From Shop Flop to Tidy Triumph

Sarah Thunell
Jun 10, 2024
2 min read

On June 8th we were ready for messages to start coming in

As you know if you're here, I'm selling my things to cover my living expenses due to illness. My friend Lindsay traveled from Eastern Washington to run items out to shoppers for pickup.

I listed items for sale here on the website, shared the link through Craigslist, various Facebook groups, and personally reached out to friends and family.

Challenges and Realizations

In hindsight, having someone dedicated to getting the word out and bringing in potential buyers would have been beneficial.

There was no shopper interest in my last minute announcements. 🤷🏻 It probably didn't help that I'm linking to one long url instead of posting each item separately on each platform. It's easier for me but requires intention for someone to come here.

Sharing this website invited three initial donations, independent of the sale, totalling $370. The desktop version of the donation page should reflect them in the progress bar!

Garage Sale Sticker Dots

We used a color-coded sticker system to manage items:

🔴 pink for posted online,

🟠 orange for designated for sale but not yet posted, and

🟢 green for items ready to be delivered.

We decided to keep one TV and put the other up for sale, repurposing the TV stand as an organizing shelf. My living room now resembles a quaint little store with items like puzzles, houseplants, cross-stitch supplies, guitars, and cat stuff. Soon, I'll post a wall-mounted office organizer and a white vanity for sale.

Despite the lack of interest, sorting through items brought a sense of movement and progress.

I'm guided by a hope that a more organized home will make it easier to live within my limits.

Next Pickup in a Couple Weeks

The next pickup day is in two weeks, and I'm considering arranging additional pickup times for shoppers by request.

I'm grateful for Lindsay's help. Among many other things, she disassembled the 3-tiered cat crate, which gave us more space to sort into.

With decisions made about what can go, someone could take some or all of the things and sell them for me so I can put energy into something else.

Help needed, sale related:

Marketing and outreach buddy for getting word out about the next pickup day (even just to keep me company and be a sounding board)
Take and sell things for me
Closet organizer, someone to hold things up for me to make decisions about