Building The Love Shack

So you bought a cottage… Isn’t that great… You are so excited to a have second home and can’t wait to spend the weekends at the lake… But wait… You have a second home, which means you need everything you use at the house to function, sleep, cook, and clean… That’s before the toys.

And so like all other new cottagers, the cleaning out and going through the first house is where you start, and here is what you may find.

Not only do you have two of somethings, you may have three or four of them. Some of those things are still in the original box with the price tag still on it.

Remember that Japanese Cooking Class you took and then bought the bamboo steamers. The one’s that cost you what? The one’s you swore were a good investment because you were going to use them. Well, they never made it out of the box.

How about that Sports Equipment left behind when they kids moved out, ten years ago. Pet toys and beds from pets long passed. Hobby stuff, from hobbies that you never actually started doing.

Yes, we have it all. Yes, most of it still is in the original package and still has the price tag on it.

So, with much prep work, meaning going through every room in the house, the back garden and the shed, we were ready for the Weekend Warrior Garage Sale.

 

 

I had spent weeks before the garage sale, cleaning, price marking and boxing everything for the sale. I went to the bank to get change. I made sale sheets for the girls to keep track of what we were making. And on the Friday, I did the grocery shopping for the garage sale team and the guys going to the lake.  I bought signs to post on the lawn and the corner, and ran my adds in the paper. I was going to be ready.

I had everything organized and in control. There was only one thing I could not control, that was the weather. I had been watching the weather for the last few weeks and keep hoping there would be no rain… and the weather was? Perfect.

The team came and starting setting up at 6:30 AM. The first customers arrived at 6:50 AM. But, that’s not where it started. I posted an ad on Kijiji and ran one in the newspaper. I started getting emails the day the post went up, a week early. Some were looking for special items, like records, collector cards and gold and coins. I kid you not, gold and coins.

The interesting one was from a charity who offered to come and pick up anything that was left that we didn’t sell. I did keep their number and will be calling them this week. All those things that we decided to sell, need to go somewhere, but not back in the house.

All in all… We had a great day. The team had fun and there is now room in the main house to store the stuff for the cottage, which is a never-ending collection of supplies. And we made some money. That money should cover the cost of a window or two for the Love Shack.