How Much Is Enough Stuff?

My brother, who is four years my senior, used to be what I termed a garage sale junkie. Living in California where the weather is almost always nice, most Saturdays would find him prowling the neighborhoods for the frequently displayed garage sale signs. I was staying with him at the time and was amazed at the collection he was amassing.

One Saturday when he came home with, among other things, a couple of leaflet holders I questioned the wisdom of that particular purchase. His answer was (you guessed it), “They were an unbelievable bargain!” Really? Yeah… they were FREE.

When I asked what the advertising displays were for he explained that he was planning his OWN garage sale soon and that these would help him advertise the event. That sounded like a good idea all around, especially if it meant clearing out a space for me to park my car. A triple-car garage should have enough room for at least one vehicle, right?

He met a nice woman and eventually moved in with her, necessitating the vacating of his previous premises for the new tenant… me! Since it was to be my home away from home he left nearly all the furniture and appliances, since his girlfriend already had all this stuff. It made my transition a whole lot easier too. I also inherited the garage full of ‘stuff’, which he promised would be removed post-haste.

True as usual to his word he showed up with a big truck and started packing it full of the garage’s contents to relocate to a rented storage locker. He needed two, full-sized ones. I was finally able to drive my car into one of the bays and had room for my motorcycle too. It was great.

I found a nice collection of clothing in the master bedroom closet, all in my size and neatly displayed on expensive wooden hangers (not the plastic cheapies I was used to using). He said I could wear anything I wanted and to treat the house as though it was mine. This is a very thoughtful brother.

Today, five years later, I live halfway around the globe, having relocated from Sacramento to Cebu. Before I moved out he had to come to the house and cart everything to ANOTHER storage facility, where he rented two more units. Maybe it’s finally time for him to have that garage sale of his own!

Bob Proctor has been writing articles since 2002 and is an expert on wooden hangers , however he also likes to write about snowball microphone