Garage Sale

"Annual garage sale starts on Thursday!" I heard and read more times than I can count. I'd never been near or in an "organized sale" of this scale. Basically, anyone and everyone in the entire city plans their garage sale at the same time - running Thursday through Saturday. Some people work through the Lions Club (who do this as a fundraiser, and for a small fee your name is included in a directory, also available for purchase, and you get a sign to stick on your lawn). Others just know there will be a lot of people out anyway, and open up their garage. Literally.

"Remember to watch for traffic tomorrow. It gets pretty crazy." My neighbor told me Wednesday afternoon.

Really?

Thursday morning I taught a class at the gym. Super small.

"Oh, everyone is out shopping the garage sales. I already went this morning (that is, at 7 am.), and I'll head out later this afternoon too. Did you know this is the largest organized sale in the state? It used to be so much bigger before eBay and Craig's list came along."

Trucks pulling trailers, mini vans of women scouting around town, residential roads nearly impossible to drive through thanks to the traffic and parked cars all over the streets. More Wisconsin license plates than I could count.

On the way home from the gym, I stopped by to get some gas at the station near my home. Bad idea. Jam packed with garage sale shoppers who stopped in to use the restroom, refill their tanks, and of course grab a hot dog from the temporary stand the gas station sets up in the parking lot specifically for this event.

Seriously?

It does make sense...one weekend to pound through sales to catch any deal you can find and on the flip side, sell anything you no longer want to keep storing.

Did I snag anything?

While I wasn't on the bus load of people who come every year from Milwaukee, nor in the Honda Pilot that was loaded completely with garage sale finds only holding room enough for the three women who arrived in it to squeeze inside, nor the guy pulling his ginormous truck AND trailer full of goods, I'm happy I did snag a few finds. A few summer tops for Alexis, a hanging flower basket (yes, a resident works for one of the large nurseries in the area has access once a year to wholesale - or garage sale - hanging baskets and potted plants), and last but definitely not least, a jogging stroller (okay, I actually found the jogging stroller posted on Craig's list - but it was sold by a family just down the street, and I'm confident she would have put it out on her driveway had I not snagged it up. Don't worry, we met in a very public parking lot, in a very safe location for the deal).

Overall, fun to catch a few finds, although I don't know how much time I'd put into the whole process. While I'm sure there were plenty more deals to be had, I had two little people, a budget, and of course, a lack of patience for scouting through the piles of stuff just to get to the really good stuff.

Until next year...