I'm a winner!

I'm a little revved up tonight; I'm not sure why. Not wanting to spend the ENTIRE evening playing PS2 I decided to go through my ever growing garage sale pile and starting sorting and labeling things so I'm ready to hit the driveway in early June to hawk my wares. In my frenzy, I marked more nearly $100 worth of unused and/or unwanted stuff in my apartment. And I have another $50+ worth of items currently posted on Craigslist.
I find selling things that were once loved and now no longer needed to be exhilarating in the same way that winning the lottery or scoring the jackpot on a slot machine is exhilarating. Garage sale earnings feel like getting something for absolutely nothing. "Someone will definitely want to buy this hot cocoa set still in its original packaging so they can give it to a friend or loved one," I murmur to myself, slapping a $2.00 or best offer sticker on the bottom. "Ohh! I remember when Joan gave that hand crafted dresser tray to me," thinking back to the ceremony where I received the token of gratitude from a former boss. "I don't need this anymore to recall those good feelings. How about $0.25?" And so goes the work.

I purposefully price things fairly low with the goal of creating the opportunity for someone to "find" something that they can brag about later. Have you ever had that experience - finding the perfect gift/purse/knick knack and feeling as if you got it for a song? It is a good feeling - and I like that I can MAYBE make that happen for someone else, all the while "earning" money for something I will enjoy.

Many of the things for sale are mementos from my life with Gabriel that I'm now ready to part with, housewares from the period in my life when I was still figuring out my "style", and gifts that I've received and never used. I have individual cut glass salt bowls I pilfered from my grandmother's stash after she passed away, Christmas ornaments I'll never use, a coffee maker that makes the drip brew I loathe, CDs that were long converted to electronic formats, and piles of gingham checked linens from kitchen tables long ago set. There is one backpack, two laptop bags, and a car trunk carrier for storing more stuff in your car.

I'm happy to part with all of it. I never use any of this stuff, and I am expecting to move out of my Laverne and Shirley Basement Dream Apartment by August for sunnier pastures. I am so energized by this exercise that I want to turn the apartment over looking for new things to sell at the as of yet still unscheduled garage sale.

Interestingly, what I'm finding is that the less stuff I have, the more I feel emboldened to realistically look for a new place to live. Perhaps it is the psychological impact of releasing things from a now done part of my past? Or maybe it is the simple fact that there is less to pack, and a clearer vision of what I need to fit into a new home?

I don't know what it is, but I feel like I've already won.