The garage sale season is in full swing, which means when you try to drive down any neighborhood street, you are fighting with everyone trying to park and grab the best stuff before anyone else. That stuff typically consists of junk, which is why my mom and her sisters used to call it "junking" when they would go to garage sales. But people love junk which is evidenced in the mass hysteria every Friday, Saturday and Sunday during the good weather months. It amounts to a junk transfer-
"here, you take my junk so I can go look for more junk next weekend, haul it home and re-junk it next year."
I used to LOVE garage sales and yesterday I found myself dangerously swerving toward one in my neighborhood. The fact of the matter is that none of us need more stuff, but we sure love collecting more, more more!!
So I've decided to take the concept of a garage sale and twist it up a bit. I'm going to have a "Take My Junk" Fundraiser/Party. I've started collecting stuff I would have either sold on eBay, given away or sent to the thrift store. It will be out on a few tables and I'll raise any money I make for a charity. The worst part of a garage sale is pricing everything, so I think I'll just let people donate whatever they think something is worth, which in itself will be an interesting social experiment. Will someone drop in a nickle for the painting I paid $60.00 for, or will they give more because they know it is going to charity?
It seems like a good reason to have a party and BBQ, hang out with my friends and hopefully at the end of the party I'll only have as much stuff as a college kid. Probably not, but it is a nice thought. The next few weeks will be an interesting mix of putting stuff on the giveaway table, taking it off, talking myself into putting it back on and negotiating in my head. No I'm not totally crazy, but maybe just a bit so.
Great post and great idea. We are on the same wave length. I recently tweeted: George Carlin on "Stuff" so appropriate for today's economy: http://bit.ly/XWmAS
I love that bit!
Posted by: Valerie | June 08, 2009 at 09:24 AM