Cut Throat Garage Sales

I grew up in small town USA. The garage sale was a weekend staple. My family had a garage sale every once in a while. We would also go to garage sales – all the time. My mom, sisters, and grandma used to grab the Friday and Saturday papers and map out a route for us to traverse. We determined which garage sales we wanted to visit by the exciting wares in their ads. It was something I felt like every country girl did in her younger years. Someone was always having a garage sale, helping someone who was having a garage sale, going to a garage sale, or bragging about some amazing deal they just got at a garage sale. 

Back in the day, I felt like garage sales were always on Fridays and Saturdays. Most moms didn’t work, at least in my day and in our community, so daytime Friday garage sales weren’t an issue, and when planned right, the kids could help when there was a teacher’s institute day at school. Saturdays just were meant for garage-saling. After that, if there was anything left, you could open after church on Sunday, but that was a rare occurrence. Sunday was the day to pack up for drop off at the local thrift store, get the garage ready for cars to go back in, and get kids bathed and ready for school. On an occasional Thursday during setup, we’d have a nosey old-lady neighbor who wanted first-dibs at the “good stuff” stop by and ask if she could see what we were putting out before Friday. Lately, any day of the week is fair game. Garage sales don’t seem to be relegated to the weekends. I’ve even seen one advertise an “early bird shopping day” on a Tuesday and another one that was only open on Wednesday. I guess if that’s the day that you have available to have your garage sale, Wednesday it is.

Since I’ve been an adult, I’ve lived in apartments and townhouses. I can’t remember the last time I had a garage sale and it’s been a good 15 years since I helped my sister with one. I do, however, see whole neighborhoods coordinating garage sale weekends where multiple homes participate knowing that everyone is coming to see as many garage sales as possible. It’s nice to see neighborhoods planning events together like this. But, when did it all become so cut throat? Have you seen some of  the roadside signs for garage sales lately? They can be the size of small billboards, and contain blinking lights, glitter, balloons, tinsel, faux fur, and smiley faces as well as directions, dates, times, and QR codes. It’s a garage sale, not the Barney’s trunk show.

And, the actual set up of garage sale itself runs the gamut from articles of clothing and toys strewn all over the front yard as if the front door exploded and items just landed on the lawn, to rented matching tables under a tent, perfectly lined up in rows like a pop-up store, for you to purchase the supposed “high end” merchandise laying on top. I remember pulling out all of our card tables, including the spare table used at holidays when family members came over. We overturned boxes and laid old doors or 1” x 8” boards on them if we needed makeshift tables. We borrowed tables from neighbors or the church, then passed the tables around to other neighbors who all coordinated when their garage sale would be so everyone could use the same set of tables before the last person took them back to their rightful place.

I’m not sure kids these days could have a garage sale. It would require the use of cash, especially small change. They’d need the skill of doing math in their head and making change for a dollar. Each season when we had a garage sale, my daughter pulled toys and clothes she outgrew and had a blast selling them to moms, and girls with their hard-earned quarters. She learned the value of selling something and making money, saving, sharing what she had with others, and being outside all day without an electronic. Values I think we could use more of.

Before the snow flies and as we change the clothes in our drawers from tank tops and shorts to long sleeved shirts and sweaters (at least here in Illinois), it’s the perfect time to review our wardrobe choices. It is also time for a little fall cleaning around the house and to prep the yard for winter. What better time for one last garage sale this year. Anyone?

Do you have a garage sale story or memory? Share it here or send me an email!
I’d love to hear it.

Don’t forget to like this blog and share it on your social media and with others you know!

See more at tracybaer.com!