"That's all you need in life, a little place for your stuff. That's all your house is: a place to keep your stuff. If you didn't have so much stuff, you wouldn't need a house. You could just walk around all the time." -- George Carlin

The house is stuffed with stuff. The closets a e basement is stuffed. The garage is so stuffed we had to rent a room for the extra stuff, and the room is stuffed too.

Too much stuff, I announced. We're having a garage sale. Every great retail fortune has to start somewhere.

Sam Walton started out with a single dime store. Bob Nardelli came to Home Depot from GE and pocketed $256 million in six years. How hard could it be?

Day One: I put an ad in the paper. I made some signs. I opened the garage door and was almost killed by the avalanche. I started sorting stuff.

There was lawn equipment. There were tools. There was lumber. There were piles of old clothes. There were dozens of carefully mislabeled boxes.

I hauled stuff to Goodwill. I hauled stuff to the curb. I re-shelved stuff to keep. I set out tables full of stuff to sell: baby clothes and baby beds, books, a ceramic cow, clocks, kitchen utensils and pots and pans, an old stereo with a dual tape deck. (One deck was broken, but hey, who listens to cassettes anymore?)

Continue Reading"That's all you need in life, a little place for your stuff. That's all your house is: a place to keep your stuff. If you didn't have so much stuff, you wouldn't need a house. You could just walk around all the time." -- George Carlin

The house is stuffed with stuff. The closets a e basement is stuffed. The garage is so stuffed we had to rent a room for the extra stuff, and the room is stuffed too.

Too much stuff, I announced. We're having a garage sale. Every great retail fortune has to start somewhere.

Sam Walton started out with a single dime store. Bob Nardelli came to Home Depot from GE and pocketed $256 million in six years. How hard could it be?

Day One: I put an ad in the paper. I made some signs. I opened the garage door and was almost killed by the avalanche. I started sorting stuff.

There was lawn equipment. There were tools. There was lumber. There were piles of old clothes. There were dozens of carefully mislabeled boxes.

I hauled stuff to Goodwill. I hauled stuff to the curb. I re-shelved stuff to keep. I set out tables full of stuff to sell: baby clothes and baby beds, books, a ceramic cow, clocks, kitchen utensils and pots and pans, an old stereo with a dual tape deck. (One deck was broken, but hey, who listens to cassettes anymore?)

Continue Reading..