They came at dawn's first light Saturday, eager to invade our garage.

We braced ourselves for the onslaught. Then, we opened our garage and the eager customers streamed in to buy our used children's clothes, toys and other assorted items.

In truth, there's nothing like a garage sale.

At times it may resemble hand-to-hand combat. But as far as I know, no one has ever been fatally wounded at a garage sale.

Anyone can have a garage sale. You don't have to have a garage, but it helps.

How else are you going to keep the hordes of customers from descending on you in the cover of darkness?

Of course, Joni and I were thrilled to have half of Cape Girardeau on our doorstep.

Anyone who wants to buy our used stuff is certainly welcome even if it creates a traffic jam on our dead-end street.

In Cape Girardeau, I'm convinced, there's no better way to achieve traffic gridlock than to hold a garage sale.

Americans, no doubt, hold more garage sales than anyone else.

There's good reason for that. We have more stuff.

At some garage sales, there's so much stuff you could outfit an entire Third World nation.

When Joni decided recently that we should have a garage sale, I never envisioned we would have so much to sell.

She pulled so much stuff out of our closets that I was beginning to think the supply was endless.

I'd forgotten about some of the outfits that Becca and Bailey used to wear, but have long since outgrown.

Many of the no-longer-used toys in our house had long since been relegated to the attic.

But with Joni's tenacity, they couldn't hide. She tracked them down, and then we both hauled them downstairs to the garage.

Naturally, I had to clean out the garage so that there would be room to crowd all the merchandise inside.

Hauling the stuff into the garage is just the first step. Then, there's the task of pricing all those baby clothes and other assorted stuff.

The best advice for husbands is to stay as far away from this task as possible.

I left the chore up to Joni and her friends.

I didn't care, just so long as the stuff was priced to move.

Having helped haul all this stuff out to the garage, I wasn't ready to move anything back inside.

It's nice every now and then to have that less-crowded-look in your home.

It never ceases to amaze me how much stuff ends up in our home.

Like other parents, I've discovered that toys have a way of mysteriously multiplying. One day, there's a single, innocent-looking Teddy bear in the living room and the next day your house has been overrun with everything from toy kitchens to doll houses.

Your garage sale will always interest your friends. They'll want to add a few items to the sale.

Naturally, you agree to such requests because you'll get to do the same thing when they have their garage sales.

Prior to Saturday, we hadn't had a garage sale in several years. Our well-stocked garage was testimony to that fact.

But we've learned our lesson. We won't wait until our children are in high school to cash in our good junk.

With our ability to attract stuff, we might need to hold a garage sale every year. It's either that, or we'll have to get a bigger garage.

~Mark Bliss is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.