I was cleaning up and organizing the other day, trying to throw out and get rid of some of the things that I didn't need anymore.  It's really difficult to throw things away, and as I was cleaning up my basement, I found things that I haven't looked at or used in 15 years.

When I first started cleaning, I thought I would have a yard sale, trying to sell all of my old stuff.  I knew that I had a lot of things that other people would be interested in having.  For example, I had a small 13 inch TV, four place settings of a Lenox china pattern that was never really used in our house, some old clothes and other odds and ends.

First, I put everything that I wanted to keep into some big boxes; trying to organize and sort it I was amazed at how much stuff I had collected.  The stuff that I wanted to sell at my yard sale, I put into another pile.  The third pile was junk.  I was amazed at how much stuff was total trash.  I recycled as much as I could, and the rest ended up in the trash bin.

I figured I had about 10 tables worth of goods for my yard sale.  I asked my friends if they wanted the go in and bring their stuff over and have a yard sale together, and they agreed.  I put an ad in the newspaper, put price stickers on the television the Lenox china pattern, and all the clothing to get ready.

I usually watch the 10 o'clock news every night before going to bed.  The day before the garage sale I skipped the news, because I knew I was going to have to get up in earlier than usual.  The next morning I woke up and saw a huge downpour.  There was no way I could have my garage sale with a flooded garage.  Instead, I packed up all of the stuff to take to the Salvation Army, and took the tax write off instead.