in quality), I figured it would be easier to just wing it! So we shall see how that goes!

Anyway, that was most of the day, aside from a trip to the store and general house-cleaning fun (ha!). The kids did entertain me by playing with Charlie's new cat carrier, which arrived yesterday. I put it in the living room so that he could get used to it and hopefully feel comfortable about traveling in it when it comes time to fly him across the country. He is just about the WORST traveler imaginable. Seriously. Anyhow, he still wants nothing to do with it (so far), but the kids think it's great! These two pictures of Nikos made me laugh, so I will end the post with them.

(Maya got in there, too, but there was a pinched finger incident that meant no pictures!)