The World's Longest Yard Sale

Prayers please. I need your prayers. This weekend will be historic for me because I am taking my love of second hand to a whole new level. I am participating in the worlds longest yard sale. Although I would love to shop I'm going to be selling this year.

World's longest? For Real? 

Yes, for real. The tradition began in 1987 and the sale stretches across the 127 highway from all the way up in Michigan down to Alabama.



That's a 690 mile trail of trash treasure (depending on how you look at it). My little 20x20 space in all of that mess will be at Heritage Fellowship in Florence Kentucky. Sale starts at 8:00 am on Thursday, August 1 and runs through Saturday, August 3rd. I'm not sure when we'll shut down in the evenings, but we'll probably keep selling as long as their still shopping.

How did The Messy Mom get into this Mess?

The short answer is that the church I grew up at and currently attend is renting lots out.

And while I thought we got rid of tons of stuff before we moved

My popular Don't Just Drive "Buy" sign from our moving sale

we still had an excessive amount of excess. We rented and filled the biggest moving truck we could find when it came time to get what was left in Texas to Kentucky. In the past year and a half most of that stuff has been in storage. After watching each season go by, having a baby, and moving into an apartment it has become clear that we really don't need all that STUFF! So, we've pulled out the trailer, boxed, bagged, and tagged half of it up in hopes that we can get a few bucks for it.

The Prayer Part  

I like having yard sales for the most part.



You get to meet a lot of interesting people and see your beloved memorabilia find new homes. You are forced to haggle, which can be intimidating, but it's also empowering and gets the adrenaline pumping. Plus, you inevitable declutter, so it's always a win.

I am so nervous though. I am nervous about the magnitude of the event,
and whether I have the stamina to run my "shop" by myself for 11 hours a day all weekend long. I have read and heard so many legends of how well people do at this sale that I am worried about getting my hopes up. We are investing about $100 into the sale because of renting a space, buying materials, and gas. On top of all that J is taking 2 days off of this construction job that he has been doing. I wonder if this is going to be worth it in the end or if we would have been better off taking our stuff to Good Will and having the weekend free. I know that these fearful thoughts are not from God. It's just a yard sale! KEEP CALM right?

The Plan

I spent the majority of Saturday sorting and pricing. Wednesday night is set up, and execution begins Thursday at 6:30 am. J is going to swap with me briefly twice a day so that I can breastfeed. In Texas it was like things came to a halt at noon, but from what I hear, there is a steady flow of traffic all day long for this shindig. Once again, pray for me pleeeease. If things go well, we'll be getting a new TV with the earnings so that we can replace this one that is on the floor. We tried balancing all of it's back breaking heaviness onto our media table, but it was too big and there was a good chance that it would fall off and crush one of our children.



Nobody wants that. I make it sound like a charity case, but seriously we could also use some black out curtains for the kids room, and eventually we will probably get a  microwave too. Out with the old in with the new. That's my strategy.

 I will let you know how things pan (btw we've got pans at bargain prices people) out.