I am truly a woman blessed

Today was the day of the "Big Sale" where I have almost everything from the basement up and in the garage.  This is Phase I of my plan.  First to declutter and rid ourselves of everything not vital to our new life.  I started the day very calmly by rising early, having my breakfast and leisurely preparing some price tags.  Then the Divine Miss M called and asked if I needed some help for the first rush of sales.  I really felt quite confident that I was good to go but said she could come over if she wanted to hang out with me.  Praise the heavens for her intuition! 

As soon as I opened the doors and started to push things outside the cars drove up and people came rushing up to the garage.  Yikes!  Where were they hiding?  It was like a feeding frenzy of piranha as they grabbed up stuff and asked for the prices.  I was following the advice of the Oddest Goddess by not pricing but just keeping everything at a $1 if it was small and up from there.  Since my goal was not so much to make money but to clear out and avoid having to haul truckloads to Goodwill - this worked well for me.

Had my friend not been there I never could have survived it.  She even tucked a fiber bar in my back pocket and when things finally did slow down a bit, went to get lunch for us.  It was a zoo!

My neighbor, Crazy Alice, walked over to "complain" about the traffic jams and that she couldn't get out of her driveway.  It was the first time I turned around.  My focus was the line of people all the way down the driveway waiting to pay for their goodies.  The cars stretched as far as I could see.  I started to apologize to her and she laughed and said she had no need to get out of her driveway...but she just wanted to give me some crap about it.  I'm going to miss her.

The traffic was steady and many were asking about the garden art.  I stayed firm in my conviction that today was only what was in the garage.  I need to wait to see what the new owners might want for the yard art before I try to sell any of that.

People purchasing the bookcases and bakers racks contining merchandise were very gracious in waiting until after the sale was over to pick them up.  I had one couple come back about 5:15 to get their item that was inside the house.  I hurriedly dumped stuff out of the drawers to clear it out for them.  Then she found another folding rack and two folding chairs that she had to have and the man wanted the license plates I had on the wall.  So I found a step ladder and tools so he could retrieve those.  It's amazing what people are interested in.  It shouldn't surprise me since I'm much the same way, but I had no idea there were so many odd people out there.

There were many people interested in the canned ham and I gave several tours and showed them the modifications I made to it.  Hopefully one of them will return on Monday with a good offer and I can accomplish Phase II of the plan - sell the R-Pod.

If the house sells, that will complete Phase III, only leaving finding the motorhome we will live in (Phase IV) and then packing up and living on wheels for Phase V.  It's only a five step plan - I don't have the attention span for all 12.

But the best part of the day were the people!  I had sent facebook messages to a couple of friends I hadn't seen for a long time right before the sale.  One I wanted to give a metal sign to that had meaning to me. The other I wanted to explain that I finally understand why they had such a "spartan" abode.  I get it now!  Less is more!  Clutter free is calming.  I was excited when the first one showed up to get her sign and we were able to have a heartfelt talk while the Divine Miss M ran the show for me.  And I was pleasantly shocked and stunned with the other friend and her husband showed up just to say hi.  They came from a fairly good distance just to greet me and wish me well in my new adventure.

I was blissed out by the many neighbors that stopped by to say hello and wish me well in my sale and our plan.  The neighbors here are the best!  Who ever buys this house will fall into a great place to live.

Earlier that day another wacko friend of mine showed up with her daughter-in-law and I was able to catch up a bit on what was happening in her life. 

Then Karen came with my favorite little pub-crawler Jean.  I was able to burden her with yet another two armloads of books to give to the synagogue.

All in all it was a joyful reunion and it reaffirmed that in our daily lives it is all about the people in our life, not the things that we accumulate.  It reminded me of how blessed I am in the people that have made up the fabric of my being.

It's been a hard journey physically, not so much emotionally.  My friends are thrilled for me and are enjoying the journey with me, which just makes it even more special.  Tomorrow everything will be marked down to next to nothing or free and I will be done with the worst part of this endeavor.  Then I can focus on just the couple of larger pieces of furniture left to sell.  My body is sore and throbbing but my mind is clear and free.  I feel lighter and more alive each day we work towards our goal.

Long Live the Queen of Phases