Garage Sale

Every year, in the spring and fall our subdivision has it's community garage sale. We particpate most of the time just to open up some space and make a few bucks. We usually invite friends to join us as it's a good excuse to get together and it also helps pass the time. It also has the benefit of having an extra pair of eyes watching the potential customers. Wifey and I have a symbiotic relationship when it comes to pricing our wares. She tends to want to get rid of the stuff as expeditiously as possible (translation-cheap) whereas I tend to want to make a buck extra even if it means foregoing the sale if I can't get a minimum (translation-expensive) price for the item. There are limits though as my wife put it so well the other day, "If they can't pay $5 for a $40 item then we'd rather donate it to someone who is really in need". Of course, there's the usual items we disagree upon that should or shouldn't be in the sale. How many times have I sold something only to have found a use for it 5 years later? Remember that left over 4 inch piece of weather stripping I had? Now where did I put that? The garage sale rule of thumb is "If you haven't used it in 1 year, you can do without it". Being a guy who likes to store stuff, I really don't think 1 year is adequate for determining if something is worth keeping. Besides, I can't tell you how many times a friend has needed a particular item only to find that I have it and would be glad to lend it to them, if only I could remember where I stored it. Or even worse, something I could have needed. Why do you think guys garages and workshops have so many old spare parts from projects finished (and unfinished) years ago? Those 5 rusty 4 inch nails could be used to shore up an aging wooden fence in a few years, right? Do you think we like to keep those 357 different types of nails along with the 289 types of screws in that coffee can? Sure it may take us 3 hours to find the one we need but at least we saved a trip to Home Depot, and don't get me started on the gas savings too! I'm sorry if we can't fit our 2 cars into the garage, but we really need that old lumber I saved from replacing the fence 3 years ago. I can use those boards to replace the ones that go bad in 2 years on the new fence. Of course we could also need firewood this winter in case the heating bills get too high. Everything has a purpose, and if it doesn't then I'm sure one will come up in time. Of course if I don't end up using those boards I could always sell them in our next garage sale as long as my wife doesn't price them too low.