Garage sales useful to declutter home

It's amazing how much stuff American families can accumulate.

Over time, we end up with clothes and toys our children have outgrown, furniture we no longer want, bicycles that have long been abandoned and a whole assortment of other items that clutter the corners of our homes.

Sooner or later, most families realize that there is only one answer to this situation: a garage sale.

I don't know what Americans did before the invention of garages.

I know that the original idea of a garage was to provide shelter for one's cars. But over time, it's clear the real purpose of garages is to provide a venue for selling all those items that we no longer need or want.

It's free enterprise at its best.

We profit from getting rid of a ton of stuff and make a little money at the same time. The buyers benefit from getting bargains on items.

Such was the case last weekend at our garage sale.

The best thing about the garage sale wasn't that we made a few bucks, which we did. No, the best thing about it was that we held the multifamily sale at a friend's house just down the street from us.

Her garage was cleaner than ours to begin with, although we certainly managed to clutter it up last week as we hauled load after load of clothes to the sale site.

Getting ready for a garage sale is hard work. It also changes one's attitude about all those items in your home.

It's easy to get carried away with hauling things out.

At one point, I was really getting into the mindset of selling anything that was underfoot.

I suggested to Joni that we could sell our dog. But, thankfully, she nixed the idea.

I was only joking about our pet. But at the height of our garage-sale planning, it seemed like only our children and the pet dog were untouchable when it came to for-sale items.

You know you have a lot of stuff when you discover things on the for-sale table that you didn't even know existed in your home.

And it's truly heartwarming to know that a whole lot of people want all that stuff you no longer want and are willing to pay for the privilege of taking it off your hands.

Of course, the biggest problem with any garage sale is finding the time to haul all that stuff out of our homes.

With soccer games, piano lessons and a whole host of other activities involving our children, it's hard to find time to prepare for a garage sale.

Now we're told by the American Academy of Pediatrics that we're overbooking our children. The academy says what children need is more spontaneous play time.

The trouble is that we don't have any time in our schedules for spontaneous fun.

Our daughters, Becca and Bailey, have busy schedules just like most other children.

I find it hard to keep track of their schedules. Thankfully, my wife, Joni, is organized. Without her, I'd be lost when it comes to the family schedules.

The academy reported that a lack of spontaneous playtime can create stress for children and families.

Of course, it's nothing like the stress of getting ready for a garage sale.

De-cluttering your home can be a fatiguing task.

I generally try to confine it to a single floor, but Joni prefers to pull out items from the attic to the basement.

Over the years, I've learned that the best thing to do is go along with the program.

After all, I'm in this marriage for the long haul and quite literally that includes garage sales.

Mark Bliss is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.