I haven’t had a garage sale so I didn’t really know what to expect….I certainly didn’t expect that we’d have so many friends wanting to put stuff on the sale that we’d need a tent.
I didn’t expect that we’d have 40-50 people waiting to get into the garage Thursday night when the sale opened-with cars of people that came 45 minutes early just sitting on the street waiting for it to open.
This photo was taken Saturday after most of the stuff was gone..yep the inside of the garage was full too!!
I didn’t know how good my girls would be at helping….
I didn’t think ahead about how to handle all the left overs….
and I certainly didn’t expect anyone to make a HUGE drive to see us and to buy a book! Â Mary Jo drive from LaCrosse to purchase a book. Â HOW SWEET WAS THAT?!?!? For those of you who don’t know…that’s about a 2 hour drive! Â At the time she came Kelli and Kalissa had quarantined me to the house so I wouldn’t spread my germs. Â Kelli came in and said Mom..you need to come out here…I did and what a sweet surprise! Â There was Mary Jo a faithful blog reader. Â As much as I wanted to give her a big hug I didn’t…I didn’t want to spread the yuck!
After chatting a bit and sending her along with directions to a couple quilt shops including the one we love in Postville I was sent back into the house back under quarantine.  Mary Jo spend her previous day garage saling.  She was telling us about the 100 mile garage sale along the Mississippi river that Kelli and I had always thought about going on…and about cheese shops, quilt shops, and pie shops along the way.  Seriously, we really want to go now…THANKS so much for stopping Mary Jo!!  Your visit meant a lot to both me and Kelli.
Everything is almost back in place…I am just SO-SO glad it’s over…and no, I don’t plan on having one soon.
HI Jo and Kelli!! I live right on Highway 61 right in the middle of the 100 mile yard sales. I bought a bag of 14 spools of thread, I kept the 10 large Coats and Clark, and will send the other 4 elsewhere. 1 spool blue, 1 black and the rest were white and creams! oh yes, the price…$3. Woot! I did find a sale that had fabric for sale…umm…$2.50 a yard. I bought a yellow piece for the retreat in July and 2 other pieces for backings. Wishing now that I had bought more for backings, but I didn’t want to spend all money in one spot, so early!! They seem to start Thursdays now and once in a while you see one on Wednesday night and by Saturday noon they are pretty much done. Everyone sits their leftovers out on the curb with a free sign. Maybe next year you can do the Sale!!
I know what you mean about not wanting to have another garage sale anytime soon. I’ve been involved in three….one when my kids got big enough that I had lots of baby clothes and supplies, one after my mother passed away & I had cleaned her house out and one together with my daughter & her SIL where I sold the rest of the stuff from mom’s house and a lot of clothing fabric, patterns, cake dec stuff & craft supplies from when I sold crafts at craft sales. It’s just so much easier to pack it all up and haul it off to Good Will!! I made pretty good money on the last two, but still……………
Where/when is this 100 mile yard sale? I live on the MIssissippi in Iowa and have never heard of this. Hate to miss out on something like this. LOL!
Diannia in Muscatine
Dianna IN Muscatine…..The original loop was from Kellogg,MN up to Lake City on the Minnesota side, Alma, Pepin and Stockholm on the Wisconsin side. It has become a pretty big thing here and now runs from Kellogg up to Red Wing, you can cross the bridge to Wisconsin there and go back down the Wisconsin side. I don’t know if Winona, MN has joined in or not, but I am sure there would be some sales.Bridges that connect the two states are in Winona, Wabasha, and Red Wing, MN. People come from all over the Midwest!
Yard sales are hard work! Hopefully you feel good about clearing out things you no longer wanted or needed and also made a little extra money…a little cash helps dull the pain of all the work!
We were 2 of the vehicles waiting to get in when the sale opened – I loved my thread scores & the book I purchased, at least one of those quilts are on my short to-do-list.
Many were distracted by the antiques – I panned the room & made a straight line for the quilting notions! Hindsight I should have grabbed a quilt rack or 2, dang……….
Thanks Jo & gang.
Did you get rid of a lot of stuff??? That in my mind is what make a garage sale worth all the work….. stuff gone and more room for new things.