And so the Craig's List madness begins

Whenever I'm faced with a large or quasi-unpleasant task, I ask myself, "Do I have more time or do I have more money?" The answer to that question indicates whether I'll do the task myself (a.k.a. DIY) or hire someone else to do it for me. Usually, the answer to this question is all I need to point me in the right direction.

Usually, but not always. In the endeavor to wrap things up at our Portland house and get outta Dodge by the end of the month, the term "March Madness" has been given a whole new meaning. Jeremy and I are still running our wedding officiating business (brides don't care that we're undertaking an entirely new lifestyle change--as well they shouldn't since they're about to make a pretty significant lifestyle change of their own). So, since that show must go on, we have to squeeze in the rest of our lives--no matter how unmanageable--around that.

Ergo, the answer to the question, "In regard to selling our crap, do we have the time to list everything on Craig's List/Ebay and have an estate sale or do we have more money to give the whole kit 'n kaboodle to an auction house?"

No brainer, thought we. Time is at a premium. Money less so. On Tuesday, I placed a call to the auction house. On Wednesday, the nice auction lady came over. Bear in mind that our house is full of new furniture and other items that we have purchased within the past six months. Our receipts show the new stuff totaling close to $10,000. Throw in the stuff that we already had and I figure we're conservatively looking at about $12,000 worth of some primo booty. We figured we'd settle for an offer of $3,000, and eagerly hoped for something closer to $4,000 from the nice auction lady.

Apparently, I don't know horse manure from shinola when it comes to used furniture values. The nice auction lady offered us $1,250 for our stuff. I thought Jeremy was going to go into anaphylactic shock on the spot. Bad auction lady!

So, after reviving my husband, we decided that maybe we have more time than we thought (or less money than we thought, depending on how you look at it) so we began the process of Craig's List posting. And as usual, this is bringing us into contact with all the interesting, fun, thoughtful and crazy people of the greater Portland area. The first guy that came over spoiled us. He was an absolute sweetheart who ended up walking through the house with us to see what else we had that he might want in addition to the item for which he originally came (which he did buy). We ended up having a great conversation (his wife is expecting a baby and her due date is the same date as my daughter Alyssa's birthday. What are the odds? We're practically soul mates!) and he picked up some tools for a song.

Life was good...until prospective customer #2 blew us off for his appointment, then finally showed up three hours late, asked a bunch of nosey questions and tried to get us to sell him our brand new dining room set for a pittance (after telling us what a POS it was).

Yeah...Jeremy firmly escorted him to the door.

Ya gotta love the world of Craig's. It's such a microcosm of our society. And since Jeremy and I met on CL, we do hold a special place in our hearts for it. And the good news is that we've already sold enough stuff to make the $1,250 that the auction lady would have given us so anything over and above is profit...well...sorta...

If nothing else, dealing with the "public" (as Jeremy often says, always with air quotes) is allowing me to focus on something else (like is the next CL joker that comes through the door going to be an ax murderer?) rather than my ambivalence at getting rid of some of my favorite pieces. No kidding, if Jeremy says, "it's just stuff" one more time, there's going to be a serious accident around here. Last night he dared to refer to my Serta Perfect Sleeper King Sized Royal Comfort extra Firm mattress as STUFF!!! Can you believe it??? The first mattress of my entire adult life that is Goldilocks-just right for me. And he called it "just stuff"!!!

Yeah, all I'm sayin' is, "who's the crazy one now?"



Maureen Thomson and Jeremy Myers are a husband and wife team offering professional housesitting services worldwide. Visit our HouseSitting Couple website for more information.