After work I fussed around trying to patch a small area of decaying trim in the bathroom. It’s, like, a six inch long section. Considering my current rate of progress on house projects, by the time I complete even the most basic of necessary cosmetic repairs I will need to start over from the beginning! I cannot visualize this house ever being ready to invite a real estate agent in to get a market appraisal.
Additionally, of course, there’s the clutter, the stuff, the crap with which we have filled our living space. Now my spouse wants to have a yard sale. That’s a good idea in that it’s possible to make a surprising amount of money selling junk for twenty-five cents to a dollar. It’s not such a good idea in that now it will be even more difficult to get rid of stuff. “We should save that for the yard sale.” I’m as or more guilty than she is in that regard. The other day she was explaining to me a system she was setting up: one box for yard sale items, one box for books to donate to the library, and one box for items to donate to the thrift store. I asked her why she was donating items if she was planning to have a yard sale. At even a quarter or a dime a pop, the items in her donate box would quickly add up to a few dollars. Additionally, many shoppers will not even stop at a yard sale that looks sparse. People like to see mounds of stuff at yard sales, even if most of it is worthless junk. Lots of clutter at a yard sale enhances the “treasure hunt” mystique. Really, if she wants to conduct a yard sale – which I don’t think she’s ever done before, while I, years ago during a dismal period of wasted years of my life, attempted to make a living holding yard sales and attending swap meets and flea markets – she, and we, should not be donating or giving away or throwing away anything. The problem, of course, becomes finding space for a “staging and storage” area for the proposed, and only nebulously scheduled, sale.
The frustration factor, and the complexity, of the decluttering process has been significantly increased by the addition of the yard sale option.
Not happy memories, those from my yard sale days.
Oh, did I mention the hole I found this evening, about half an hour ago, in the kitchen floor, with ants pouring out of it? Yeah, fun. I soaked it with automobile starting fluid (ether), and then sealed it up with Elmer’s white glue. We’ll see if that works.