Garage Sales are Very Green Indeed

Have you ever sat and watched a horror movie, and inevitably some fool decides to go into the basement? Sure you have and you probably have the same reaction I do, you sit there in disbelief and scream at the t.v., "What's the matter with you? Don't go down there!"

Well last month I decided to confront my fears and ventured into my own basement, and believe me it was scarier than any horror movie I ever saw. After I managed to maneuver around the cobwebbed covered gym equipment, and almost broke my ankle slipping on the dance mats my daughter had left on the floor, I made it back into the "storage" area, where I just about suffered a panic attack looking at all the boxes, wreaths, suitcases, dishes, well you get the idea.

Why would I ever embark on such an adventure you ask? Well let me tell you maybe it's been turning 50, or maybe it's simply that I'm getting brave in my later years, but the time has come for me to simplify my life, and what a better place to start than by clearing out the basement.

It took a complete month with as much help as I could guilt my family into giving to organize, repack, and haul everything that wasn't absolutely essential into the garage. Once that enormous task was completed the next logical course of action seemed to be to hold a garage sale.

"A garage sale?" My husband said shaking his head. "You have never even been to a garage sale, let alone have one." I ignored his negative attitude and worked feverishly on a three day event. At the end of the third day when more than half the stuff was left, he came up to me and asked, "Now what do we do, throw everything out?"

"Yes that's exactly what we do. Put everything out with the garbage and let it be taken to the landfill." I said sarcastically. "No dear, we donate the books and magazines to the library, take all the clothing to the brown sheds behind the church, box all the computer stuff, board games, and some other things to a community center, and what's ever left split between Volunteers of America and The Veterans Outreach. This way you aren't throwing anything away, it's being recycled for reuse and you get to take a dollar amount off your taxes."

He quickly rebutted, "Wow, I wonder how much gasoline you'll burn making all those trips," and then muttered under his breath, "Doesn't seem very green to me."
"Oh but it will be," I shot back, "as long as you hypemile on the drive."