I think I can accurately say that I have survived an ambush.

The garage sale was today. It was advertised to start at 7:30, and "no early birds". Hubby and I drove around to put up the signs about 6:30. When we returned by 7:00, there were already several cars in front of the house. "OH MY GOSH!!!" =8-O

At one point within the first 15-20 minutes, there were apparently about 50 people in our driveway and garage. I didn't notice that because I was busy taking money from the people crowded around me, and from my vantage point it felt like there were hundreds of them. People said the line extended all the way across our driveway (we have a 3 car garage). The turnout was HUGE. By 9:30 or so, it slowed down so I could catch my breath.

The most difficult part was recording the prices sold for each different family. My step-daughter and her family, her mother-in-law, my brother and sister-in-law, my parents, and us. I had a separate page for each one and I had to accurately record the price on the right page while a crowd of people stood around me and I tried to concentrate with only 4 hours of sleep last night.

On the good side, most of our family was here and their help was immeasurable. Every single one helped in a big way. My step-daughter said a woman told her that my advertising was very good so it must have drawn people like bees to honey.

As totally exhausted as we are, we are already talking about "the next one", but we will do it VERY differently. We will keep the signs (they are very decorative, eye-catching, and reusable) so we won't have to make those again. We will have everyone's items well ahead of time and EVERYTHING will be marked. We'll start at 8:00 which will give us a little more time to prepare. And we won't have 20+ years of items to sell, if we do this every year or so.

I don't think I have ever felt so tired!!! I'm sure we will sleep well tonight. :-)

Jen