Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Auction Acumen!

I've always been interested in auctions. I don't know if it's the bargain hunter in me or the furniture fanatic (my house would be overrun by chests of draws, chairs and shelves if I didn't keep it in check) that has always enjoyed the pursuit of a wonderful piece at a bargain basement price.

On Saturday, Troy and I were conducting a couple of mystery shops out of town and decided to keep ourselves busy between the engagements by checking out the estate sale that they were having at the local county fairgrounds. They had everything there from bedroom furniture to benches, tables to school desks. It was great! I guess I got caught up in the enthusiasm of it all since prices were so cheap and I ended up purchasing two chairs for my front room!

A word to the wise: These auctions move fast and you had better pay attention or you could be buying more than you bargained for. I thought that I had bid $30 for the SET of two chairs. What I had agreed to instead was $30 EACH. While it was a mistake, $30 each for the chairs was still a bargain and it could have been a MUCH more costly lesson to learn.

I fear I could have walked out of there with more furniture than my house can handle. Luckily for me, I was limited to the capacity of my little four-door Mercury Mystique.

Next time.....a VAN!

#80. Have all of my Christmas decorations down, organized and put away by January 15th.

Let me just start out by explaining some things to those who may not know me well. I'm sure some people saw this on my list and thought, "Well, that would be EASY!" I'm certain that for most people it probably is, but for me, it's a monumental task.

I can't even blame my tardiness in tidying up on having a front yard bedazzled with holiday cheer or a 9 foot Christmas tree decked with every ornament known to man! Now, sometimes I do put up two trees and really do up the back room of my house because that's where everyone is when they come for our holiday dinner. But even that doesn't require days to set up or take down.

No, it's much simpler than all of that..... I just get bored VERY easily and there are MUCH more interesting things to do once all of the frivolity of the season has passed. It's also bad that I'm a bit of a perfectionist and there have been several years when I have taken everything down in such a hurry (once in April before I threw a baby shower (YIKES!)) that when I went to take it all out the next year, I was appalled at myself! My vision of my Christmas storage was always neatly labeled boxes stored on sturdy shelves so that the next year when I went to deck that halls, it would be an experience free of broken ornaments and taggled strands of light.

Well, for once Christmas of 2008 may bring the joy of the season that I seek! All of my Christmas decorations are (finally) neatly stored in labeled boxes on sturdy shelves in my basement! Yeah! I even had the forethought to seperately box up all of my miscellaneous Halloween and fall decorations as well. (I usually find those in March or April when I'm putting away the Christmas decorations.) Perhaps now I'll be able to put them to good use as well.

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