Giving it all Away

Since moving back into our home two weeks ago, our hallways have been decked with large cardboard boxes filled with items deemed unneeded.

Clothes, shoes, books, magazines, DVD’s, sporting equipment, cooking utensils, art & photography supplies and even a Ken doll brand new, still in his box.

Yesterday being Friday, I decided that I would hold my FREE garage sale on Saturday.  I wrote my advertisement and listed it within my Sydney City Freecycle group (there are Freecycle groups all over Australia and the world).

My ad:

Hi All,

We thought we would have a garage sale but instead of charging for the items we
would offer it all for FREE to our Freecycle group.

Here are the details:

This Saturday the 14th of August from 11am to 3pm (don’t come earlier or later
as times are exact). We will not be holding or saving any items for anyone i.e.
first in first served until all items are gone.

Here are the type of stuff we are giving away:

* Ladies & Mens clothes & shoes
* Some children’s toys
* Books – cooking, photography, business & novels
* Magazines – computer, photography & some others
* Art supplies
* Bags
* Some kitchen stuff
* DVD’s & CD’s
* Heaps of bits and pieces.
* We are adding more stuff to the pile all the time – we are all in the mood to
have a big clean out!

All items are of in good condition and some are brand new. We wanted to give it
all away rather than selling it – creates positive energy.

Sarhn

Come Saturday at 11am people came from what appeared to be ‘nowhere’. We met many families, single parents, students and even a photography teacher looking for supplies and items for her students (what a A+ teacher!).

I had a blast watching people’s face light up when they found something that they really needed or wanted.  What was really lovely, was that everyone wanted to share their ‘find’ story with us.  A single mother shared how excited she was to find white shirts for her son’s school uniform.  There was a geography student who went out of his way to tell me how excited he was to find a collection of Australian maps.

The best of all was the little boy who wondered further than our hallways into our lounge room and shouted “Dad, dad dad they are giving away their big TV!”.  His little excited face soften when my husband had to be the bearer of bad news.  Later, I found a Yo Yo in one of the boxes and gave it to him and his little excited face returned, grinning wider than ever before.

Within two hours 98% of everything had gone.  Noticing two pillows remained, I wondered what I was going to do with them as it was obvious no one would take them.  Moving my attention quickly to other matters, I forgot those two pillows until I turned around and saw this…………

Looks like Mini & Cooper have claimed the pillows for themselves.  How could I say ‘no’ to these faces?

Yes they are spoilt but they deserve having the pillows, as they worked hard helping me with the Freecycle give away.

What a fantastic day!  Giving stuff away is far more rewarding then trying to sell it.

If you don’t believe me, let me leave you with a text message I received from a lady who’s husband and three children came to our free garage sale:

“Dear Sarhn,

Thank you for your generous contribution to the Freecycle concept.  My husband and three children brought home two boxes of your goodies and they are all delighted with themselves.

Kind regards

Louise”