A Long-Expected Yard Sale (With an Unexpected Abundance of Stuff)

Thanks to Connie for the sign.
It really was a huge yard sale!

For all of our followers who aren't privy to the world of Facebook, you might have missed the fact that we had a yard sale last Saturday. Aside from from sending out letters and a meeting or two, it was our first major fundraising event, and thanks to God's provision and the generosity of our church family, it was a rousing success!

For Seth and I, the yard sale was a complete whirlwind. On Friday evening at around 6pm, we arrived at the Fish's (soon to be former) residence at 135 Pigeon Street in Waynesville, thinking we would spend an hour or two getting everything organized so we wouldn't have to get up so early the next morning. When we got there, however, we were floored (and a bit overwhelmed) by the amount of stuff that generous Vinelings had brought to sell, and our short organization time turned into about four and a half hours of moving and sorting items. In the end, we filled most of the porch up electronics, furniture, and housewares, and had mountains of toys and clothes. Thankfully, Winston Blanton, Stephanie Lyon, Amy Grady, and the Fishes all pitched in and helped. Without them, I think we would have been sorting all night.

What do we do with all this stuff??? You can't even see everything still on the porch...

Despite our endeavors, we still arrived back at the Fish's dark and early at 5:00am the following morning to set up. Again, we had wonderful helpers (the entire Blanton family and the Fishes), so in spite of an ambush by a swarm of ants we were ready to go by the time our first customers arrived at about 6:30am. (I am still amazed that people get up before 7 on Saturdays to do anything, let alone look at people's old stuff in a yard sale). We began selling things by 6:40am, and thus began the process of trying to move as much stuff as possible off of the Fish's lawn while still making money (although by the end we were practically giving things away...). 

Housewares!

Ready to go! Just hoping at this point that we don't have to haul all of this to the thrift store...

I must pause here to thank the Fishes for providing the perfect location for this yard sale. It really made all the difference, and is probably one of the biggest reasons why the yard sale went so well. It was right on the way to downtown, and so people were stopping in all throughout the morning and into the early afternoon, whereas at normal yard sales usually by late morning there are only a few stragglers left. Along with the general public, we had many wonderful Vinelings come out to show their support and browse our wares. So many people came out that we had a Waynesville Police officer come out to find a way to solve the traffic problems we were causing on Pigeon Street! Fortunately, he was really nice, acknowledging that it wasn't our fault and working with us to get people to park on the other side of the street.

And so, with our excellent location and awesome helpers, we spent the next several hours watching an incredible number of items leave the yard! Take a look at how much we sold:

Getting started

Lots of people!

So much stuff gone!

It went so well that the ease of clean up afterwards was a really nice surprise! It didn't take long at all. We took the clothes and toys in our van to the Salvation Army, and thanks to Stephanie Lyon we had the Habitat ReStore truck come by and get everything else! Then, as we were all drop-dead tired at that point, we went home and napped (yes!!). Later, we found that we had made more than $1800 (which I might note was 50% more than Richard's initial expectation)! 

Linus is obviously quite comfortable laying around on a pile of money.

God and our Vine family were so good to us, and after even more generosity over the weekend we are almost three-fourths of the way to our fundraising goal! Thank you to all who have helped and praise the Lord!

 ~DJS