Cleaning Up and Community Yard Sale

Let me start this post by saying:

1. I moved out of my parents house about a year ago.
2. I didn’t take everything with me…and there’s more stuff I need to go through/purge over at my parents.
3. There is a community yard sale at our apartment next weekend (the 28th and 29th)…and we need sh*t to sell.
4. All the afore mentioned “sh*t” is still at my parents house.
5. What a better way to “raise” money for our Kitchen Facelift and Beer Habit, than to sell crap at this “yard sale”???!!!

Originally, I didn’t want to waste a weekend selling crap to other people selling crap, until Greg reminded me (ever so gently), that we’re poor, we need money, and “you still have all that crap at your parents yet…”. Love you, Greg…

So, with Greg’s voice in my head, I took this perfect fall day (bright, sunny, in the 70’s, and a gentle breeze), and went to my parents house to go through the upstairs (spare room, and my old bedroom) to figure out what I needed, what I could sell, and what could be tossed.  Hmmm…sounds like a TLC program…damnit…”Keep, Sell, Toss”…anyone?  Anyone remember the name of that show???

I walked in my parents house today around 12…and headed straight for the desk in the spare room – this is pretty much where most of my crap ended up (mainly because of papers, PartyLite, etc).  After going through that for about an hour…I found the Staples “Easy” Button, and had to laugh at the irony.  This task ahead of me was NOT going to be any form of “Easy”.  I pressed on.
I looked across the room and found my old lava lamp (it looks like a sun and moon)…yeah, I could totally sell that…I mean, who DOESN’T want a Lava Lamp??  Oh yeah, me.  LOL.  Looked even further, and found a HUGE…PINK…UNICORN!!  Woah…who the hell got me this, and why do I still want/need it at 26 years old?  I mean, I probably got it as a sorority gift, no doubt (it being the mascot of my sorority – which sounds odd now that I say that out loud)…but still, who wants that??  Certainly not me anymore.  Next to that was a white, sparkly, rectangular pillow with the word “Bombshell” on it…ummm…this definitely was a gift, because I have never referred to MYSELF as a Bombshell, so I’ll be selling that one too…

Then I find the old photos I had…photo albums, picture frames, and loose pictures…among them…my Father, My and My Mom’s first cat Jeepers, Mom’s first dog Pumper, Mark’s first dog Christie, my first dog Forrest Gump, long lost pictures of my first car (a ’97 F-150 that I absolutely LOVED), camping pictures, pictures of Mom and Mark, and then all three of us.

After hardcore cleaning/purging/keeping/tossing/etc for about 2 hours, I had accumulated 8 boxes/bags of garbage, and 10 tubs/boxes/baskets/bags of keepers, so I decided that I needed to start moving things to their “Final Destination” (i.e. the car and garbage can).  I was there till 2:30(ish), and the walk down memory lane that I had today was an emotional roller-coaster to say the least.  I felt like I was accomplishing so much with the cleaning, but then to be hit with all those pictures…woah.

I think I deserve a Manhattan…or a Martini…either one will do the trick.