The Most Amazing Yard Sale Ever (well, maybe not EVER...but still pretty amazing!) is over!!!
One big disclaimer...all of the "stuff" in the pictures is NOT
ours. Yes, we are getting rid of pretty much everything...and, yes, that IS
alot...but not NEARLY all that you are going to see in these pictures are Cash family possessions. Thanks to the generosity and willingness
of others to contribute their stuff, we had QUITE the yard sale Saturday!
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| Eli's Room Pre Yard Sale |
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| The Dining Room Pre Yard Sale |
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And I didn't even get pictures of the upstairs, living room, hallway or front porch Pre Yard Sale. So multiply what you're seeing in these 2 pictures by about 4 (at least!!) and you maaaay have an idea of all the stuff that was in our house this past week!
And it was in the midst of all this that God used Jesus Calling to say "relinquish the fantasy of an uncluttered world...find Me in the midst of it all." i appreciate (i think) that He gave me SUCH a tangible example. I wonder where He was in the midst of it all...maybe behind the books? or in one of the containers? maybe He was hanging out in the stroller section of the front porch. I'm kidding...He was there - in the midst of the books....surrounding every container...definitely in the stroller section. I'm not going to pretend that it was easy for me to deal with this clutter...it wasn't...but He kept on patiently reminding me that this was His provision...and that this was temporary (we've got pictures below to prove it!).
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| Ye Olde Lemonade Stand |
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Caroline (in the green shirt) had her lemonade stand on Friday during the "pre-sale" -- it was beautiful to see the people that gave her business -- those shopping and also the random people who happened to stop by (and our street isn't really one to draw too many random passersby). Some neighbors who were out running went home, got money and came back. A dad and 4 teenagers randomly showed up out of no where and purchased lemonade. Our mail man even bought some!
Her couple of hours on Friday ended up being quite enough lemonade stand for her and she forewent the opportunity to have her lemonade stand on Saturday (as well as the massage chair operation!) for the chance to spend the night with some fabulous friends (looking back, I think that was a very wise decision! I think she had tons more fun traipsing around the woods at "Too Far" than she would've if she'd been at our house all day).
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| 1 of 3 - a pretty early picture |
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The actual yard sale on Saturday was really incredible. Faithful friends showed up bright and early Saturday morning to haul the load from inside to the great outdoors. Everything managed to fit in the yard (I had my doubts). We had our "heavy weights" doing their thing with a TV and hard to maneuver cabinets and such. People showed up and started buying stuff....and there was a steady stream of people the entire sale!! Not once did it feel overcrowded...and
not once was it empty. I appreciate our God so much. He orchestrated a beautiful pace for the day!
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| 2 of 3 - about mid way through |
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You can see some stuff is starting to go. It was neat to get to see friends come and go throughout the day...and I even met some new folks - Blake and Brian (good luck with re-selling all the stuff you brought from us!!), Sarah (a neighbor down the street that I've never met before!), that sweet lady who shared her story of loss with me (I'm sorry that i don't remember her name....), a fun and fabulous lady named Winnie (that lady got a big bang for her $30). I think I may highly recommend yard sales for that reason alone - it gives you a wonderful opportunity to interact with people that you most likely wouldn't normally get to interact with (not to mention the "getting rid of stuff that you don't need" aspect of it)(and the "getting money for stuff you don't need" aspect)
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| Jenn's Library O' Wonders |
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I must brag on my friend Jennifer Wenndt for a moment. This lady has some organizational and yard sale SKILLZ. She managed to take some unruly stacks and multiple boxes of books and organize them into a rather nice library that was easy to peruse and nice to wander around in. If you EVER need someone to help you get organized (especially in the "clean out/get rid of" department) or help you pull off a great yard sale,
Jenn is your girl!. She was also our cashier for most of the day...I couldn't thank God enough for her and her willingness to do that.
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| For Kim. That kid killed our balloon. |
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After about 7 hours, most of the stuff really was gone (which was amazing to me!!!) (though I'd come to terms with the fact that even if it didn't sell, it would still be going to God's kingdom/missions as
Vapor was coming to pick up the leftovers!). By the end, we were running the "super special deal of the century" - we let people have a box or trashbag and load it up with whatever they wanted for $5. That was a fun blessing to be able to give folks (that's how I met the sweet lady whose name I can't remember!!!!).
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| 3 of 3 -- Pretty much done....Hallelujah! |
Vapor came and did their thing and loaded up what was left...Hollie and Kim helped me haul the tables back to the TA office...I pulled a little trash to the street...then ran (and walked a bit cause my energy was slightly tapped out) around the park to collect the signs that the girls and I had put up Thursday night... and called it all a success.
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| Eli's room post-sale (thanks for washing the sheets, YaYa!) |
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| The Dining Room Post Sale |
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| My "all-done happy face" self-portrait |
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All in all, we could NOT have asked for a better day...God provided EVERYTHING we needed (and about $2500 to go towards our Mercy Ships costs!!!!)....We are a super blessed family to have the community of support that we do. The yard sale could NOT have happened without the hands and heart and effort of so many (
especially in light of the fact that nick was out of the country on a once-in-a-lifetime trip with his son and his dad!)...from dropping stuff off, to helping me sort and organize, to advertising on facebook, to keeping me sane the week leading up to it, to showing up to shop, to praying all throughout the process, for hauling stuff out, for picking up lunch, for bringing sustenance in the form of doughnuts and fruit and juice and milk, to sharing your coffee pot, to bringing mini-chocolate chip muffins, to sharing a hug, to sweeping the floor and folding the clothes in the dryer, to carrying heavy stuff, to just BEING AWESOME and BEING MY FRIEND...I am thankful for each and every person who made this yard sale a success (what am I doing, giving a speech at the Oscars?!)
At the end of the day I was taking some boxes of books to our church (we have a super cool "lending library") and, as I was getting the last box from the car, the bottom fell out of it and the books spilled out onto the parking lot (I'm a little baffled how I got it to the car in the first place...it wasn't taped at all!). And as I was picking up the books, I had the realization that THAT was the absolute worst thing that had happened ALL day...and THAT wasn't so bad at all.
Surely there will be more to come.
