How Hoarders Start?

A few months ago I met a new Fort Meade friend who has a lot of consignment sale experience.  I have some, thanks to my longtime babysitter back in Tennessee, but this woman has A LOT!  And a heart for adoption.  So, of course, we became friends quite quickly and had lots to share and chat about.  Not a bad way to start a new friendship if you ask me.

Well, after a few conversations, this new friend suggested that I collect items to sell at one or more of the spring consignment sales to help raise money for the Jack Fund.  She told me that she once made over $800 at one sale, but that she did it by having a huge number of items to sell.  She encouraged me to send out the plea to my friends in the area as well as the Fort Meade community and see what I could collect.  I told her I’d think about it, but wasn’t quite sure I wanted to jump into that scene as consigning takes a lot of time and, well, I just don’t have a whole bunch of that to spare these days.

Obviously, I ended up changing my tune as I did decide to go the consignment route.  I figured that I had done the same thing back in the fall with the She-Sale and had made a couple hundred dollars so if nothing else I could sell my own things – clothes too small for Ellie, baby gear we definitely don’t need anymore, whatever toys we are finished with, etc.  I hoped that I would get a few donations from my friends at church and maybe a few things from around base, but I never imagined I’d get the response I did.

I made the announcement I was collecting items to consign the last week of January and the donations started rolling in.  Friends from church contacted me to say they had clothing, baby gear, room decor and toys.  A couple of those friends even had other friends (who don’t know me) who wanted to donate things to the sale as well.  Friends here on base let me know they had clothes and toys and a high chair I could sell.  And then there were the donations from the bigger Fort Meade community.  People I didn’t even know saw my post on Facebook about collecting items to raise adoption funds and contacted me with donations – pack-n-plays, books, toys, clothing, bassinets, ride-on toys, bouncy seats, activity mats, and on and on.  The response was amazing!  And the best part was that each time I collected something else to sell, I had one more chance to talk adoption with just one more listening ear.  This was turning out to be a GREAT plan!

Soon, however, I had boxes of donated items taking over our dining room.  I had items stashed in the "secret" room under our stairs.  I had a rocker and ottoman, exersaucer, electric car, bassinets and more stacked in our garage.  One corner of Ellie's room was now an organized pile of crib mattresses, activity mats, baby bedding, and pack-n-plays.  And I suddenly had a lot of work to do!

My plan was to consign through the Wee-Sale in Annapolis March 23-27.  To accomplish this, without losing control of my life, I decided I would begin hanging clothes and tagging items on or before March 1st.  The deadline for entering tag information into the computer was midnight on March 21, so I figured that gave me three weeks to get the work done.  I also figured that this way I could take my time and be done way ahead of that midnight deadline.   Ha!  It gave me three weeks, yes.  But it turned out I had about six weeks worth of work to do.  Donations were great, but I didn't really understand just how many items people had donated until I started hanging and pricing.

I posted a blog earlier about sorting through each bag of donations so I won't bore you with all of the details here, but I will explain that it took quite a bit of time.  Each bag or box of donations I collected had to be sorted by what I could sell at a spring consignment sale and what was not seasonally correct.  Then, all of what wasn't seasonally correct needed to have a home designated for it - hand-me-downs, clothing swap, sell yard sale style via the Fort Meade for sale page, donate to another family or Salvation Army, or trash.  Each item that was right for a spring sale also had to be sorted by size and gender as well as inspected for stains, tears, missing buttons, etc.  Anything falling into the latter categories then also had to have a future destination determined for it as I could not sell imperfect items.  Many of these items wound up in a stack designated for Maria's Big House of Hope as their weather, like ours, is just starting to warm up and spring clothes will be needed despite minor flaws in their condition.  None of this is really difficult to do, of course, but it did turn out to be quite an undertaking.  I would estimate all total I sorted through no less than 1000 pieces of clothing in addition to the toys, baby gear, bedding, books, etc.  I know that probably sounds like an exaggeration, but it really might actually be a conservative estimate.  Needless to say, three weeks probably wasn't a wise time frame.  

Oh!  And I ended up begging almost everyone I know for hangers!  After buying a few at Wal-Mart and then seeing how far they were not going to fill my need, I started sending out the plea.  Luckily, people answered.  I was given hangers by Mommy & Me friends, post friends, complete strangers, and even Old Navy.  Remember that friend that got me into this? Well, she was gracious enough to hit the mall late one night and collect hangers from the "trash" at Old Navy. And then there was the trip I made to Old Navy a week or so later as I still didn't have enough.  Apparently they simply throw them away each night so if you ever need hangers...  That picture there is just one of the bags we collect from Old Navy.  =)

Well, after hanging clothes for several long nights, I found that not only was my garage filled with items to sell, but so were all of our closets.  Ellie's closet was filled from end to end with girls' clothing ranging from newborn up to junior's size 3.  

When I started putting boys' clothing in Jolene's closet I originally told her I was going to need about half her closet.  I pushed Dan's army gear over to the left and moved her dresses a bit to right and started hanging boys' clothes in the middle.  By the end, however, I had shoved Dan's army gear WAY to the left, had moved Jolene's dresses down to the farthest right and I still ran out of room and had to start moving into Becca and Sophie's closet.  

Becca and Sophie's closet, which is naturally more used simply because it is shared by two people, began as a maternity clothes holding zone.  Then I started adding in the boys' overflow.  Then, I ended up adding in a few junior pieces that no longer fit in Ellie's room.  

 

As I said, this was beginning to take over our house.  And I think it was right about this time that Dan came in from the garage one day, looked me straight in the eye and said, "I think this is how hoarders start."  I assured him that ALL of these things were in our home temporarily, but I'm not entirely sure that brought him much comfort.  Good thing he hadn't actually seen what was hanging in the closets upstairs, but he had been living with a tower of "stuff" in the dining room for weeks by this time.

It was also about this time that I realized I might have another problem.  How was I going to get all of these things from our house to Annapolis (25 minutes away) for the sale?  It was obviously going to fill my car more than once, and was going to take more than one trip.  Not a problem as long as I signed up for two drop-off times, right?  Well, would you believe that there was a problem with that plan?  I mean, come on, you didn't actually think any part of this adoption plan was really going to go by without a hitch did you?  Just not in the cards I would say.

Well, it turned out to be two really good things that I decided to consign early and I started working with my inventory at the end of February rather than waiting for the last week before drop-off.  Apparently, when I registered to consign at the Wee-Sale, back in January, I managed to register for the Wee-Cycle Sale instead.  Two totally different things.  One in Annapolis in March, one on post in May.  Luckily, the oops! sale is here on post and not hours away so I can still use that registration, but not what I intended to do.  Getting to work early though allowed me to catch this mistake and thus get registered for the correct sale.  It also allowed me to sign up very early for my volunteer slots (you earn a higher percentage if you volunteer to work) and get a good drop-off time, 7pm - after Dan is home from work so no kids and multiple trips, not a problem.  But then there was the next problem.

Come the first few days of March I attempted to log into the Wee-Sale data base to download the list of suggested prices for items.  My goal was to price low and sell!  Only I couldn't log in.  The system kept saying I wasn't registered.  I knew I was registered (for the correct sale) because of my having to switch things over back in January and working with the sale coordinator to do so.  Somehow the database remembered my volunteer times, but not that I was registered or had a drop-off time.  Yikes!  After a couple of unanswered emails I finally registered for the sale again, ugh!, and went directly to the drop-off page to see if my time was there and what was left if it wasn't.  Of course it was not there and the only times available now were either 8 o'clock in the morning or 2 o'clock in the afternoon.  Do I need to mention those times are not great for a mom of four with one starting school at 8 am and the other three napping from 1 until 3 in the afternoon?  Thankfully, I have a wonderful neighbor who graciously volunteered to sit at my house during naptime so that I could take the 2 pm slot so I quickly signed up.  Now what to do with the double load problem...

 

Have I mentioned that Fort Meade Facebook For Sale page yet?  Oh, like 100 times?!  Well, it definitely came to my rescue.  About a week before my drop-off time I started posting pictures of the bigger items I had to consign.  I wasn't worried too much about transporting clothes, but I had some pretty big items in my possession so I figured if I could sell a few of those here on base I would lighten my transportation load a bit.  This turned out to be a great idea.  Not only did the items I was selling go to military families, a huge perk as far as I am concerned, but I didn't have to pay a commission to the consignment sale and I sold over $300 worth of items.  Oh!  And I sold enough to actually fit everything I was consigning into one, very full, van load the time of my drop-off slot.  Which by the way, I must admit turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  Since I ended up with that 2pm naptime slot the drop-off area was very un-busy so I was able to check in all of my over 200 items and have them out on the floor in just about one hour.  If I had gone at my original drop-off time, I would most likely have been there closer to three hours for the same task.  Guess this wasn't as much of a hitch as I thought it was. =)

 

Well, when it was all said and done, I was able to enter 262 "items" into the consignment sale registry with many of these items really being two or three or four articles of clothing all bound together as a set.  I sold well over 50 items via the Fort Meade facebook page.  I took eleven grocery bags of clothing to the MOPS clothing swap which were then either "adopted" by another MOPS mom or donated to Teen Challenge.  I kept one plastic tub's worth of, hopefully, size-appropriate off-season clothing for Jack.  I sent three or four bags of clothing to a family on base who just added a baby girl to their family of three sons.  I have taken one load of donations to Salvation Army and have another load waiting to go.  And I have sent one box of clothing to Maria's with several more "shipments" awaiting their departure over the next few months.  What started out as a maybe-I'll-make-a-few-dollars project actually blossomed into one of those gifts that just keeps on giving!

 

Oh!  And I got my consignment sale check today - $654.19!!  Not bad for an idea that started out as maybe-I'll-make-a-buck, huh?  Add that to the $340.65 we raised through Fort Meade and we raised  $994.84!!  How about that?! One big job on this end, but one HUGE step in the right direction for paying adoption fees!  Definitely well worth the effort!

And, finally, a GREAT BIG, HUGE, ENORMOUS thank you to everyone who helped in this effort.  Thank you to those who donated.  Thank you to all of those who helped organize.  Thank you to all of those who purchased.  Thank you to those who helped with delivery.  Thank you to everyone else that I am forgetting to thank.  And just thank you, thank you and thank you!  I never imagined we would be this successful!  God is good!  And He is still AMAZING me!!

Wee-Sale prior to opening

Wee-Sale

 

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everfyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!”  Matthew 7:7-11

  

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 4:6-7