The games we play

Aaahhh... the allure of toys that haven't been seen in a while and will soon be going away (hopefully) forever.

I've finally advanced beyond the planning stages for a garage sale. Translation: instead of thinking about signage and tables and how to price things (in other words, stalling), I've actually begun sorting through the massive piles of baby stuff that's gathering dust in my basement.

I should have started a month ago.

There's a lot of stuff. And a lot of dust.

For some reason, my mental focus has been on all the outgrown baby and toddler clothes I can sell. I forgot the mounds and mounds and mounds of toys my kids have also outgrown. Night one of sale preparation was spent simply pulling toys out of storage, wiping them down and trying to match up missing pieces. Let me just say, pairs of animals may have been key to Noah's success, but they certainly aren't fun when getting ready for a garage sale.

AJ is embracing the whole idea of a garage sale. Perhaps he's a little too excited. There are several new toys he wants to buy, but I've told him not until we've cleared out all the toys he isn't playing with now. So he's more than happy to bring me toys to sell, but I'm questioning if he understands the permanence that once they're gone, they're gone for good.

Watching the kids, and the fun they were having "helping me", I ended up implementing some new rules. I'm using the guest room as a staging area and so have told them that anything that's on the bed is being sold, and once something is on the bed, it doesn't come off.

The sale starts 10 days from today. This is when I remind myself that I work better under pressure.