I Survived the Stockpile Sale

Yep, survived sitting in the sun for 4 hours and dealing with the public even though Sonya Ann didn't take me up on my offer to come over and sit with me. ;-)

Closed up an hour early as traffic fell off swiftly after 10 am.

It was nice to have it ALL inside the garage so I just took myself in the house and closed the garage door behind me.

I am tired.
The mess can all wait for tomorrow for me to go out there and put it all away.
I'll talk later about what sold, what didn't and what a PITA some people are. lolz

Like I've said before about stockpile sales in the garage vs. going to a flea market to sell, if I can just sit in my garage for awhile and have people come and hand me money, it's a good thing. lolz

More on Sunday. 
I've got to clean the dining room and living room today so I can put the table back, etc.

I'll be napping and self-medicating later after I enjoy some of this beautiful weather we are having here.

What is everyone else up to today?

Sluggy

My Comedy of Errors Stockpile Sale

So if you remember correctly, I talked awhile back about cleaning the garage and such HERE.
Well that was May something-or-other.

I did get the living room cleaned before the relatives arrived for the Graduation festivities.
And I got all the stockpile extras into the garage, as well as cleaned out all the 'extra stuff' from the garage.

And I had #1 son put all that 'extra stuff' into my more than half empty storage unit before he left in June for his summer job on Lake Erie.
And here is what my storage unit looks like at the moment......it is NOT pretty.....

Yes, you can't even step into it right now.
I would be embarrassed by this mess, except that I know that #1 son, not giving a shit about where he placed things, just started piling the boxes up any which way, all 'willy-nilly like' as soon as you step into the unit.  There is a practically empty large area behind this wall of boxes. 

Here are the boxes of stuff to sell in the garage and my beginning of organizing/shelving items in June.....

I didn't get things together to hold the sale before all the kids left home for camp/jobs.  I spent the last week #2 son was at camp setting up more shelving and stocking them.

Finally, last week, I had most everything organized and ready.  Yes, it took me an additional 2 weeks after #2 son got home.
I started pricing/marking stuff and started setting up advertising last week.  Here is what it currently looks like....

I was going to place an ad on a local YahooGroups Sale site and then put a Craigslist ad up.

For some reason(I am hoping it wasn't deliberate on the part of the list owner), my YahooGroups ad never got posted.  For 3 days I saw her post many many other for sale ads up.
I sent it in on Thusday morning, surely that would be enough time for her to get it posted!?
When the ad didn't post I waivered on putting the Craigslist ad up, waiting for the Yahoo ad to go through, until it was too late and I had to call off my plans for last Saturday.

And of course the weather was PERFECT last weekend for a Sale.
Ugh.

So I set my mind on this Saturday.  And I set about looking for some more things to throw into the sale.
And on this Wednesday, my ad for the Yahoo group list posted for LAST SAUTRUDAY'S SALE!lolol
Yes, it took her 6 days to post the ad I had sent her the preceding Thursday. 

I don't want to say anything about her at this point since I am still waiting for her to answer my email about this whole situation, which she also has not answered.  I think she sabotaged me on purpose, since she also owns another Yahoo group and she's been asking everyone to send her coupons so she can extreme coupon and, as she says, buy things to give away to needy people on this other list.
She has also posted a big lot of those items she couponed for on the Yahoo list to sell them. Hmmmm....it just appears to me like I threatened her little kingdom and 'losing' my ad is intentional.

At any rate, I am moving past all this drama and I posted my Craigslist ad and I'll have Hubs put some signs up bright and early tomorrow morning and forge ahead with my sale.

All I have to do is open the garage door and sit on my ass for 4 hours and collect money if anyone shows up.  If they don't, I'll sit on my ass for 4 hours and stay as cool as I can and then figure out what to do next.  I am done worrying about how this will go! ;-)

Hubs says I should give it all to the food bank.
I think a lot of it might end up there eventually but they don't have the storage space for me to haul it all over there in one fell swoop.

So wish me luck and I'll report in when it's all over.

Sluggy

Selling The Stockpile Items....CRAZY GOOD!

What to do when you have pulled together 2 YEARS worth of Toiletries from your stockpile and still have EIGHTEEN BOXES of stuff?

You take it to a Flea Market and sell it, that's what you do!
And that is exactly what I did last Sunday.

There is a weekly Sunday Flea Market from June to October held at a local Drive-In Movie Theater about a half hour from my house.  Now, I've lived here 9 years now and have NEVER been to this Drive-In, either to see a movie or attend this flea market.  I have heard it's the best one in the area....but I kind of think it is the ONLY ONE around this area too.lolol
So I had no clue if there would really be enough shoppers at the flea market(especially in October)to make it $-wise worth my while to haul my butt out of bed at 5am and schlep everything there, set up and tear it down and schlep home.  Add in I had to pay $15 for a space too and it makes for one conflicted reticent flea market vendor.

It was still dark when we left the house(hubby went with me to help...isn't he a good hubby?).  And it was cold as a witch's teat outside.  As we descended the mountain into the valley we also hit dense fog.  That made for some slow going to get to the market down by the river.  It was still dark when we got there and while we were setting up.  While the drive-in wasn't filled with sellers, it was almost full.
I had my 5ft. folding table and had enough room to set-up 2 plastic shelving units...1 was 3 ft. long & the other was 2 ft. long.  I made 2 'tables' out of each 6ft. high unit by separating them each in half. That pretty much took up the whole length of my space.  Hubby took all the boxes out and lined them up across the side of the car(which we pulled in sideways, parallel to the tables and we began stocking the tables with goodies.

The market opened at 6am, while it was still dark.  The HARD CORE Shoppers started arriving in the dark with little flashlights so they could see the treasures in the dark.  It was so surreal between the darkness, the fog and all those little flashlights shining!lolol
I figured we'd get the tables filled and then I'd start making little price stickers  for things.
But Nooooo....I never even had a moment to get the stickers out of the car!
As soon as it got light enough to see without a flashlight, we got hit and we got hit hard and it didn't let up for 2 hours!!!
Like bees to honey, the shoppers swarmed on us.
It.
Was.
CRAZY!

I had to stay right there to yell out prices as nothing was marked and I didn't have time to make any signs either.  Customers were 2 or 3 deep at times trying to jockey to get to the table to grab stuff.  People were taking stuff without asking prices!
Heck we even almost had a fistfight between 2 ladies over some Men's Speed Stick Deo.
Really....it's Speed Stick ladies....get a grip.  Not like it's anything valuable, like Chocolate....lol
I still can't believe the insanity.

Of course, we had a fair share of hagglers even though my prices were very low.  One guy offered me $5 for 8 jars of peanut butter.  Oh, I just had to refuse his GENEROUS offer....lolol  There were others but this guy had other shoppers making comments like "What an idiot!" and "Geez, talk about your skinflints!?" after he left my table.
Some of the shoppers were in disbelief at the prices I was charging.  They were not regular flea market type folks though and kept saying, "Wow! I pay XXX for this at the store!" and things like that.  I had more than enough people happy to pay my prices so I didn't even have to deal with the hagglers.

We finally had a lull in action around 8:30 am and got the tables filled again.  15 mins. later another wave of shoppers descended on us like locust.  This time they were coming behind the tables and just helping themselves from the opened boxes by the car.  Everywhere I looked there were customers!lol  It got too tiring to keep track of them all(yes, we had to watch for thieves)so we banished  everyone from behind the tables and just brought the boxes up front so we could crowed control everyone.
It was super busy again, and the next time I looked up it was 10am.

Things calmed down after 10am but we had steady sales for another 2 hours.
It really died out around noon and lots of vendors started packing up.  Around 12:30 some guy came and bought 2 boxes of items(I'm assuming he has a store or stall in a business somewhere he was buying for).  He of course wanted everything for less(end of the day and all)and kept trying to get me to lower prices.  I did give him a little break on some things(like the gazillion bottles of men's Gillette 'Poo & Body Wash I got for almost nothing at Weis earlier in the year) but I held firm on most of it as my prices were very low to begin with and I would rather donate it than give it away, YKWIM?  I made another $94 and he got a bargain to resell or whatever he was going to do with it all.lol
After he left with what he bought, we packed it in and headed home....after I made a quick stop on the way out at the produce stand for fresh local veggies with some of my profits.

I brought my camera and I was going to take a photo of everything we bought to sell after we got set-up but, well......things didn't work out the way I wanted them to.lol
So you'll just have to remember my stockpile organizing photos of all my Extras last week in this post HERE. Add to your visual imagery 12 plastic shopping bags(sorry Joe!lol)of food I grabbed at the last minute and threw into the car as well.

Here is what is left from the 16 FULL boxes we took to the flea market.....

After we got home and I repacked those boxes, I have less than 3 Boxes of extra items left.  And it would have only been 2 full Boxes left if I hadn't made the mistake and let some woman put aside 2 bags of stuff and hold it for her while she went and found her hubby to get some more money.  I was so busy that I didn't even notice she didn't come back to buy the things until almost the time we left.  There was primo stuff in there like Q-Tips and Pantene that I know I would have sold had it been out on the tables.  Oh well....nothing to dwell on....just learn my lesson and move on.lol

Oh, Joe will love this.  I took a bazillion plastic shopping bags to use, thinking I'd never use them up.
But I DID use every single bag up!  I even was digging through the car for more bags under the seats and I ended up giving one lady the paper bag from the biscuits we bought at Burger King on the way to the flea market.lol
So all those plastic bags I brought home when I went shopping and forgot my recyclable bags at home Joe?....they got recycled to my customers.  I'll cross my fingers the shoppers continue to recycle them too. ;-)


I am so glad I went and did this because we came home with.....


$947.25!!

After I deducted the Fee to set-up at the flea market(which hubby had paid), that's $932.25 Cash Monies to divvy up between Savings and a little extra to put back into the Budget.
I am sooo glad to have gotten rid of what I did and amazed at the same time that so much sold.  It helps to go in with low or NO expectations.  That way, whatever sells, it's all good.  8-)) 

Sluggy

Toiletries Stockpile Pictures

I have FINALLY gone through and organized my Toiletries Stockpile.

YEAAAAAAAH!!!

Right after I went through all those Small Steps Paper Products, I went through every bottle, box, tube, tub & package of toiletries and OTC meds.
Then I set aside from the stash what I feel is a 2 Year Supply of each product.....2 yrs. of shampoo, 2 yrs. of deodorant, 2 yrs. of toothpaste....you get the idea.

Here is the upstairs linen closet....
I repurposed 3 clear pull-out drawers from a small file cabinet thingy.  One bin for deodorants, one for dental products, one for OTC medicine-y things.  There is space for one more bin on the shelf.  I am waiting to find something I already have that I can repurpose to put there and put more items(band-aids, painkillers, etc.)  I still need to label each of these bins in the coming week.
These are the supply for the kids for the next 2 yrs.





This shelf  has a large repurposed rubbermaid container that holds their shampoos and body washes.



This repurposed container holds 2 yrs. supply of razor supplies, shaving cream, and something else I can't recall right now.lol  These also need labeling so that when something runs out, everyone knows what container to look in to get more.  The Family supply of soap is also in this container but everything else in these containers is for the children's use.



Since hubby & I have an ensuite bathroom off of our bedroom, I have boxed and organized everything(except for soap)that we will need in the way of HBAs in the next 2 years in our bathroom.
Two repurposed tubs & a shoebox needing labels still-dental supplies, shaving needs and deodorants.

Two shoeboxes(already labeled)with more toiletries.  On top is the 1st aid supplies basket.  In basket in front are assorted HBA/OTC meds in use.

Two more containers of supplies with towels....

Hair Coloring, lotions, etc. in boxes and separated items in bags on the floor awaiting more boxes.

And last but not least, under the sink are the cleaning supplies that are in use, all corralled in one place.  The children also have a matching shoebox of cleaners under the sink in their bathroom.

It feel so nice to have this all completed and organized.

So what is in all these boxes??

Except for the Walgreen's shopping bag(which holds pasta) and the binders under that bag, all the stuff in these boxes/bags in these pictures is what is LEFTOVER after I pulling out 2 years of Toiletries/HBA products for my family!  That's 18+boxes of stuff.
I knew my Title promised Stockpile Pictures but you'll just have to imagine what's in the boxes.lol

And THIS is AFTER  I sold a boatload of items at my Garage Sale in July. 
Gee....I feel kind of sheepish.  I knew I was acquiring alot of toiletries(all for very little money)but I had no clue I had SO MUCH!  I guess not having it organized and in one place all at once made it not seem like the massive amount it is.
I am a victim of my couponing success it seems.......
I really don't have room for all this....unless I want to take over someone's bedroom or something.lol

So I have loaded up 16 of those 18 boxes, along with some bags of food pulled from my grocery stockpile, into my car and bright & early tomorrow morning I'll be driving to the local Flea Market and try to sell off a bunch of this.
Wish me luck!!!

Sluggy