Sometimes you just have to take a break!

OK.  I think we’ve all kind of overdosed on Peru and need a bit of a break.  So I’ll use this week’s time to catch you up on my world.  I am planning to move from the east coast of the US to Colorado’s Rocky Mountains – sea level to one mile high.  Should be an interesting move!

This weekend was a let’s get rid of stuff weekend.  I had a moving sale on Friday and Saturday.  Very interesting experience.  I don’t know if you find it works this way where you live, but we announce the times of the sale and invariably, people – usually dealers – show up at least an hour before the opening hoping to get in and snap up the bargains.  I figured out how to get rid of them.  Tell them that they are welcome to come in, but there is a $50, non-refundable pre-sale admission fee.  You can allow them to apply that to their purchases if you want – or not if you’d prefer not.  The rationale is that you need to be paid for the time they are taking you away from setting up as walking around with them will prevent you getting ready by your advertised start time.  Usually, they’ll decide that they’d rather come back later, but at least if they don’t you will be making some money from them!

I also found it interesting that there were some people who I wanted to give a price break to and some others that I really wanted to say, “No, I’ve changed my mind.  I’m not willing to sell that…”

A third thing I found out – actually, it was the first thing I found out – was that all those people who say, “I’d love to help out.  Just let me know when and where.” disappeared into the woodwork when the day actually arrived.  Well, not all of them.  I had help offers from 4 friends.  Three who are retired and one who is still working.  I discounted the one who is still working as she fills in for vacationing and sick employees, so cannot always predict her availability.  But of the three retired friends, one never replied to the message I left on her machine.  Another had family visiting so couldn’t spare me the time.  And the third just could not come.  It turned out that the only helper I had was the friend who is actually still employed.

Originally, I had planned to have stuff on the front deck, in the shed, and throughout the house, with one friend sitting by the front door with the cash box.  As potential helpers vanished, I realized that I would have to move all the shed stuff to the front of the house.  Up until the night before it still sounded do-able with 3 of us.  Then, there were two.  Still probably do-able.  Just a lot harder.

But on the day, the first hour or so I was totally alone.  With people out front and people inside.  I was slammed!  Then my working friend showed up.  What a blessing she was!  She not only showed up, she brought tea and muffins with her!  She stayed all day on both days.  Day one went really well.  Not sunny, but no rain.  Not too hot.  Day two, however, it rained almost all day.  We had moved enough of the tools on the front deck that we were able to consolidate and wrap the tarp they were sitting on over them for the night.  Turned out to be a good idea as it started raining in the night and rained steadily most of the night and into the next day.

I brought the tools in.  Dried off the rain that fell on them while I was piling them into a carrier to bring inside and spread them on some available kitchen counter space.  So everything was inside but only five or six buyers showed up and not all bought stuff.  At any rate, the sale was finally over.  Still have loads of stuff to get rid of.  None of the furniture was bought except one small piece.

Move date is set for August 29^th.  Will keep you all posted on the progress…