The 40-Year-Old Bag

I scored at the neighborhood garage sales and I didn't even really get to go to them I was so busy at my own. A gal was at my sale buying some of my fabric remnants and craft stuff and my son told her the lady four houses down had more fabric. This was news to me, so, we both made a b-line down there. She drove; I walked; we got there at the same time. 

Frankie did not, in fact, have any fabric out--our information was bad--but she got some out and sold it to us. (While we were there, her husband got out a ladder at someone's request, and sold that. They also got out some canning jars, and sold them. They were very accommodating.)

What did I buy besides some lovely vintage earrings that belonged to Frankie's mother? Well, Frankie worked at a fabric store 40 years ago and this bag has the new pattern and cut fabric for the project ready to go--as if she'd just come home from the store. In 1970. 

What exactly is in the bag we'll keep a surprise for just a bit. But I was thinking as I went to bed last night that I was putting the focus on finding an outfit for the wrong cousin. I like dresses and that's part of the reason I wanted to style Cathy; she gets all the attention, which is natural with her charisma, and the camera just loves her. But, where is the love for Peter? When left to his own devices he picks out harem pants! Maybe he needs some old-school style a-la my neighbor's garage sale. But, I'm not sure he can pull off poly/silk patterns straight from 1970. After reading today's post, maybe he's too nice.

Do We Think I've Got Four Garage Sale Posts in Me? Part Three

C'était bon. Fin.

Let me start over. I was very well prepared. I didn't have everything out in advance, but it was mostly out and everything that wasn't was by the door and ready to go. Signs were up in advance (which I'll discuss in part four if I ever get there), and I advertised on Craigslist, and a site called gsalr, which will map a route for you, so I figured all there was to do was wait for the people. Benjamin had a rough start to the morning. He'd had a long Friday, which ended in a school dance and song program, and he didn't sleep well. When he and Kevin left for the grocery store about 7:00 a.m., Benjamin took a nosedive in the street. He's still got scabs. It was a hot, fussy day for the kid.

The early birds came the day before. Seriously. I saw dozens of cars go through the neighborhood on Friday, even though the sale was Saturday. I'm so glad Kevin's mom was with me, because I even had a guy come up to the house and into the garage to "just say hi" and see what we had. He stayed and chatted a while and then even came back the next day during the sale. He didn't buy anything. As a matter of fact, he didn't even look at our stuff. He just chatted.

Our lovely elderly neighbor and her daughter, who came to squat in our garage and sell some of their wares, were delightful and we had fun getting to know them as well as meeting random neighbors and shoppers. The dog did rather well when other dogs weren't invading his turf. And, Benjamin and Kevin ate 12 donuts between them, so I think they are still in recovery. (I took this photo before we'd pulled all the stuff out. For some reason the driveway was fuller at the end of the day. Huh?)

The best part is that we sold most of the big stuff, which meant I don't have to haul it anywhere. We forgot to put the stuff on the side of the house out--after Benjamin fell we got distracted and then by the time we remembered we just kind of gave up on it--but other than that we have relatively little going to the thrift store and some of that is my sister-in-law's.

Unfortunately, I've still got the crib. I am N-O-T having another one, so someone is gonna have to take that off my hands. We bought it used and it's been through Benjamin (who was a biter and jumper) and Zoe and DJ (who was a climber). It may look like it's from a 1990's Sears Catalog--at it probably was--but it's rock solid and can hold a few more babies. (For those of you who don't know me yet, Benjamin is mine; Zoe and DJ are my sister-in-law's kids.)

I got goals people

Coming soon to Smarty Pantalons

Now that the garage sale is over, I can focus on other things: like picking up the garage sale stuff. Well, hopefully not just that. I've got another post planned for the sale, an update about what happened and more advice about having one, but for now I'll just give you the skinny on some of my plans for Smarty Pantalons this coming month.

• More frequent posting. I've been so crazed I haven't been good at regular posting: garage sale over, school out, regular posting in. (I plan on blogging with my students this summer so hopefully that will keep me regular as well.)
• Getting to cleaning up the house and garage. Unfortunately, there is too much Etsy and garage sale clean up left to ignore this. And, I slept like the dead today so did not get much done.
• Get more stuff up on Etsy. If you've come here from Etsy or A Beautiful Mess--Thank You! I've had good traffic and good sales so far. I've got lots more to go up and it's just a matter of fitting in the time.
• Make a mock-up muslin of my first original Smarty Pantalons creation. When I have a prototype, you'll be the first to know and we'll do a give-a-way. I also have a couple of destash give-a-ways planned of patterns and fabric so let your friends know.
• Create an outfit for Cathy, Peter's cousin, over at Male Pattern Boldness. I've been looking at lots of fashion books lately and all I can think about is what would look good on Cathy? I love dresses, but I'm round and lacking height and they don't love me. Cathy can pull them off.

I've got more goals, but I think this will keep me busy. For sure. Of course, I'm gonna squeeze in some vintage shopping as well, since I mostly stayed close to home and worked my feet sore last week. And, I need to fit in walking the dog, visiting grandpa and arguing with my child this week too.

Charlie is happy the sale is over too; it was stressful!

Garage Sale Rules: Part Two

I can sum up all the garage sale rules into one rule: care enough to do some work for the shopper. As a person who frequents thrift stores and garage sales, I do expect to do a certain amount a lifting and digging when I shop; it comes with the territory. However, one of my biggest pet peeves is the people who act like you're bothering them by showing up at their garage sale to buy their stuff. Recently, I heard a woman complaining, at about 10 am, two hours after most sales begin, that the shoppers were keeping her from bringing out her (unpriced and unsorted) stuff from the house. Of course, this was not the fault of the shoppers, but poor planning on the part of the person having the sale.

I have a couple of advantages to most people in the having-a-garage-sale department: I like to sort and organize and my schedule offers me pockets of flexibility in which to get organized. So, since before spring semester was done I was stacking up garage sale stuff, and since school got out I've been working some time each day sorting or cleaning or pricing items. I know many people don't care that much nor do they have the time. I make the time because I care and I like order and neatness at my big events.

Pricing: I don't enjoy barter garage sales because I don't like talking to people and negotiation for insignificant items is meaningless. So, discussing how much each t-shirt or spatula is makes me want to tie a spatula to my leg and jump off a bridge, which is as ineffective as it sounds. I'm guessing.

Here's what I did with the toy cars that were collecting dust and spiders on the back porch.

I dumped out the bin on the patio and swept any bugs away. Then I picked any trash and miscellaneous stuff. (Charlie did run off with the hacky sac while I was doing this and managed to eat half of it before I got to him; he threw up the next morning so I'm guessing that's what it was.) I picked up all the tracks and big stuff first and moved it out of the way and then I piled like things with like things.

(This is a "rule" of garage sales as well--like things with like things; it kind of works for all organization projects.)

Small match box style cars went in the box and other cars got lined up.

When I eventually needed to decide how to price things, I put the sets together: the two interchangeable track sets in one back, the Clifford cars in one bag and the mini-mini cars in one bag.

Then, I put all the match box cars in a box for 10 cents each. I priced all the other cars with stickers made with blue painters tape. I used the painters tape for two reasons. One, I hate it when tape or tags mar the surface of something I want to purchase, so this tape is gentle on surfaces. Two, we've got stuff in the sale from my sister-in-law and I used regular masking tape on her stuff. That way when we're tallying things up I can keep a quick count by pulling tags off items.

Garage sale rule: don't buy cheap tape. Again, this could be a life rule as well. There are few things where the name brand is really worth it, but tape is one of them. 3M Scotch tape is worth every extra penny you'll spend on it not fighting with it.

Voila. I nice organized pile of toys. I don't individually price everything. I've got a box of books for 50 cents and another for a dollar. I've also got a 25 cent box and about three free boxes of random stuff I will end up throwing out or taking to the thrift store, so why not see if someone else needs it first. Do save time by collectively pricing items when you can.

We also cleaned out the garage for the big day and borrowed tables. I will not be following that terrible California tradition of laying my crap in the wet grass. That bad idea stops here.