And yes, unfortunately, we have had to do just that. Not once, but three times.

We are now super brushers and rinsers in our house. Although it turned out the culprit was not so much an issue of brushing, but rather our caving in and allowing the occasional sippy cup of milk to become part of the bedtime routine. You would think that after three kids at that point (this was with No. 4) we would have known better.

Anyways, back to the sale.

As you may recall from a previous blog, we decided to give the Big Red Wagon consignment sale at the Medina County Fairgrounds a try. We ended up making $230.60 on the sale of 153 items after our $25 fee and a 40 percent consignment fee per item. Our fee and consignment percentage was as high as it gets because we did not have time to work any shifts to reduce it. Heck, we barely had time to mark and drag our stuff to the fairgrounds.

We ended up selling 61 percent of the items we tried to sell, with the rest donated to charity, and they hauled it off for us.

So are we rich? No. But we do have a little money now we can set aside for a summer trip to an amusement park. Since my husband was behind this whole endeavor, I suppose he gets the right to dictate how it’s spent.

Best of all, I can open the door to the unfinished side of my basement and not feel like Matt Paxtson, the extreme cleanup specialist from “Hoarders,” should be looking over my shoulder.

And that is priceless.

And it is diet-friendly — try snacking as they pry heaps of dried rat poop off the kitchen counters. Or, better yet, don’t.

For the record, our house is nothing like those featured on the show. But with five kids, sometimes it looks like a bomb went off, particularly after they all come home and empty their book bags.

We do try to keep a steady flow of things moving out of the house. And by moving out, I mean into the tiny crawl space under our basement stairs. Whenever we blow through one of the kids’ rooms to move out clothes that are too small or toys that are long forgotten, the items make their way to the crawl space, where they wait for the next garage sale.

For the record, I would just soon they make their way out to the back of the van and then to Goodwill. My husband, on the other hand, pleads his case that we should give them one shot at a garage sale then donate them. He says any money made at the sale will be set aside for summer fun.

This year, he decided we should try to sell the kids’ stuff at this weekend’s Big Red Wagon sale at the Medina County Fairgrounds, on Lafayette Road in Medina.

The idea seemed simple enough, but the journey to the sale has been a long one.

First we had to create an account, read a scary, long legal contract, register for Medina’s sale and then sign up for a drop-off time.

Next we he had to sort through each item and enter it on the computer. This means assigning it to a category, assign a price, type in the brand, size, etc… With our mound of stuff, this turned into a three-night affair. Next came the task of printing off 27 pages. Yes, 27 pages of price tags on — not regular paper — cardstock. That meant a trip to Hobby Lobby for cardstock.

The fun wasn’t over just yet: next came the task of cutting out the price tags — there were about a dozen on each sheet.

Then we had to use safety pins, stabbing ourselves numerous times in the process, to attach each price tag to each item. The tags had to be on the right side, like a name tag. My husband and daughter set off attaching a couple dozen tags before reading the instructions. They were all on the wrong side. Grr!

Each piece of clothing had to be on its own hanger. And each item had to be hung on the hanger so the hook looked like a question mark. Again, my husband and daughter set off on their own, hanging a couple dozen items without reading the online instructions. They were wrong again. Double grr!!

Next all the items had to be separated by gender and size. And pants or shorts are a particular pain in the neck as they require three safety pins — one to attach the price tag and two to secure the item to the hanger. Ouch, ouch and ouch.

Hey, this is becoming a lot of work. This may explain why the prices at this sale always seem about 20 percent higher than those found at your typical garage sale. We didn’t sign up to volunteer, so we are looking at paying the organizer the first $25 we make and 40 percent of everything sold after that. You can lower those fees and percentages by volunteering to help set up or work during the sale.

The sale opens to the public at 9 a.m. Friday [tomorrow] and runs through 7 p.m. It is open 8:30 to 1 p.m. Saturday, with many of the items discounted by 50 percent.

I’m not sure it was worth all the effort, but my husband assures me it is a lot easier than setting up our own tables in the garage and then having to sit and watch the sale for hours. I will reserve judgment until 10 p.m. Saturday, when we can log in to see our totals.

But, I must say I am already a bit troubled. After all this work, we discovered we missed a couple of items we intended to sell – but we missed our deadline to enter them for the sale.

Don’t worry, my husband assures me. “We’ll just throw them out at the garage sale this summer.”

Wait. I thought we weren’t going to have a… Grr!!!

I learned today that this weekend also is The Big Red Wagon 2-day consignment sale at Medina County Fairgrounds. This sale will feature fall/holiday/winter items for children — including clothing, outerwear, holiday outfits, toys, athletic equipment, videos and books, among other things.

Unlike the Just For Kids sale, where each vendor has his or her own tables, at this sale everything is categorized — clothing in one area, organized by size and gender, toys and books in separate areas, shoes, athletic equipment, etc. Many items are new.

Also unlike the other sale, admission is free. This sale runs two days: Friday, Sept. 16, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday, Sept. 17, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the Community Center at the fairgrounds, on Lafayette Road (Route 42) just east of Ryan Road.

If you know anyone at St. Francis Xavier School here in Medina, see him or her (or email me!) for a flyer about the sale. With the flyer, the school will receive 10% of your sales on Friday only.

For more information, visit The Big Red Wagon website at http://www.thebigredwagon.com/.