One Man's Trash...

I've become a lot more budget conscious since becoming unemployed, not to mention I'm on a new "less is more" kick when it comes to everything to do with our house and what we buy. As my favorite comedian of all time, George Carlin, once said, "a house is just your pile of stuff with a cover on it." He also goes on to say the only reason people move is because they just have "too much stuff - they need a bigger place to store it all." (Okay, some people move because of job transfers, or having another child, or to escape a crime-ridden neighborhood, but in general the "too much stuff" theory works for me, for now.)

Carlin also did a bit once about garage sales that I can't for the life of me find online. His point was that garage sales are basically one person saying, "I do not need all this crap. But I bet if I put it out in front of my house with a price tag on it, someone will pay me for it and take it home with them." Garage sales are just a pile of other people's stuff they don't want anymore.

This past Saturday, I drove by at least eight garage sales. Slowly. Curious to see if they were selling jogger strollers or high quality toys for bargain prices. But something kept me from parking and going into look. One problem was that I only had $4 in cash in my wallet at the time. The other was that I was afraid of getting sucked into all the deals to be had and would walk out with another vase (50 cents!) or a stack of CDs (I love hits of the 80s!) much like the ones I just cleaned out of our den closet. So I kept going, probably missing out on a fabulous deal on someone else's unnecessary crap but perhaps on some fantastic, gently used baby item that would actually be put to good use at our house in the coming year. Maybe I can be talked into becoming the garage sale type. Until then, I'll always hear George Carlin in the back of my mind, telling me I've already got too much stuff.