Salesman of the year

I was uncharacteristically inspired to do a massive spring cleaning recently. I cleared out closets, shelves, and drawers, and ended up with a bunch of stuff I had no use or space for. (How did all that stuff fit in my little house??)

I declared an imminent garage sale, and my friends Edra and Kathleen applauded and joined me. (I owe them both a huge debt of gratitude and thanks for their help, as I personally would've just dumped all the junk off at Goodwill.)

Mark wanted in on the action, too. He cleaned his room, filling boxes with old toys and books he's outgrown. He remembered my niece Gabi selling cookies during a garage sale, so Friday night, he revved up the oven, baking and bagging dozens of cookies.

While we dragged out our stuff to sell, Mark set up a TV tray and a bowl of cookies. He drew a sign and even enlisted a decorative stuffed koala to help set the tone. He donned a red glittery hat. He later taped a "Cookies for Sale" sign to the front of it.



We did pretty good selling our goods, but Mark made a killing on those cookies! I'd told him that no one can resist a cute kid selling cookies, and boy, was I right. He made about $20 selling those sugary delights.

Sunday rolled around, and we pulled the boxes out for one last try. Business was dismally slow, which we attributed to church attendance. Mark didn't even bother pulling out the remaining cookies--he brought out his scooter instead.

Kathleen figured if he was gonna ride up and down the street, we might as well use it to our advantage. So I created a homemade sandwich board sign, cutting up a paper grocery bag vest for him. I wrote the words "Yard sale" in red marker, and instructed him to go drum up some business.




Once again, he proved his worth by doing just that!

He got a few cars to actually stop. I was surprised and amused to see the other people he got to stop, too--most of the traffic were people out on bike rides and morning walks. I sold an old suitcase to one guy, who hopped back on his bike and rode away, carrying it alongside his bike.

Mark decided to kick things up another notch. He traded his Brooklyn Dodgers hat for a gold glittery hat (not sure why he has so many glittery hats). I cut out an arrow, which he then decorated.



He wanted to stand on the corner and direct traffic, but there was another garage sale sign there, and I was afraid he would guide them there instead.


So instead, he stood in the middle divider of our road. It's a big green strip of grass, and he could direct both sides of traffic toward our house. He did an awesome job! People really slowed down to see him, and he even got a few honks and waves.


"Matthew's mom just drove by!" he shouted. I gave him a thumbs up.

We really didn't make much money that day, but I didn't care. For me, watching Mark drum up up customers was totally worth getting up early.

But the best feeling of all was when we called it quits and loaded up all the leftover boxes into Edra's car. We drove it to Goodwill, and said goodbye. Then I returned home to my newly-clean house and rejoiced in the huge empty space where the boxes had been.

I sighed, and smiled, glad to be one step further removed from a feature role on the TV show Hoarders.