In this Fix It or Free It series and Community Garage Sale update, we’re recapping what got accomplished in May. From finally tackling that pile of tangled jewelry to hosting the Larkspur Community Garage Sale. This episode is about momentum, finishing what we start, and finding clarity through simple actions. Whether it’s repairing a clasp or parting with boxes of unused items, we explore how both fixing and freeing create space for what matters most.
In This Episode We Talk About:
- How a small project—like cleaning and fixing jewelry—can bring surprising satisfaction
- Lessons learned from organizing and hosting a large community garage sale
- The shared theme of completion behind both personal and community decluttering projects
Mentioned in this Episode:
- The Fix It or Free It monthly organizing series
- The 2025 Larkspur Community Garage Sale recap blog post
- The podcast episode on the emotional power of finishing things: Episode 125
Review full show notes and resources at https://theorganizedflamingo.com/podcast
Review Transcript:
Hey everyone. Welcome back to this week's episode at Organized and Cherish. I'm Stephanie, your host, and today's episode is a two for one. I'm giving you two updates on a few things that we have been doing here at the Organized Flamingo. One of them is the Fix It or Free It series of 2025. If you're not familiar with what that is, I will give you a quick recap in just a few minutes.
And then I'm doing a quick recap of our annual community garage sale here in our town. I'm gonna give you some of the lessons learned, some of the things that, uh, I would recommend if you're doing a garage sale, if this is a form of your downsizing, decluttering, and or organizing journey. And I mean, we have plenty of content on garage sale, so I won't give you a pros and cons list necessarily.
This is just a recap of this annual event. And yeah, so then we'll, we'll just talk about all that stuff. And of course, as always, let me know if you have questions along the way. As you listen in. Send them over to us at hello@theorganizedflamingo.com and I can answer them in a future episode. So here we go.
Welcome to the Organized and Cherish podcast. With the organized flamingo. I am your host Stephanie, your compassionate and deficient professional organizer. Whether you are part of the sandwich generation helping a loved one declutter, or just trying to simplify life, this is the place for you. Together we will tackle those overwhelming piles of stuff, uncover purpose in what we keep.
And let go with Dignity and care because it's not just about throwing everything away, it's about respecting memories and simplifying life. Sound like a plan? Let's jump in and get organized. So let's start with my Fixer Free IT series of 2025. And when I say my, it's because we're doing it as a group and yes, as a community of the organized Flamingo, but I'm also parting like me personally.
So the quick recap is every month of this year, we chose something that we either will finally fix from the box and pile of the, I will fix it someday and either finally, fix it. Take action. Or make a decision about letting it go or purposefully, very intentionally keeping it in a safe spot to fix it later, truly.
Because I know there's some things that yes, you've been on the limbo about, but this is like all about intention and action. Okay, so that's the quick recap. And so I've been doing this with you along the way. So every month we pick one thing that we will finally fix and or free. We say one, because we want to keep it as simple and actionable and approachable as possible.
So that's why I say, one, some of you are super, you know, excited about this and, and wanted to tackle like all your things in one month, and then realized really quickly that you got overwhelmed and burned out. So that's why my suggestion is one a month. But just kind of look at your own timeline, and you can do it however you would like and works for you.
But I don't want you to get burned out. I just want you to stay consistent with this, with this series. Okay. That's what it is. And so for May, it was jewelry. So every month I've been picking something different because I've been wanting to just kind of see how long things would take to fix and or free.
And so that way going forward, I can see. And determine what is worth my time. So that's why I've been picking different things every month. Some of you will have the same thing, like most of the stuff is like clothing or fabrics or items from your kitchen or garage or you know, et cetera. But I'm picking a little bit of different things every month so that I can see how long and how much it will cost, like my time and my money for different, uh, materials.
So this month I chose jewelry. This was a project that had been quietly bothering me for years. I had this little stash of jewelry. Nothing too fancy, but sentimental. Some of it was tangled in a few pieces that had broken clasps and or were just kind of a little bit dirty, but not, not, uh, completely ruined.
That's the pile. That's, so that's what these were like, it had just really been bothering me. So, you know, they're that kind. Like it's just, you know, it's usable and it's still cute, but it's just sitting around and, and whenever you need it or want to wear it, you're in a rush or you don't have the patience to be going through it and try and untangle it.
So then you just leave it to quote unquote fix it another day so that it's the stuff that we think about. Uh, and then just leave behind. So that's the pile. But that someday has never arrived. I mean, it's been years since that entire, it's like a, I have it in this treasure chest type. It's not, it's like a, it's not meant for jewelry either.
It's like all these little mini treasure chest boxes. So I decided, you know what may is the day, and I haven't tackled jewelry, I've tackled a furniture piece. I've tackled fabric like my, I turned a, an old dress into a skirt. I fixed the, my purse, like my, um, work bag purse, my straps, I have cleaned out the drawer, the, of some of the stuff and, well, I can't think of the other one right now, top of my head, but I've tackled different stuff.
And so jewelry, it was time for me to tackle jewelry. So I set time aside one evening with two simple tools, one, a basic pair of pliers, and here's why I decided on the pliers, because that's really. The only tool that I had that I knew could work on jewelry like that I knew as much, you know, that I had clasps that were broken, and those were the ones that I was keeping.
So I went and got my pliers from a crafting project that I had for many, many years ago, so I didn't have to buy a new one. So it was cool. It was kind of free, but not really. I paid for it, but this was like probably over a decade and I maybe used it twice. So it worked. Then my go-to jewelry cleaner that I use for my wedding ring and when, and for some silver jewelry that I have had in the past that came with some jewelry earrings and so I still have it.
Uh, so it didn't really, so both of those things didn't cost me anything for this project because I already had it. But both of those are fairly low cost. You can get them online, like on Amazon, your local Target, Walmart, or your favorite jewelry store. If you can buy and shop local even better. But you can definitely get, you know, kinda like brass cleaner, silver cleaner, gold cleaner, and then get yourself some kind of pliers or something, or a magnifying glass.
I also had the magnifying glass at your local crafting store. Alright, so I detangled the chains and that took. Almost three total hours. So the first round was about an hour because I just kinda sorted everything. Um, I went through what I did want to actually detangle, and then I threw that, like that was the first phase of me decluttering.
So I got rid of three chains and I was like, you know what? It's not really worth my time. And then I just threw those away. They were not like real, like not gold or silver or any of the materials. And then the rest I put aside and I decided that I did want to take the time to detangle them. That whole process took about an hour, I'd say.
Then I took a little break about. A day's worth or so. And then I put on my favorite TV show and then I detangled, I went to town detangled, all the chains. There were some earrings in there. There was like a, a bunch of jewelry in things in there that took about another hour and a half of detangling it lay, laying them out straight.
And I was already in the mood and in the rhythm, so I just decided to, and I had time to just clean them right there and then. That probably would've taken a whole nother hour and a half, but because I was already in the rhythm or so of the action, that part of cleaning it. So what I did first, wait, it let me back up.
I then sorted it by what was real gold, real silver, and then everything else I, you know, whatever material, material it was. And so I sorted it by that so that I knew what cleaner to use. I did go and visit some of the blo, uh, like blog posts to my, the ju like my jewel jewel local jewelry shop here in Colorado has a blog post.
I actually was about to tag it and give you the recommendation, but she decided to take down her blog for a while. So I don't have that blog post for you, but if you can. You know, go look for your local either jeweler or craft person that works with jewelry. You can probably look it up. Of course now there's all the AI chat GPTs and all that, that you can also ask how to clean the type of jewelry that you have, because it depends on what kind of gemstones you have.
Is it, uh, real? Is it not? Is it play costume? And some of it is antique play costume. So not just because it's not quote like real gold or real jewelry or jewels. Means like it's, it doesn't need special care. Some of those antique pieces and glass that you may have may require special attention. So you can always take a picture, upload it to your favorite AI learning model, or send a picture to your jeweler and ask them how to clean it.
So I did that, and then that took about, um, like I said, I think it was like about an hour and a half. So at this point, I am about four hours in. Then I let it dry, and then I came back the next day. Decided what needed an extra, you know, like another round of cleaning and then started to put everything away so that.
About five to six hours. I didn't do as good of a job as I normally do in documenting the hours because I was on the move a lot last month, uh, in during this month. So I just decided, you know what? It's just done is better than perfect. I know everyone will understand that. I did not document exactly the minutes that I would have in other, like I did with other months, but it did take me about total of about five, six hours if I, you know, I put it all together.
And let me tell you, just seeing those pieces shine again brought the most unexpected joy. I knew that I would be happy that I got it done, but seeing them in my case and just like all nice and organized, and the fact that I can just grab and go as needed has brought me so much joy, and I have worn many of the pieces multiple times now.
Which I'm not a big jewelry person. If you see me in person or even online, I wear definitely earrings and once in a while, like a, a bracelets and stuff here and there, and then a necklace. I will wear like necklaces here and there, but not like, I don't mix it up a lot because I know what I like. But what I realized is also, yes, I do know what I like, but those.
Other pieces were not available to me, so I never grabbed them. And so now I do, and I've been wearing different earrings now, different bracelets. And so anyway, I've had a lot of fun and I was really excited. So not everything made the cut. Like I mentioned, some items were beyond repair or simply not my style anymore.
That was a big one. I did not realize how much I had outgrown as a person. Um, you know, those, the chunky necklace that were like so big in the two thousands. Uh, some other jewelry pieces that I thought were too, too old for me for some reason. Well, I guess now I am older right now. They are my style. So it just kind of brought me a joy to see so many of the things that I actually will wear now because they.
They are my style, but also that I was able to let go of what I thought I would al like. It was a staple at that time and it really wasn't. It was just a fad. So that was really refreshing. Okay. So that, that was the freeing part. That was great. I didn't have to fix as much as I thought I did. It was mainly closing the clasps or some of those little hooks or chains were just kind of loose, you know?
You know what I mean? Like they just don't fully touch each other, the end to end. So I did use my magnifying glass and the pliers for that, and that was. But the fixing really was more about the detangling and the cleaning, and then I let the rest of them go and that was great. Hi, cherish friends. Life can get overwhelming, especially when you're juggling caregiving, clutter and everything in between.
That's why I created the Organizing Cherish Weekly email that goes out every Wednesday straight to your inbox. To help you keep the momentum inspiration going with tips and reminders of our upcoming events, all you have to do is head on over to organize and cherish.com and sign up for the email newsletter.
It's free and you can sub subscribe whenever you'd like. It's my way of helping you simplify your life and respecting memories along the way. Now back to our show. Now let's talk about the Larksburg Community Garage Sale, which is the town that I live in, in Larksburg, Colorado, and once a year I put together and host.
This community garage sale. I've been doing it for about five years now, and I've done it in other communities as well, and or have helped clients put one together of their own so it's not just in this town that I have done them. So that's a little bit of the backstory and I took it from someone else that used to do it.
I used to help them like the first year, and then they decided that they didn't, or were not, they were not able to do it going forward. So I took it on and since this is the line of work that I do, and I've done them before, I decided to be the main sponsor, which means that, uh, you know, my free, my time is not free, but I give in kind my time to put all of it together.
And then it becomes an event. Like it becomes, we get other sponsors to keep the cost down for the, for the community that participates and yeah, so this is, so that's what it is. Okay. It's one of my favorite events of the year. And if you've been following along, you know that this isn't just about selling stuff, it's about creating momentum.
It's about finishing the story behind your things, which is why we are big advocates for garage sales. As a form of your decluttering, organizing, downsizing journey, that it's not just about getting the money, and most likely you won't get at all even close to what you put and or bought the items for. So it's not the financial value, although that could be a bonus of it, but it becomes a process in a great way.
For you to let go of your items in this really final way and in a way that you can continue your story, but also have an end chapter of the story to your things. Okay? We had a Friday flea market kickoff this year and a weekend full of individual garage sales spread around the community. We introduced the flea market about three years ago.
Actually longer than that, and then the town, because part of where we live is unincorporated and also a town. So the actual town decided to do their own garage sale, community flea market one year. So we split it off that year. They came back and said, no, let's just have it as part of the annual event. It sounds like, you know, we just didn't have a lot of momentum when we did it, so we decided to take it back on.
We used to do it on a Sunday, but Sunday was just not very well received. I think between people going to their place of worship like church on Sundays being family days, being on the weekend, we're not exactly on the way to a lot of things, like we're not in a central location type of big city. So I think there's just multiple factors as to why Sunday just did not work.
What was starting to happen is, so Friday and Saturday we would have the garage sale, individual garage sales at the individual driveways, and I think by Sunday people were just over it. You know, they just were tired. They didn't want to bring all their stuff to the flea market at the park. And they just didn't show up, and the cost is so low that they just decided that it wasn't worth their time.
They just said, keep the, keep the money. And that's not what it was about, right? It was about making sure if nobody shows up, then the buyers don't have anything to buy. And so that was really frustrating. So we decided to change it and do the flea market on a Friday. With the individual garage sales being on Saturday and Sunday, that definitely worked better than other years.
So we are taking that into effect. Into effect or to, um, people's opinions like that really seem to work better. We actually might just completely separate the two events, even though people liked the Friday. I think it's just a lot, a lot for everyone, including us who put together the event, but people definitely showed up.
It's just not in the same way as other years. I think there's, there's, uh, outside elements that played a part to, yes. People did show up, like this was our biggest selling year, so people, we had more sellers this year than ever before, but the people buying just was much less, the traffic was much less.
But it was really energizing to watch people take action, like setting up their tables, putting out the signs, chatting with neighbors, and then negotiating their prices and just getting rid of stuff, but buying things that are meaningful to them. So it was great. So, and one of my favorite moments was when somebody walked away with a very, like, I think it was like a dollar find or something.
And that it had been sitting, you know, for them it was like something that was really special, like it got it for a dollar and the other person said, oh my gosh, I didn't even know anyone would want this. This was like a, you know, the bottom of my garage pile. And I'm so glad somebody liked it. Like that connection was, wasn't, is very special to me.
Someone else's trash. Right? It became someone else's treasure, although not trash, but that's how the saying goes. So anyway, that was one of my, my most favorite moments. There's a couple others that stood out. What also stood out this year was the clarity that people walked away with. Um, we have an annual, it was like a survey for both the sellers and the buyers.
Quite a bit of the feedback was like, I didn't realize how much stuff I had that I no longer needed. Or, oh my gosh, this feels so good to have a fresh start. That means like, to me, that is success, you know, because that's the whole point of having this event. One of the reasons we have this community, garel in the way that we do is because we live in a rural place.
So if you are thinking about having one, we have a couple of episodes about this. Okay? So I'm not going to dive into how to do one. I've already talked about it. We do, every year we devote a couple weeks into garage sales and reselling and the pros and the cons and stuff. So we have plenty of material on that, if that's of interest to you.
But that's a reminder for all of you that one of the reasons we have community garage sales is because we live in such a rural place. And so this is a moment where the buyers know that that weekend will be filled with garage sales, so it makes it worth their time to drive to where we are. And that's why we host it once a year.
And of course, everyone can have a garage sale whenever they'd like. But this really kind of makes it worth, worth it for people that are driving, you know, from far away. Because we invite people from all, all over Colorado and out of state, like Wyoming, uh, Wyoming, New Mexico, Texas are our big ones, but we also have like New Mexico, Kansas, Utah, that do come and shop for their consignment stores or for their thrift stores or for their communities and for themselves as well.
That is the update for the garage sale and for the, for the jewelry stuff. Oh, one more thing about the garage sale though. Will I continue to do this again? So I wrote a whole blog post about our, my lessons learned. So if you wanna read that, that'll be in the comments. Um, head on over to our blog. Will I do this again?
I don't know. This is the first year where I'm not sure. I will continue to do it. I'll keep you posted. I might. Okay. So don't be surprised if I come back again and I'm like, oh, we're, we're preparing for our next one. I think there's a bit, for me, there's a mix of. I always think that we need fresh perspectives from different people in the community.
I don't think that any one person should always have a say or put together the same events year after year. I think we, we owe it to ourselves and to the community to have fresh perspectives. I. So that's part of it. I've been doing it for like that. I think at this point it would've been the six or seven.
Oh, so seven years, but it'll be like another eight years. You know, it just feels like it's a lot from the same person doing it over and over again. So, but if nobody comes forward and wants to help or take it over, I will consider doing it. But, but a little differently. Uh, this is the first year that I felt a lot of more, I felt more stressed than ever.
And I have it on autopilot. Okay? So I should actually feel like this is easier or faster and more efficient, and I did not feel that way. So I do need to regroup with myself, with the people that helped. I. Make sure that this is worth my time. That also, you know what, on the other side, like for me as an onlooker, to make sure that garage sales are still worth it for people, because we may not be in an era where people are buying the way that they used to, even in resell or for low cost.
Okay, so that might be something that's changing. So I will be keeping an eye out for that, which will help our community to, I'll be, you know, be able to give you some perspective over if garage sales are even worth it because people, because if people are not buying, then obviously it's not worth it. So, okay.
So that's the quick recap. That's it for this week. So fixing the jewelry and hosting a community garage sale might seem unrelated, but I wanted to just mix it both on, in this episode to give you all the latest up updates on the events that I had been talking about for a while. But you know what, both of them were acts of completion, so you know, it, it finalizes the part about letting go of your stuff, like finally making decisions that.
Are action oriented. So I think both of these events, uh, show me that and hopefully inspire you to finally take action so that you can move forward with intention. Okay. So until next week, happy organizing. Thank you for listening to the Organized and Cherish podcast with the Organized Flamingo. If you enjoy today's episode, I'd be so grateful if you left a rating and review on your favorite podcast player.
It helps others discover our show. For full show notes, resources, and more organizing inspiration, visit www.theorganizedflamingo.com/podcast. Until next time, happy organizing.