The Free Sale

We didn't have a yard sale today, we had a free sale.   It's a lot like a yard sale, only everything is free.   Come to our house at eight AM and if it's in our driveway, feel free to take it.   No, please, don't make me bring all this stuff back into the house.   You know you need my old, used stuff.   It's yours.

It all started with one of my, "how did we get so many toys?" comments.   Then, I decided we were not only going to rearrange the children's toys (putting some up and bringing others out as "new").   This time, we were going to go through every single last bit of stuff and we were going to get rid of things.  Lots of things, because we had more than the children needed.

My husband helps me with these things, and he does a good job, but it's not his favorite thing to do.   When I told him we were taking every single toy, game and kid thing and putting it into one room in our house to evaluate, I know he mentally gave me an evil eye.   But he helped.  When we saw how much stuff we really had, my husband said, "we need to get rid of fifty-percent of these toys."

We decided what to keep because it was still age-relavant and what to keep because it was sentimental to us or them as they grew.   We selected things to keep that were some of the best toys for younger ages in case we had visiting babies or toddlers.   The relevant things went to various corners of the house where the children have their toy areas (toys have homes and do not belong all over the house).    We took the other items and stored them in the attic appropriately.  

And we selected things to go.   Lots of things to go.   Thank goodness we have that extra bay in the garage because there were lots of things heading into the garage.   As we went into the attic, we made decisions about not-toy things that we didn't need either.  Bottles?  A must go.  Boppy pillow?  Bumbo seat?  Infant car seat?   They all got put in the growing mound in the garage.   And that's when I had the idea—let's have a free sale.

We have many, many parents with lots of small children in our neighborhood.  We also have lots of pregnant moms.   Wouldn't it be great if we could share out things with our neighborhood friends and neighbors?   So I sent out an email to everyone.

Today was our free sale.  I offered a, "free helium balloon to any child that takes home a stuffed animal," in the hopes we'd her rid of some of that pile.  Few stuffed animals went home, but lots of balloons did with smiling children.

We had multiple pregnant mothers who were grateful for the pregnancy, infant and baby things we had to share.    We had two non-functioning slot machines my neighbor gladly took off our hands and one mom who wanted to get back into shape that claimed our treadmill.     So many things going to happy families.  

Oh, and I forgot to mention my husband's idea.  He suggested I say any donations would go to our children's school.   We had a jar out and there was quite a bit of money put into it from generous families.    

Several people said they'd love to do this too in the future.   I think we're going to plan a neighborhood free sale day at some point next year.  What a fun sight that would be...free stuff in every driveway.

The Big Boy Update:  My son has been having some adjustment issues with his new school classroom and routine.  He's holding it together at school and doing well, but when he gets home, he has a need for routine, regularity and known expectations.    My husband and I are not ones for routine and regularity.   We are reasonably regular, but we don't do dinner at the exact same time each day.  We might go out to dinner to any number of restaurants or eat in.   There may be playing in the yard with neighbors before or after dinner or it might be reading books or playing a game or watching television.  We vary.   My son needs "regular" and not "random" right now and his reaction is to try and control everything and everyone.   To the outsider or untrained, it seems like he's losing his mind and throwing tantrums.   Hell, it looks like that way to us too.   We're trying to help him through this tough time.  We appreciate all the advice we've been given from his teachers and our friends with knowledge about childhood development.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:   This is a pattern that happens in our house a lot...  My daughter begins crying, screaming or both a room or two over.   My husband or I come into the room and say, "Reese, what happened?"  My daughter replies, "Greyson <insert thing he did that made her angry or hurt her>".   We're trying to break the cycle on our end and theirs.   From talking to other parents, this may be something we're working on for some time.