My neighbour and dearest friend for the last 30 years recently moved to the Karoo to be nearer to her extended family and her childhood roots. Their house here was sold in January but they only had to give occupation by the end of this year at the latest. Sorting through rooms and cupboards only started in earnest about two to three months before they moved out. Unexpectedly, my friend's husband ended up in hospital for over a month and when he returned home, was unable to assist with anything. My poor friend had to sort through absolutely everything, from garage to husband's study to the roof. In the end, she became quite frantic. We drove carloads of goods to the recycling dump for her. Luckily, the movers did the packing for her. She tells me now that, on the other side in the Karoo, as she unpacks, she is still giving and throwing away!
After observing this nightmare, we have resolved that, slowly but surely, we are going to go through our accumulated possessions and start divesting ourselves. As we have plenty of time until the day when the property market improves, we put our house on the market and we sell, we can experiment with selling items which we feel still have value. So, today we went to a Car Boot sale.
We arrived at 7.30 am, unpacked all our goods and then had to hastily cover up everything with a small tarpaulin, which we happened to have with us, and sit in the car for an hour of pouring rain. The rain was too heavy to even consider getting out to pack everything back into the car. We cursed our stupidity at not observing the heavy clouds and the direction of the gentle breeze, which would have indicated the imminent arrival of rain.
We arrived at 7.30 am, unpacked all our goods and then had to hastily cover up everything with a small tarpaulin, which we happened to have with us, and sit in the car for an hour of pouring rain. The rain was too heavy to even consider getting out to pack everything back into the car. We cursed our stupidity at not observing the heavy clouds and the direction of the gentle breeze, which would have indicated the imminent arrival of rain.
Finally, the sun came out and we spent a few happy hours chatting to other stallholders, touring other tables (with determination not to buy anything) and periodically flipping the wet pages of some books and magazines which had not stayed dry under the cover. The trade was not brisk. I think most people stayed tucked up in bed on a rainy morning.
I was happy to sell off 30 Agapanthus plants at a discount bulk price of R100 and then various other little sales saw us taking home a total of R270. Not a fortune, but what fun to make a sale, chat to browsers and return home to some empty spaces in the cupboards.
On arrival at home, we spread the still wet magazines and books on our driveway and left them blowing in the wind to dry out while we drank our tea and counted our multiple gains!
LOL Just what we are doing. It's amazing how much one can cram into the back of cupboards, for use at a later date. But because they are at the back, that later date seldom comes.
ReplyDeleteVery therapeutic - all this cleaning out!
New beginnings are just that, new beginnings. Luggage from the past belongs there. I've been saving stuff for my kids for years. They are both now out of the home, and what they haven't taken / don't want, is pointless keeping. "If it's not useful, chuck", is my motto.
If you don't use it, lose it!!
ReplyDeleteSeems we are all of like mind. We attacked the garage last weekend - got R40.00 for scrap paper.(Mostly paperwork from our business that we are forced to keep for 5 years) This weekend it's my daughters room - HELP!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it great getting paid a bit for things you don't need/want! One man's junk is another man's treasure. And of course, if its for recycling....so much the better. Good Luck for the daughters room !!
ReplyDeleteWhen we moved to the country last year, we got rid of stuff, not enough, but some. We didn't feel like bothering with a yard sale for some of the things,so we just put it at the street. Amazing how junk can disappear in a hurry. I put a CD/tape player out that the cd player didn't work anymore. When I brought the speakers out, the rest had already went "poof."
ReplyDeleteHere we also discard on the pavement for recycling but, for really big items, one has to make other arrangements. I know that in some countries, one can furnish an entire house with the items people put out on the street on specific days of the year. We know of some people who emigrated to New Zealand and did just that when they first arrived there....furnished their entire apartment from street discards. Another friend living in Germany gradually acquired bicycles for his entire family in this way on "Metal Day". Fantastic!
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