June 25th, a Saturday, the Young Women held a yard sale at our house. Collections were taken through the week prior to the day. Piles and piles were deposited on the veranda, living room and garage. Tables were borrowed from the church on Thursday and by Friday night Katie Priest, Lori Jensen, Cheryl Martinez and several young women came and sorted, organized and made sense of the piles for the early yard salers who would arrive at the 7am hour the next day.
Originally we thought we'd sell couches, lamp tables, and dressers on line or put them in the Deseret Industries pod. No sense storing used-used furniture we thought. Not enough room in the storage unit anyway. So once we heard the Young Women wanted to hold a yard sale to make money for Girls' Camp, it was clear that we should add our "stuff" and help out the young women. If we held the sale at our house, we wouldn't have to move the furniture but only once - sold and gone! Turned out, all the furniture sold before the yard sale ever happened. However, we had tons of this-and-that which we were so happy to get rid of as well.
After five hours of selling, the Young Women cleared over $600 which paid for four girls to camp. At the end of the sale around noon, some people from the Joshua Springs Thrift Shop stopped by to ask if they could take what was left and clean-up. Don was all over that as were the ladies who bargained and bartered with the public. Five hours is a long day's work! The thrift shop people had the place boxed and cleared up about 15 minutes and our house finally looked like we had moved out!
We still hold this truth to be truer-than-ever: "Don't hold yard sales - just give it to the DI!" As Don would describe it: You have a fine mason Kerr jar with a dollar bill in it. The buyer asks, "How much are you asking for this?" The yard sale sponser replies, "One dollar." The buyer comes back with, "I'll give you a nickle for it." At which the tired yard sale sponser says, "Done." The buyer takes it home where he/she holds their own yard sale. They sell the jar for a dime and put the dollar in change box.
Our feels about yard sales have been reconfirmed: Forget having a yard sale. Give it to the Deseret Industries. They will make it worth something to someone and everyone is a winner!!
