Boy, what a weekend!  The 127 garage sales were so much fun.  Tiring, but fun!  It’s hard work getting in and out of a car over and over and over all day long!  haha…  I never thought about it until this weekend.  The garage sales were close together, almost close enough to walk to each but then you have your treasures and such, and well, out here in rural land, it just meant to had to bring your car to each one.  I saw some folks with golf carts!  Wonderful!  I think that would have been a super way to get around!

So, I went on Thursday with Miss Julia, and that is where I scored the biggest haul for sure…  first up with a quad of 2 drawer filing cabinets for $10.  Total.  Pretty darn cool!

 

Being the master dealer I am… I offered them $10 for the group instead of the $12 and the lady was eager to be done and she said… SOLD!  I was so happy!  You see, I have a lot of crafts that I like to do.  And storing them all, well, it was getting a little out of hand.  Plus I just wanted something that would be easy to retrieve and sort and also, would have a “set” place for it’s belonging.

I was going to invest in a set of Ikea shelves and use baskets and stuff to store it all but when I started to price it all out, I was already up to $200 and that was just toooooo much for me.  And then I began to think, those baskets and such will not keep things tidy and dust free and then the cats get in them and all that.  Being so close to a fairly busy road means a lot of dust.  We dust weekly!  Honest!  And still stuff gets dusty.  So I got the idea that I wanted short filing cabinets.  And each hobby would get ONE drawer.  When it is full, then there is NO MORE acquiring stuff until there is room in the drawer.  I love that idea!

Doesn’t that look nice?  Now I happened to score the big black lateral file cabinet at another sale on Friday and it was only… $10!  Yahoo!  So for $20, instead of $200,  I got tons of storage AND a sort of shelf for a few other things.  (I’m still thinking it’s a little too cluttered and will be working to get it less cluttery…  but hey, you must start somewhere.  Remarkably, all my crafts except two fit into ONE drawer only.  My wool working/spinning stuff is in the two lovely picnic baskets.  And my scrapbooking stuff is in 4 Ikea boxes in my office.  I ran out of filing cabinet drawers!  I think I really need two more, 2-drawers and then I will be complete.  The white shelf at the end is Maggie’s sign company stuff, and it could be moved to make a whole bank of drawers.  A future goal.

Now…  my plan is to get some metal paint, in a nice color, perhaps a neutral brown, and paint all the fronts of the cabinets the same.  And then have Maggie cut me some cute vinyl letters that call out the contents in each drawer!  Wouldn’t that be cool?  Definitely a winter project but one in the old card stack of to-dos!

Right now, I’m just digging that fact that my stuff is not all scattered about and in one place.  Well, almost.  Darn scrapbooking stuff.

I really like the new rule… One drawer and that’s it.  A lot of these crafts, I haven’t done for years but I just can’t seem to part with the supplies.  But now, having one drawer for it, well, that’s okay.  It’s not that much room.  It’s a limiting rule that will keep me from going nuts and bulking up on supplies.  I have one drawer of sewing stuff.  One of beads and jewelry making supplies.  One for yarn, one for needlework, one for weaving, and one for art supplies.  One of them is all my CDS.  And another is all my recorded materials; personal video camera tapes and mini disk recordings and such.

I go around and around with my ‘style’ and what suits me in decorating and such.  So often I am leaning towards less, less, less.  I like a simple clean uncluttered look.  Yet the minah bird in me loves things.  Pretty things, sentimental things.  It’s like having two personalities!  I keep thinking there has to be a happy medium.  I’m getting there.  I think the cabinets will really work out nicely.  I think I could probaby use about 2 or 3 more and then be a super happy camper!  I already have cleaned out a bunch of clutter in my teeny room and office and it’s so much nicer.  Easier to work in there, great to see what is up and what has to be done.   To go from 800 square feet to 2,000 square feet is a challenge not to bulk up with the clutter.  It is for us!  I can’t wait until next week when we are getting a dumpster for a week.  We have a bunch of junk in a shed and our garage and in our junk room that WILL BE sorted and trashed.  Some stuff is going to the free store in town, but so much is just not really good for anyone and needs to be done.  Gone.  To make room for chickens!  hahaha….  Ahem.

All this stuff was in a feed bag for $5!!!  Yes!  FIVE DOLLARS.  The leather stuff alone is worth way more than that.  There were three bridles and bits, reins, a breast collar, halters, and another set of tugs.  All in need of some cleaning, but hey, that’s what Netflix and DVDS are for!  I’ll be polishing and rubbing clean this stuff for a week!  One of the bridles is for a horse, but the other two are pony sized!  Good stuff.  Exciting stuff!  And when you add in the complete harness that I got for $25, I was a happy camper for sure.

Can’t wait for next year!!!!  We ended up going on Friday and Saturday as well, but after Thursdays fantastic finds I think I spent like $10 on Friday (lateral filing cabinet) and then $3 on Saturday ( a book, a little candle tart warmer and something else that I have forgotten…  hmmm….  oh a cute little wood sign with sheep, goats, chickens and a cow on!  Obviously very very important to me!  Hey, it was cute.  I am going to hang it up outside somewhere…)  The girls had a good time as well, and scored a few things here and there.  Maggie got a movie screen for her tv projector thingy that they like to hook up to video games and make HUGE.  Jessy got a older memory card that let her know the Nikon camera she bought a few months ago works!  (She got the camera for free with a lens…  the people thought it was broken, but it’s not!  The card must have been bad that they had!!!  It’s a Nikon D70 DSLR…  nice camera!!!)

We’ll have to save up for next year, no doubt.  I wish I would have gotten the pony cart for $30, even in rough shape…  I’m finding now that it was a DEAL and a half…  even ratty ones on Craigslist are $100 or more.  And we saw farm equipment like tube gates and feeders as well as things like trailers and other good things for like next to nothing!  It was a fun weekend for sure!!!!

 

 

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