We're $200 Richer!

Today, James and I had a yard sale with our friends, Tab and Don. We went in with pretty low expectations, but came out with $200 in our pocket!

Most of our stuff was home decor, some electronics, a few articles of clothing, and lots of books, DVDs and CDs. James also had two large boxes of movie posters out, and a few of them went, but not as well as we would have liked.

Toward the end of the day, we were sick of being out there and were also dreading packing everything up into the car to bring to Goodwill, so we made a huge sign that said "FREE STUFF". We had a large blanket and a table with free items and the rest of the stuff we continued to sell. Our sign attracted a lot of people and we made a few more sales, but most importantly, we got rid of a lot of stuff that we then didn't have to move again.

The day ended with a trip to Goodwill to drop off the rest of the really nice stuff, and the miscellaneous "junk" got left on the lawn with the free sign. When we went to pick it up tonight, most of it was gone! Yay!

Having a yard sale was such a great experience and I would absolutely do it again. We met some really sweet people, made awesome money, spent the day with our friends, and purged our home of the things that we just don't need anymore. If you plan on having your own sale, I absolutely encourage you to come up with some clever advertising (i.e. FREE STUFF signs) to lure people in, and make sure you don't put your garbage out there--it turns people off. If you think it's crap, it is.

What is our reward for all this hard work being spent on, you ask? Well, I got a new pair of shoes for work. James is going to treat himself to some DVDs, and tomorrow we're going grocery shopping! How's that for exciting!? We're just really happy our planning and saving paid off so well, and that we had a great time doing it!

Sometimes I worry...

...that I am going to be a mean mom. Weird, right? Let me give you some background. One of the families that I work for have two young children (8 and 5) who do virtually nothing to help around the house. They don't pick up the toys in their rooms, they make a mess of the kitchen floor when they eat dinner, they toss things wherever they like and don't have to pick up, etc. I tried to get the older one to help me bring the towels upstairs one day (because I happen to think that an 8-year-old should be able to help out) and she threw a royal tantrum. Don't even get me started on her mother's response...that's another post! At any rate, I wonder sometimes if my expectations for my future children will be too high. Is it too much to ask for your kids to clean their rooms once a week, empty the dishwasher, set the table, or straighten up the shoes in the hallway. When is it the time to "let them be kids" versus the time to prepare them for life by showing them that they have responsibilities. I'm not suggesting that kids be slaves and do chores all the time, but I do think that a 5-year-old can, and SHOULD, help out around the house. The other family that I babysit for has a 5-year-old who unloads the dishwasher and folds the laundry (with help from me), and does a great job! I'm sorry, but I find nothing wrong with including children in the upkeep of the home, and it is really frustrating to work in a home where that doesn't happen at all! It is probably more frustrating for me as the "cleaning lady" because I am doing the chores that I believe the children should be doing themselves. Picking up an 8-year-old's toys and putting her clothes away, knowing that she is capable of doing it herself, can really piss you off! (That's the second time I've sworn on my blog!) Anyway, what do you think? Am I going to be a bad mom if I expect my kids to do chores and help around the house? Should we just let our kids be kids and worry about responsibility when they actually need it, or is it our job to train them so that they can be successful, respectful and competent adults?

I love to clean...

...so when I see fun cleaning products, I just have to check them out (really, who describes cleaning products as "fun"?) I stumbled upon this product a few weeks before Christmas and wanted to buy a bottle for every member of my family.

Having already made or bought most of my gifts (and being on a student budget), I decided against it and figured I would try it before singing its praises and passing it out to the family. From what I can tell, Replenish looks like an awesome idea. The concentrate is eco-friendly, the bottle is reusable, and supposedly the product can be used on any surface. I'm all about one-stop-shopping, I've become a big recycler, and I really like the idea of using green cleaning products. While I haven't ordered my first bottle yet, I plan to do so next week and let you know how it does. In the meantime, let me know if you like what you see and decide to order a bottle for yourself!