People, please remember that everything you don't do, regarding cleaning up and discarding unused, broken or unnecessary items, leaves something for your family to deal with, and believe me it's not fun.
Garage sale at Mum's was on Saturday. If you're not in Australia, you may not know that we had Australia Day on Friday, so I didn't have to work, woohoo. I've been trying to go around to Mum's every day to do a little bit. Got to much for me last week, with having a late shift and not finishing till 7pm, did not want to go around after work, just wanted to chill. So I took 2 days off, Wednesday and Thursday and then had the long weekend, 5 days off. Sounds great, right? 5 days off work, who doesn't love a break? Yeh, wish it had been a break. Worked non stop at Mum's, cleaning out her room, yep hadn't finished it, even after taking 30 garbage bags of clothes, shoes, bags and accessories to the op shop still had more to do.
It's been stinking hot over here, and Mum had no ac, she had a ceiling fan in her room, but all it did was stir up the dust and the warm air. Water on hand, towel to wipe the sweat from my brow, I dug in. I finished her room the first day, couldn't face attempting anything else, just wanted to jump in a cold shower, or a nice spa. Settled for the shower since I don't have a spa lol. Thursday morning, I woke with the dread of knowing I had to get around there again and continue.
Spare room this time, my old room. She still has my old bed in there, can't sell it cause it's terrible, but we'll get rid of it. Wardrobe filled with absolute garbage for the most part. Although I did find a foot spa to sell. We always knew she had a lot of material for patchwork, but when I found all the wool, I was shocked. She had bags of it, and in those bags were all started projects, that were just packed away when she lost interest. Judging by the amount she'd done on each, she lost interest very quickly. I guess I was lucky not to find any art supplies, or pottery stuff. They were also hobbies she had. I'd already thrown out a lot of books that were filled with Latin from when she did that. Then there was the computer that she went to classes for, but never quite grasped. Wasn't surprised when I saw the reams of print outs from her class, was way to technical for someone of Mum's age just starting out. She could barely operate her answering machine, and thought she could tackle a pc lol.
Kudos to her for all she had tried, and did well at. But I just wish she had of thought ahead and gotten rid of the stuff when she was done with it. Latin dictionaries, old school books, computer lessons, and more. In everything I cleaned out there was always random photos, and wait for it..............................scissors! Yep, scissors. No idea how she got so many or why she had so many, but it was raining bloody scissors.
After another day of sweating like a pig, I headed back home for another cold shower. Then I had to get to the bank for change for the garage sale, sigh.
Friday came with a groan, and I headed back around. My daughter Caryn was driving up from Henty (google it LOL) to help out. My younger brother was home so it was back into the spare room, this time to tackle the bookshelf and it's shelves bursting with magazines, all about quilting and patchwork of course. As I carried load after load out to the back room, my brother loaded boxes with books, and checked in to make sure I wasn't throwing out anything of his LOL. He's a bit of a hoarder too, but with him it's always books, and it's mostly confined to his room. There is bookshelves in the hallway, filled with books, but they are stored away so aren't an issue. On the other hand Mum kept the house clean, but every single nook and cranny was filled with material and all that goes with it.
After another sweat filled morning, I headed home for lunch and replenished my water and drank another shitload. When Caryn arrived, she thought she could get in a nap, I let her have coffee instead LOL. I don't think she'd fully grasped the enormity of the task ahead when I'd sent her pics and instant messages. Piles and piles of magazines all at least $7 a pop, plastic containers and cardboard boxes, filled with material. You'd open a door in a cupboard and there's more material LOL. We had a full basket full of scissors, another with cotton thread, another with buttons, and then there was the basket of needles and pins. Mum was always on at me to go to Spotlight to get new needles, I should of just forced her to search her house for them LOL.
We did as much as we could that night but knew it wasn't enough, it was just too much for us to handle in the heat. Having a few drinks that night we laughed over all the shit we'd found, but under the laughter was the realisation that we shouldn't have to do this. While not a full on hoarder, Mum hoarded so much crap. I'm sure she didn't realise it for the most part, she didn't remember buying stuff half the time, and to her it was quite normal to have so much material, as she was always sewing. We did have a great time looking over her old photos, she had so many different hairstyles and glasses over the years, was just hilarious. Of course, Caryn laughed very hard at the pics of me when I was younger lol.
Saturday dawned and off we set. As always happens with Garage Sales there is people there before the set time to start. We were trying to get stuff outside so we didn't have everyone walking into the house, and there was people coming down the driveway. And again, not even 8 am and I was the sweat machine lol. My other daughter Tara came down with her family, and I have to say her hubby was a great salesman, selling plants and pots outside that we didn't even think of selling, was awesome. Around 8 am, when we were scheduled to start the polite sewers arrived. They went crazy, well not crazy but were buying up the material and other stuff, having a field day. We had priced it all cheap, it wasn't anything we wanted, and they all knew that the prices were great. They were on the phone calling friends to come as well, was just fantastic.
A couple bought the basket of scissors, all of them. Naturally being macabre people we decided they must be serial killers, and as our dna and fingerprints were now on the scissors the finger of blame will be pointing directly at us lol. Another lady bought the full basket of cotton, another all the needles, went like hot cakes lol. We sold a lot of books as well, one guy bought 260 of them. Okay, so he owns a secondhand book store but still it was awesome lol. Another elderly gentleman was an absolute crackup, kept calling me girl lol. We had piles of books, and he was saying "Girl can you bend down and get that one, Nora Roberts, I want to look at all your Nora Roberts books." lol. He ended up buying a stack of them, and ordered his son (who was equally lovely) to carry them to the car. I was walking with him up the drive when he spotted the pots of orchids Mum had on the verandah. He ended up buying 2 huge pots, and arranged to come back and get them as there was no room left in the car lol.
It always amazes me what people will quibble over price wise. A huge bookshelf, selling for $15 and all these people are saying, no too much. Gave me the shits, especially when I know it cost alot more than that. But hey you don't want to pay it, don't, I wouldn't reduce the price and they left lol. There was a drink trolley that I offered to one woman for $5, no no too expensive, she came back later to get it, but I'd sold it lol.
So despite the fact there is still a shitload of books, pretty much all the magazines, and a bookshelf filled with material still left along with alot of furniture, it was a great day and we made a shitload of money. My girls help was fantastic, love them to bits.
Another thing Mum was doing was using powder constantly. When her doctor told her to use curash for a rash under her boobs, sorry tmi I know lol, she took it as gospel and used it constantly. Everything surface, every item of clothing, every nick nack, every book, and all over the carpet, fucking powder. A film of powder spreads everywhere, like some sort of creeping vine. After picking up something, your hands are covered in it. As the fans spin, the powder swirls in the air, horrible shit. Oh, speaking of fans. We had the ceiling fan in the back room on, and another smaller one we were selling. My deepest regret was selling the fan lol. I should of taken around some of mine, but someone could of sold them lol.
Sunday, I headed up to see Mum, picking Caryn up on the way, she'd spent the night at Tara's and gone out on the town lol. I was so happy to show Caryn how great the nursing home is. We went in, and the residents were all in the lounge playing games. Mum was shouting out all the answers lol. It's great and such a relief that she is really settling in well. She is basically only in her room to sleep, much like she was before she was diagnosed she is never in there, always out and about at different activities lol. We didn't stay long, it was lunchtime, but we were there long enough to see how happy she was. Sure she's still confused, and doesn't remember anything we say, but she's healthy and happy, what more could we ask for.
We did go back to Mum's and packed away some stuff, and I got photos to post online for what we didn't sell, then it was home to chill, laugh, gossip, drink and stuff our faces, perfect end to a hectic weekend. Tara texted to say she'd sold something online already lol, and that was the icing on the cake. Just perfect.
I know it's not finished, there is still the cleanup, more to try and sell, but I feel that for the first time in a long time, I'm getting myself back. No more having to go and check on Mum constantly, no more worrying about her every second of every day. I know she's in the best possible place she can be, and she's happy. The rest of it, the sale of the house and the clean up, are all just shit to get done. I'm not stressed over it. Will take it all to the tip if I have to lol.
At the end of the day, the message is this, get rid of your shit while you still can. Don't leave it to your family to do, it's not fair to expect others to do it for you. Don't waste time and money buying stuff you don't need or don't use. I'm not saying don't enjoy your life, because we should all do that, but when something is no longer needed, sell it, donate it, throw it in the trash, just clean it out.
Catch yas
Cathy
Oh almost forgot, we found her wedding dress. Was in great condition considering the last time it was worn was over 60 years ago. Caryn said "Why didn't you tell me about this dress, I could of gotten married in it?" I looked her up and down and said, "Nope would of been too small." we both cracked up lmfao.
No comments:
Post a Comment