The neighborhood I grew up in had an annual community yard sale the same weekend every year. The only way to describe it was epic. Most of the houses in the ‘hood would participate and thousands of people from the Spokane area would converge on our streets to find that certain hidden treasure. It was like a carnival atmosphere. Outside vendors would come in to sell elephant ears, driving down the street would be near impossible, and music would boom from the garages of each participating house.

Well, guess what?…

1. My parents still live in the same neighborhood that they did 20 years ago.
2. The community yard sale was last weekend.
3. And Sidney had stuff to sell.

So there we were on Saturday and Sunday, selling tons of little kids clothes and toys, just trying to make an honest buck. Soggy weather on Saturday made it a wet affair but by Sunday the sun decided to poke through. But it didn’t matter if the weather was damp or warm because our merchandise seemed to fly off our tables. Sales were strong on Saturday and on Sunday we were able to clear out most of our remaining inventory but one thing remained…

On Saturday morning the rain was falling so we had to confine all our items to my parents’ garage. Luckily we had our marketing team, which consisted of my kids and my sister’s kids, to let people know that we were selling.

A couch.

Although most of our items were sold by Sunday afternoon, that couch you see just under the garage was still for sale.

The first “big” item that Sid and I ever bought together was a $688 couch we purchased from a furniture store in Myrtle Beach in April 2016. We wouldn’t live together until after we were married in June of that year but we wanted to start preparing. I still remember the salesperson and how comfortable the couch felt inside the store. I also remember the small shot of adrenaline that circulated through my veins as we made the joint purchase.

This was our couch when it was brand new and inside a Myrtle Beach furniture store.

Let me tell you, that couch was just as comfortable in the furniture store as it was in our living room…all four of them. Yep, that piece of furniture followed us to four different houses in South Carolina and Washington. It had a great run but last year we upgraded to a new couch and our first ever piece of furniture was regulated to the garage. It sat with our vehicle until this past weekend.

Sid and I took a photo after we made our first big purchase together because why not?

Unlike Sloan’s old jackets and Beau’s sleep sacks, the couch didn’t move during yard sale weekend. We didn’t price it and just asked for a best offer. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a bidding war let alone a single inquiry. As Sunday afternoon rolled in, I was starting to get nervous. The couch was still in my parents’ driveway and not selling it was out of the question. I had to take action.

Once Sunday afternoon came around we were selling the last of our items but the couch was still hanging around in my parents’ garage.

I threw up a photo of the couch on Facebook Marketplace and hoped for the best. I didn’t have to “hope” long. Within 10 minutes I already had someone message me to say they would gladly pay the $125 for the piece of furniture. It only took 30 minutes from my correspondence with the prospective buyer for my dad and I to have the couch in his (my father’s) truck and en route to its new owner. For the first time in nearly 3,000 days, the couch spent the night under the roof of a residence not inhabited by Sid and I.

It only took 10 minutes on Facebook Marketplace for us to sell the couch. We then loaded it on my dad’s truck and we delivered the piece of furniture to its new owner.

It’s funny. Sometimes a method you think will be a sure-fire way to get something done ends up not working out. However, once you make an adjustment and do something different, you sometimes see immediate results. It’s okay, Camelot Yard Sale, I won’t hold the couch against you. Don’t Blink.