Regina Howard is a straightforward woman, and so is the sign she made to advertise her yard sale.

"Man Sale," it read. "He ran off so I am selling all his stuff." Only it didn't say "stuff."

"I figured the only way to get anybody in here in that kind of weather was just to say it how it is," Howard said.

The sign sat Friday at the intersection of M-66 and M-79 in Nashville, near Moo-ville Creamery. The "man sale" is a few miles down the road on M-79 between Pease Road and Ionia Road.

After Howard's relationship with her boyfriend of seven years came to an end, she was left with a lot of his old baggage, literally. She has tools, furniture, bikes, and lawn equipment she doesn't want or need.

"I've got too much stuff," Howard said. "I don't want the guy's (stuff). Other guys can have the guy's (stuff)."

Howard wasn't comfortable sharing the name of her ex, but she's glad to be getting rid of his things. The idea came to her while talking to a friend.

"I figured kind of if he caught wind of it, he would have come back," she said. "But he didn't. "If he cared, he wouldn't have left."

The sale includes a hodgepodge of items that belonged to her ex-boyfriend and things left by people who used to live at her house. She also is bringing things to sell from her storage units.

"She's not trying to pay more storage bills," her daughter Trisha said.

Howard has had a turbulent few years. She moved to the area after another daughter, Tia, died two years ago.

"That's what brought us here anyways," she said. "Just picked up everything and came here. Lived at a couple different places and lost all our stuff and kind of started all over back again a couple times."

Friday, Howard spent part of the day putting her daughter's ashes to rest at a cemetery while a friend helped run the sale.

"It's been rough," she said.

Howard works at Preferred Care at Home of Lansing taking care of senior citizens.

"So when all that stuff is happening in my life, and I'm still taking care of people it makes it hard sometimes. And then, you know, the loss of her sister, but hey, here I am," she said.

The sale was a good idea, she said. It started on Friday, and she'd already had a lot of people stop by.

"I wasn't quite prepared," she said. "I've been here and gone a couple of times, and there was always three or four people parked out front... All kinds of people, even when it was pouring rain they were stopping."

The sign got a bit of attention on Facebook. That's where R.J. Browne saw a picture of it. Though the rain kept him away on Friday, he plans to check it out later this weekend.

"How could I not," he said in a Facebook message. "Hoping for some good tools or hunting gear."

Howard said she thinks she may extend it a few days into next week, but for right now, it will run through Sunday.

Some people who stopped by have been skeptical of the sale, Trisha said.

"They would ask me, 'Did he really leave?' And I was like? "Buy my things,'" she said.

She thinks the sale is funny. And also a good way to sell extra stuff they don't use.

"I'm going to add some of my clothes to the sale," she said.

Contact Elena Durnbaugh at (269) 243-5938 or edurnbaugh@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ElenaDurnbaugh.