Saling Through Life

(No.. that title is not a misspelling)

Let it be known:  Hubby doesn’t have a full appreciation for the concept of re-sale.

 

When I met my dear husband he was living a disposable life.  If he wanted something he bought it, no shopping around, no looking for coupons, no searching the internet.  He went to the closest store and forked over whatever they were asking for his must have item of the week.  Then, he immediately discarded the old item (or quite possibly stowed it away in the back of some closet, only to re-appear when he moved in with me and wanted to somehow incorporate it into our new home… but I digress…)

 

I’m happy to say that he’s come a long way from those days, where his need for immediate gratification superseded all intelligent decision making.  He now actually enjoys finding a deal & saving money.  HOORAY for me… this is one of hubby’s areas of growth that makes me incredibly proud of him!  He actually values a dollar more than the adrenaline rush he was getting from running to the store!

 

He has not however had equal growth in the area of understanding resale or actually making money off of something vs throwing it away.

 

Or, now that I think about it, I suppose it would be more accurate to say that he HAS actually gained an appreciation of re-sale – so long as it requires absolutely no effort on his part!

 

Which brings me to this week. 

 

As you know, if you’ve been reading for a while, we did a massive renovation of our family room on tv.  This left us with a TON of items that really no longer have a place in our home.  A sofa & loveseat, tables, chairs etc.  Many of these items are in excellent condition and are worth money.  So, for the past month or so I’ve posted things on Craigslist and, it the midst of emails from foreigners who want to send me money orders to buy my items site unseen, as long as I’m willing to cash these money orders and return thousands of dollars to them (who on earth wouldn’t take this amazing deal??), I’ve actually sold quite a few things and made us a couple hundred bucks!

 

But, if you’ve ever sold anything on Craigslist, you know that it can truly be a pain in the butt.  Fielding emails from a variety of people, trying to sort out the spam, taking calls from people who sound legit but never show up when they say they will.  It’s sort of beyond frustrating!

 

Soooo… I’ve decided to have a yard sale.  You know, sort of a mid-summer cleaning of our house to rid ourselves of all that useless crap that somehow worked it’s way into our closets and under our bed.  Items that you’ve never used like a turkey fryer (a gift from someone who apparently thought we looked like our arteries need a bit of hardening), a DVD player (because hubby decided that I MUST have a blue-ray player), an old poker table (which I’ve had to pry from hubby’s hands.. even though it’s never, ever been used) and countless other things!  

 

I am an organizer.  Clutter gives me anxiety.  And, I get a huge rush out of purging our house…. Hubby, well, not so much.   He is fantastic at employing selective vision to ignore extraneous items around our home.  He pushes them to the back of the closet, hides them in the basement or even walks around them and just simply pretends they’re not there.

 

When I announced this purge/yard sale he basically told me I was on my own.   So, I’ve been working my way around our house, room-by-room, all week. Pulling things out (that I’m sure hubby has forgotten all about) and putting them into a pile.  I’ve told hubby many times that he too can participate in this purge, and all I get is a sideways look, as he fluffs the pillow on the couch and changes the channel.  So, onward I go, cleaning, purging and piling.

 

Then…. hubby walks past the pile.  “You can’t sell that” he says to me.  “Why not” I say.  “Cause I need that”.  “Oh really, if I had asked you where that item lived in our home, would you have even been able to tell me”.  “Yes!” he replies.  Now, whether I believe that or not is still up for debate, but needless to say this prompts another prodding comment from me,  “Hon, you know that you could actually help prep for this yard sale too”. 

 

And, instead of verbally replying…. Hubby, always the funny guy, shows me his muscles.   So, I’m like… “what exactly is that??”.  And he tells me that he’s the muscles behind the operation and that his participation will be helping me carry out the big items on the morning of the sale.

 

So, as you can probably see, although he’s all about reaping the rewards for selling our items (cause I’m sure he’s already thinking about how we can spend this $$) the burden of the process lies firmly with me.

 

Anyone know how much a husband would go for at a yard sale?

 

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