September 2015

It didn’t take me but one day after we got back home before I was going through my entire house to rid of the things that were no longer necessary. When daydreaming about Costa Rica, the first thing that comes to mind is how little they had but how happy they were. Here I was, living on almost 2 acres on a private lot in the middle of town with 2 – 2 car garages, a pool and a barn.

I was nowhere near as happy as they were. But I wanted to do whatever I had to, to get there. All along, my mindset was just in the wrong state. I was wanting to live ‘The American Dream’.  Whatever that was supposed to be. White picket fence, two kids and a dog? That may be someone’s dream, however I realized after that trip, it wasn’t mine. I started in the kitchen and living room, moving to each room combing it top to bottom moving items from the house to the barn. Before I knew it, I had the entire barn completely full. It would actually give me anxiety to go in there each time I would add an object to the sale pile. Just seeing the things that we had bought and collected over the years was astonishing. I can’t even begin to tell you the number of trips made to Hobby Lobby or Pier One Imports and the amount of money that was spent there. I definitely believe whole heartedly we could almost be millionaires had we not bought all of this ‘stuff’. If we needed something, even if just for one use, we would go out and buy it rather than ask someone to borrow. We don’t like to ask much from anyone, we like to do things on our own. If you want something, all you have to do is ask – all they can tell you is no. But if you never ask, they will never know you are in need. (I’m happy to say from this moment on throughout our journey, we will be partaking in the latter.) Each day the kids were in school, I would fill the barn with things that had not only cluttered our home but also our lives. They took over in so many ways. If they broke, we’d have to take the time to fix them. And there’s always cleaning. If it’s there, it’s going to collect dust which in turn requires cleaning. I figure the less stuff you have to keep up with, the more energy you have to put towards things that really matter. Tears, blood and sweat was shed in the process of gathering the items for sale, but I knew it was something that I had to get done. Tagging each object was mentally draining not knowing what to price them. Weeks upon weeks of the same thing finally came to an end and I was ready to have my garage sale. I posted it in the local paper and social media in hopes that everything would be gone in one weekend. Ha. Who was I kidding? I had more stuff than Wal-Mart it seemed. I did end up making about $1200.00 that weekend. So I had high hopes of having several throughout the year to try and sale everything I had. Two couches, our beds, TV’s and clothes are the only contents not being sold. With each thing gone, you wouldn’t believe the huge weight being lifted off of my shoulders.

(Its been a year later to the exact month since I started my garage sales and I’ve made almost $8k. I have had 5 garage sales total and plan to give away what doesn’t sale to the needy, schools and churches.)