Saturday, July 25, 2009

Keep it simple


People in Brooklyn have Stoop sales. We call them garage or rummage sales, but the concept is the same; you remove things from your home that you no longer want or need, you put a price on it and then you wait for people to come and buy it from you. Although the concept IS the same, there is one big difference.
Compare these next two scenes.
Last month as I was preparing to move I had a large garage sale. I started preparing the week before, going through all of my drawers and closets, cleaning the garage, taking the items to the garage, finding 'make- shift' tables, putting up a tent in case of rain, pricing everything, going to the local newspaper and paying $70. for an ad, waiting until dark the night before to take everything out to the driveway to display it so that I would be ready at 6:30 A.M. for the early shoppers (who pretend they were not aware that the sale starts at 8:00.)
Last week my daughter-in-law said she wanted to have a stoop sale. We planned on having the sale last Sat. On Friday I was dreading all of the work we would have to do that night. She shrugged the idea of preparing off with a "We can do that tomorrow" I am thinking "WHAT?"
Sat morning at 10:00 we started to hang items on the iron fence around our stoop. She brought down her jewelry box and laid some pieces that she wanted to sell on a T.V. tray. My son found a clothes rack in the basement and we hung some clothes on it. Shoes were placed on the sidewalk. People walked by and bought stuff; all morning long. At 2:00 we decided we were done and put away the few unsold items and my daughter in law put her $75. in her pocket and enjoyed the rest of the day.
Hmmmm, I like the idea; "keep it simple"

1 comment:

Janelle Goodwin said...

Wow, how easy is that! If I lived there I would have a stoop sale every weekend. Hope things are going well for you, Diane.