This summer, three generations of my family — from my grandmother to my mom and aunts down to me — got together at my grandmother’s house to put on a two-day garage sale. The goal was to declutter my grandmother’s house, which has been bursting with things since she moved in many decades ago, and other family members also joined the cause.
It took massive effort and we all had to work together, but it was worth it.
We spent a lot of time organizing the garage sale together
All three generations of my family combined our things for the two-day garage sale, where we grouped items, laid them out on tables, and invited neighbors and passersby to peruse. The garage sale took massive organization between the family to pick a weekend and gather all the items together.
My mom and aunts had cleaned out their basements, my brother found toys from his childhood he was willing to part with, and I had scanned my apartment up and down, ready to part ways with things that no longer served me and were the reason I couldn’t close my closet.
The night before the sale, we coordinated a sticker price system and grouped the items based on their category and use, from holiday items to gardening items, dishware, and books. Each family member could pre-shop the sale if one member got rid of something another wanted.
We had to keep each other in check so no family member left with more items than they put into the pile, which would have rendered the decluttering useless. We also shared memories about the items, remembering where we got mugs from, and laughing about old Halloween costumes and decorations.
It made me think about what I was holding onto and why
The garage sale took a lot of coordination, but it was worth it once people started arriving and shopping for the sale. A few people arrived an hour early to get their hands on the more valuable items before the others could. Couples, families, people walking by, and locals all stopped by to look at the items, talk with members of my family, and even reminisce about their garage sales.
The process of going through things to sell was hard and made me think critically about what I was holding onto. Why was I holding onto those items? Was it because I used them frequently, or was it sentimental? I have dreams of one day owning a house with a grand library, but prepping for it and stocking it now isn’t practical for my NYC apartment.
Like many members of my family, I had to think about what we were actually still using and whether certain items would have a new life in someone else’s hands while we were decluttering. In the essence of Marie Kondo, we kept asking ourselves, did these items still spark joy? Could they spark more joy for someone else? More often than not, the answer to the second question was “Yes.”
I loved seeing new people enjoy our things
While it was hard to let go, giving these things new life was meaningful. One woman talked about how the flower pots she bought would be a gift to a friend. A teacher purchased school supplies for the children in her class starting school in the fall. We could already see the joy the items were bringing to their new owners.
There was a mom who came to the sale with her two children. While she was going through the books, her kids took to one of the playsets my brothers and I used to love playing with. They were already having fun with little figurines, playing with all the different parts, and acting out little scenes. My brother and I thought back to how much fun we had playing with that playset, and we were excited to see it go to a new family who would love it as much as we did.
While the garage sale was a lot of work for the whole family, and we won’t be putting on another one in the near future, it made us all think critically about decluttering and letting things go. It helped us connect with the community, give our items new life, and clear up space in our homes.
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