Project Downsize: Priceless life lessons learned from a garage sale

After almost three years away, it was time for Miguel and I to downsize our belongings back in Canada. The original plan, back in September 2015, was to be away for about two years, in which case, it made sense to temporarily store our things until our return in 2017.

It’s now 2018.

Two of the three storage pods to be unloaded.

With the reality that the cost to store our things far outweighed their value, and with no foreseeable return date, we decided it was time to downsize. And so, the plans were laid: I would return home for a few extra weeks in the summer; I arranged for the three massive storage pods, packed to the brim with our furniture, kitchenware, sporting equipment, DVDs, CDs and countless keepsakes, to be dropped off at my parent’s house; I even found the same fabulous movers who packed us up three years ago to help unload it all into my parent’s garage. And with the help of family and friends, I began to sort, post, share, and organize a large part of what was once our Canadian lives.

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With the first of three pods cracked, Project Downsize was officially underway.

Lesson 1: As it relates to furniture, absence does not make the heart grow fonder. I am so glad I was able to do this three years later, and not when we originally packed up our stuff back in 2015. Having next to no contact with our belongings for almost three years meant I was able to detach myself from most of the items and didn’t take it too personally when someone would underbid on my prized EQ3 sectional, or IKEA coffee table. I was truly happy to see most of these items go to new homes where they could be put to use and loved for another few years.

Lesson 2: When you have the chance to purge, DO IT. In fact, don’t wait for the chance, or the inspiration: DO IT REGULARLY – seasonally, quarterly, semiannually when the clocks change, or… whatever! You would be amazed at how much stuff you can collect (and the type of stuff you hold on to) and never look back at… until you have to move or find you’ve been paying a small fortune to store it for years on end.

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I began Project Downsize by posting everything I could on Craiglist, Facebook Marketplace, LetGo and Kijiji. That, in itself, is an exercise. Responding to people’s inquiries, or their ‘oops, I didn’t mean to send that message’ messages – is a full-time job.

Dream Team: The best Garage/Moving Sale prepper a girl could ask for.

A week after sorting through all of our belongings and spending the better part of a beautiful Friday day and night with my best friend (fellow Virgo-extraordinaire and Queen of Organization) setting the stage in the garage for the world to see, I was ready to draw back the curtain for our Garage/Moving Sale. For the next two days, from 8am – 12pm, the following additional lessons were learned:

Lesson 3: There are two types of people at a garage sale: Those who are sellers and those who are buyers. Sellers, appreciate the amount of work that goes into a sale, take care when handling your things and respect that it is your stuff. They rarely haggle, unless it’s after they have amassed a great deal and simply round down to the nearest $10. Buyers, on the other hand, don’t give a cr&p that it’s your property, that it was lovingly used in your home, or that it was painstakingly sorted and fairly priced. They will literally offer you the change (and lint) from their pockets and they have no fear in proposing ridiculous offers.

Lesson 4: “It’s the early bird who gets the worm” is not only an expression, it’s the motto of professional garage salers. No sooner had we opened the garage door at 7:15 in order to finish organizing the last of the tables and to hang up our signs for our 8 o’clock start, did we see someone park, walk up the driveway and begin browsing the shop. By 7:45 we had sold a literal handful of costume jewelry to a rather excited man for $50 and by 7:55, we had sold two boxes of CDs for $10.

Lesson 5: There is a difference when you state Garage Sale vs. Moving Sale. A Garage Sale, I believe, can imply you are selling the dregs of your belongings which you found buried deep in your attic, under the stairs, in the crumbling garden shed out back or in your garage. On the other hand, a Moving Sale, suggests a decent collection of your day to day stuff that you, unfortunately, cannot take with you – items which you love, took time to care for, spent a decent amount of money on, and which you would like to move on to new and more useful places. But this is just my own observation, no official surveys have been completed.

Lesson 6: It is rude to offer the host of the sale 45 cents for a collection of items which were well taken care of and clearly priced for a total of $5. In addition, it does not help when you push your hand, holding one quarter and two dimes, into the face of the host. Nor does it add to your case when you forcefully tell the host, “Come on, this is a good deal for you, look!” while wildly waving the 4 silver coins around.

Lesson 7: It follows then, that if ever someone walks into your sale and proposes a low-ball offer for your things, simply tell them no, and stand firm. There is someone out there instead who will pay you a fair price for what is important to you and if not, donate it. The value of those goods will go much farther in the capable hands of a recognized charity than the hands of someone who is blatantly taking advantage of you. And, it will make you feel good knowing you are giving back to those who need it more.

Let the sales begin! My trusty sidekick and expert cashier helped keep us cool with high-pressure buyers and hot, summer temperatures.

Lesson 8: Don’t let the Number 6s get to you; keep your cool, and kill ’em with kindness. I’ll admit, I didn’t take this approach, that’s why I’m telling you. You see, I took offence to people who disrespected me and my stuff with shameless offers. I’m not saying my reaction was acceptable and I’m not even proud of how short I got with some of these people. But when one Number 6 told me they wanted to pay $1 for two sets of eight quality, hard-plastic hangers I had sorted, bundled and clearly marked as $2 each, I told them to go to the Dollar Store. For the Number 6 who tried to offer me $2 for a collection of large vases, and pleaded with me that this was a fair deal, I said to her, “I would never walk into your home and offer you pennies for your things. That is what you are doing to me.” In return, she simply scoffed, “If you walked into my house, I would offer you Arabic tea. Have you ever had Arabic tea?” Seriously? No. And she was clearly missing the point. I tried to remain open-minded – especially in light of recent stories of new immigrants and Syrian refugees in the area, or other families who lost their homes recently due to fire, etc. But these Number 6s were rolling up in new Mazda SUVs and quite happily flaunted dollar bills in their wallets as they combed through looking for spare change.

Lesson 9: Everyone has a story. After encountering a few too many Number 6s on day one, I got short with a likely Number 6 when she was trying to propose $5 for two decently-sized pots, a large frying pan and a few cooking utensils – all clearly and reasonably priced for a total of $8. Having just come off the 45-cent debacle, I looked at her and just threw my hands up and said, rather harshly, “Sure! Why not? Just take it – $5 it is. Everyone else seems to be getting what they want, for however much they want.” Admittedly, this was a low point and it was exactly when I was very rightly put in my place. After the exchange of money was made, she turned around and looked at me. Patiently, she said, “I know you don’t need to hear my story, but I am going to tell you anyways. I moved out here from Toronto last month. I packed everything up and put it onto a moving truck and awaited it’s arrival here in Vancouver. It never came. They stole everything, and so, here I am at garage sales, trying to rebuild my life.” Insert facepalm emoji here. Completely aghast, I apologized profusely, thanked her for her candour, and invited her to come back if she needed anything else, and I’d happily help her out. But, good gosh. I needed to hear that. But it shouldn’t take someone’s story to put your ‘patience cap’ back on; we should always be attentive to the fact that we all have our individual stories and we each have our own motivations. So be patient and be kind, always. 

Lesson 10: For every Number 6 out there, there are at least three normal garage sale customers. And for every 10 Number 6s out there, there is one amazing couple who will roll up, completely unaware of what they might be looking for, spend half an hour browsing, trying on coats and flipping through DVDs and happily pay you full price for the lot – even when you offer to round it down to the nearest $10.

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I started Project Downsize with three, very full, storage pods of our stuff. At the end of four weeks, we were left with a small room in my parent’s house (almost) full of the remaining boxes of necessary keepsakes, winter clothes and equipment, two bikes, a set of family dishware, decorative pieces from our travels, workshop tools including a shop-vac and a terribly awkward but useful tabletop miter saw, one King-size mattress, two cool chairs, an old wooden drafting desk, two vintage speakers, a couple of lights, a TV and an assortment of artwork/photos.

Not too shabby, though I’m not sure we recouped even one year’s worth of storage costs.

And my hourly wage for all of that work must’ve been in the single digits.

But that doesn’t matter. The lessons I learned are priceless.