Been There, Done That: Making the most of yard sale season and furniture wrestling

Finances caused Dave and me to severely limit our yard sale excursions last summer. Not so this year, although we are a bit pickier and not just hitting every single one that pops up. We especially like church/school rummage sales. Many have gone to the bag system — they give you a bag and charge $3-5 for anything you can cram in it.

We’re also partial to moving sales and estate sales and always try to remember to say “sorry for your loss” at the latter. They don’t sell everything in grandma’s house if grandma’s still around.

We also like just your general yard sales, where people saved their stuff all year long for one big weekend sale. We’re not really fond of neighborhood sales. People feel obligated to set up a table just because their neighbors are doing it. Although, the exception to that is when the whole township is hosting sales. They have maps and everything — makes for some nice summer afternoon drives in the country. We’ve gotten a lot of great Christmas gifts and stocking stuffers so far.

Since my elliptical machine died, I’ve been looking for some type of exercise equipment to take its place and give these thunder-thighs a workout. And finally, there it was — a treadmill for only $15. I’m in. It’s a small one and folds in half for easy storage or transport. Dave and the seller had no problem stuffing it in the car. Dave and I only had a slight bit of trouble getting it out and on the back porch.

And that’s where it stayed. I wasn’t even going to think about getting it upstairs until after I figured out if I could make it go. I crawled all over that thing looking for an on/off switch. It doesn’t have one. It’s not the electric kind where you get flung off the back and take out the drywall like you see on those video shows.

This one has a AA battery for the display telling you how long you’ve been on it, how far you’ve gone, and how many calories you’ve burned. As far as on “on” button, it’s just me. Get on and start walking. OK, but it wouldn’t move. At all.

Once the belt got adjusted, I was good to go. Sort of. I could make it move. Barely. I logged five whole minutes. But with time, I’m thinking this thing might be my new best friend. But not on the porch. By the time I got enough of my chores done to even play on it, it was dark outside. Yeah, that’s not happening.

I needed to get it in the house, but of course, it was way past Dave’s bedtime.
That’s fine. There’s no more determined creature on this planet than a woman moving furniture by herself. How hard can this be? I folded it in half and secured it with a couple of the big twisty things the boys had gotten in their stockings last year. Those things are way easier than tarp straps.

Once it was safely tucked in half, I stood it up and walked it up the two steps on the back porch and one step up into the house. Piece of cake. Then I drug it through the kitchen and living room to the bottom of the steps. My intention was to walk it up the stairs just like I did on the porch.

Yeah, that wasn’t happening. I managed to get it up on the landing and aimed in the right direction — up. And then we kind of hit a snag. Apparently, the treadmill was very tired. All it wanted to do was lay down on the steps.

That wasn’t working for me. It was too heavy to push, so I crawled over top of it to the upstairs landing and tried to drag it. I tugged and pulled and finally managed to get it up one step and then another. It was a hard-fought battle, but in the end I emerged victorious. The treadmill is in place in the football room. All I have to do now is learn how to make it go.