My head is absolutely spinning. I just experienced the height of modern-day basement sale frenzy over the online posting of all my furniture on a yard sale site.
Holy Moly!
This is not your average yard sale. And may I say, I have schlepped many a box of knick knacks and boxes from the attic out to driveways and yards and street corners over the years, and you plop your hiney down in a camp chair with a hot cuppa something, and you smile as people slowly drive by to see if you're worthy of their uninterested poking and prodding of your slightly used but unwanted stuff. And then you get nickeled and dimed to death over pot holders and beach umbrellas and those custom window blinds you bought that were about an inch too narrow for the window. And then you spend hours outside, sometimes in the heat, sometimes in the cold, sometimes fruitlessly making a few bucks and then having to haul it all away to Salvation Army in the end, which you could have done in the beginning and only had to lift it all once and had the rest of your day ahead of you.
But this? This? It's pure insanity. Have you tried this? You post pictures and descriptions of your belongings on a Facebook page and within seconds, your phone is dinging and that number in the toolbar of your Facebook page is counting to 10 and 20 and 30 messages that you have to respond to, and people ask you things like, "will you take $25?" for a solid wood dresser and mirror that you asked $50 for even though it's worth $100, or "do you deliver? I'm about an hour away"...um, NO. Or you mainly just get lost trying to track who asked first and wondering what the etiquette is about giving first dibs to people who say they want something, and then don't respond to the answer you just gave them, and meanwhile 5 other people ask about the same item but you have to say, "um, it's not sold, but it's also not available at this moment, can I get back to you?" and then you realize what you just said and you know that there is NO WAY you can possibly remember who you said what to in what order and THEN some lady yells at you the next day because you sold the gardening cart that she said she wanted and then she went dark on you while someone else was like, "hey I'm down the street, can I come pay cash right this second?".
And I'm no slouch. I tried this once back when I first put the house on the market and did some judicious decluttering to make the house seem more open and appealing. I learned from my mistakes. You definitely need to write down who you talked to and how much they offered and when they said they'd come get it. And you learn to say phrases like, "that's a firm price" or "it's yours if you can come get it today" and "if you can haul it yourself, I'll take that price!"
So I did. I wrote down every first acceptance and how much we agreed on and the person's name and when they said they were coming to look at it. And I was working that mouse like crazy responding to every inquiry and saying yes it's available or no it's sold or I'll let you know if the person doesn't pick it up (cause that happens a lot too. People say they're coming and then...don't. And you've already taken it off the site and told people it's sold, and so you have to put it back on or reach out to those people you said were in second place in line). And then you have to remove the picture or mark it as SOLD. And because I posted on my personal Facebook page AND the online yard sale page, I had to do it twice with each item.
And oh Lord! The revolving door that was my house this afternoon and evening! People coming and going and texting me and calling me and the money that exchanged hands! And just because it rains when it pours, I also had a client drop by and a friend bringing me soup in the middle of it all.
And now it's about 6 hours since I first posted everything, and I've sold 3 book cases, a sectional sofa, an end table, a pub table and chairs, a credenza, my dining room table and chairs, my entire bedroom set, another bed and another dresser, three standing lamps, an extension cord (!), and a toaster. I also gave away for free one Humpty Dumpty garden ornament, one piece of wall art created by a four-year-old preschool class in 1993, one white serving platter, and a shoe rack.
And I'm not even done.
I love that technology can help with this process and speed it up and help me accomplish my to-do list, but honestly, I'm exhausted, and I really didn't like getting yelled at over Facebook messenger when someone was more responsive sooner than someone else. Mostly I'm grateful that I conquered this beast that, frankly, I'd been avoiding due to my anxiety over using technology in the first place, and letting complete strangers know where I live and invite them into my home. One lady kept looking at things that weren't for sale and asking if she could have them. Like, for example, my car. She kept saying, "I really want a car." Yeah, um, well, see, I'm not selling that, and I kind of want/ need it myself, see...
Let's hope I can find furniture in Oregon as fast as I was able to sell it here in Virginia!
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