The Hottest New Suburban Mom Trend

Why am I always the last to know about anything cool? I thought we were friends.

I hate garage sales. And yard sales. I don’t want to go through the hassle of pricing, staging and standing around trying to sell things in my front yard. Especially things that will only bring around 50 cents. Selling things takes patience and I have none.

We are moving, and as you would expect, have accumulated a lot of unnecessary stuff over the last seven years in this house. Things simply had to go. What was I to do?

Then, someone told me about Varage Sale and my world was forever changed. It was instantly somehow a little brighter and full of rainbows and promise.

What is Varage Sale you ask? Varage Sale is a friendly community-based marketplace where people can buy and sell in a friendly, fun and non-threatening environment.

If you don’t already have it go immediately and download the app. All you have to do is join a community and you are ready to start hammering out deals. It works like this:

• You upload a picture of what you would like to sale, assign it a category (furniture, clothing, electronics), and name your price.
• Then your item is added to the feed.
• People who are interested will comment on the item.
• The first person to comment has the first right to purchase the item. If they choose not to, or pass on the item as it is called, then the next person in line is up.

On Varage Sale you have to follow the rules. The rules are what keeps the community site flowing, and it keeps things fair. If you don’t follow the rules people will call you out.

On Varage Sale your reputation as a buyer or seller is everything. Do not screw it up.

Say someone agrees to buy your posted item, then what happens? You agree to meet in a public location and exchange goods for money. That way a serial killer doesn’t show up at your house to murder you. That is a win for anyone.

Let’s just say Varage Sale is one of the top ten best things that has ever happened to me in my life. It is going to help me get rid of the things I no longer need and get them to people who could use them. And also give me a little cash! And everyone likes cash.

Gahhh purging feels soooooo good.

So I listed everything that I could find. Seriously, it becomes addictive. You start seeing everything in your home as dollar signs. Do we really need that lamp? Because I am pretty sure that baby would bring five bucks.

You get the point.

It didn’t take any time at all before I had sold my first item. I was a pair of baseball cleats, shin guards and an athletic bag. We agreed on a price and a meeting locations. The drop was on.

I headed to my local Walgreens on an early Friday evening, with my sold item in hand. I pulled into the lot and noticed that many of the parking places were already taken. I found an empty spot and parked. I was looking for a woman driving a black Ford. I scanned all of the vehicles. And then I noticed something strange. There were deals going down all around me. Apparently I had pulled into a hot bed of Varage Sale transactions. I stepped out of the car.

One woman was walking toward me and said, “Do you have the book?” I shook my head no. Someone to my left called out, “I have the book.”

Cars were pulling in and backing out. Women trotted back and forth across the parking lot. Items were being exchanged for money at every turn.

Not many words were spoken except for the niceties of hello and thank you. I had unknowingly stumbled into the seedy world of Mom on Mom transactions. It was fabulous!

I spotted my customer. She walked toward me smiling. I handed her the Nike bag stuffed with sports gear and she shoved eight dollars into my hand, and just like that, it was done.

Gone are the days of Friday date nights with that special someone. No more long nights of dancing, concerts or art museums. We are all married with children. Ain’t nobody got time for that stuff anymore!

Now we moms spend our Friday evenings at the local Walgreens trying to make a dollar. But it is more than that for me. I do it for the rush. It feels so right to meet another mom at a rendezvous spot with the sole intention of selling my daughter’s last years coat for seven dollars.

Seven whole dollars.

I now possess a stack of ones that would make your head spin, and my house has been de-cluttered. And moms all over this town are happy with the knowledge that they got a great deal.

The saying is true. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Your son may have outgrown those roller skates, but for six dollars they would fit my son just fine.

Seriously if you haven’t been introduced before, you are welcome.

Happy Varage Selling!

Tonja used to live in the grown up world, but now she has a husband, four kids and a princess dog. She refuses to lose her sanity, or herself. If she’s going to be the mother of four, she’ll do it in great shoes. You can read more about Tonja’s hilarious escapades on her blog. You can also find her Facebook. and Pinterest.