How It All Got Started

Mom & I had always gone garage saling. But we really began going garage saling the year her mom died, which is also the year when I lived nearby in an apartment while I house hunted knowing I'd be purchasing a house soon. Mom was thrilled that much of the items from her mother's house would work to get me started when I got my new house. The time frame between Grandma dying & my buying my first house was less than six months & Mom was perfectly fine with stowing those belongings of Grandma's, which I'd be using, in their (my parents') garage until my house was mine & the items could be moved over.

There were still plenty of things which we knew would be helpful for me to have in my new-to-me space (read: the house I'd be buying). We visited local thrift stores, flea markets, church festivals, &, of course, garage & yard sales. Mom would make her listing perusing the weekly flyer that came in the mailbox each Thursday. We'd know we'd want to get an early start, so I'd make sure to be at the house by 7:30 a.m., typically 7:15 a.m. Oftentimes she'd give me a heads-up when any promising sales were to begin at 7 a.m. On those days I'd head over to their driveway sooner.

At the time I drove a little compact car, my beloved Green Dodge Neon. For this reason Mom drove their minivan around to the sales each Saturday; my tiny car wouldn't have held all of our "finds". Mom would have her listing set up by neighborhood. She'd head to the general area & I'd help find the street, sometimes the house number too. Although when the sale was in the yard, typically the visual gave it away. She'd park us & we'd get out while scoping out the scene as we approached the host's tables.

I think I mainly looked for nifty things which I'd be able to use practically, though I found plenty of items that could only be described as decorations. Once I did find the house I bought I naturally began selecting items to adorn it. Specifically the obvious nature theme the living room/dining area seemed to already possess simply by the spaces being separated by a partial stone wall. Oh, & that I love nature, so anything about camping, etc. would be something I'd welcome & with which I'd feel most at home.

I found a lot of "do-dads". I also found plenty of practical pieces in the form of kitchen appliances, trash cans, (though the idea's out-dated now) CD racks, picture frames, jewelry, movies, & more. Mom looked around for items that'd interest her. One of her favorite things has always been decorating specifically for each holiday, & each season as it came along on the calendar; she found plenty of these such items as we scoured each sale.

We continued this on from Spring, all the way on through October & November; basically, when households stopped setting up tables, we folded for the year. Once Springtime came around again Mom was filling me in on how many sales were on the list & we were headed out just like the year before. We didn't last until Fall that year though. Somewhere along the way Mom complimented me one day while noticing that I'd not picked up many items that day. It's true, I hadn't really been finding much; I'd maybe gotten a bit pickier. Sometime in late summer we realized between a slight lack of sales one or two weekends, & a few more things we could get accomplished around our own houses, we'd not go out saling. Then we just didn't go back out anymore. Well, not like we had been: Ritually.

One of the reasons I'd realized that going saling wasn't as important, or at least, necessary, was because Mom decided to use my garage for a sale for us. My address, not theirs because I lived nearby a through-way & a main traffic artery where we'd automatically get plenty of potential buyers passing on by. It was after this sale, our sale, that I realized while shopping at all the other sales how much it had become the items I was considering buying that I'd basically been trying to sell at that sale of ours.

I still peruse the occasional flea market & church fair as well as follow the roadside arrows pointing "this way" to a sudden "pop-up" sale. And I still look most for good bargains on yarn. Times have changed though in media as, when it all began, I found it difficult to pass up a good VHS tape; nowadays I peruse for DVDs. Also nowadays I focus on trying to use the items I'm grateful to own, & use them well. Passing along the items I'm noticing I really don't touch as much, like a box full of pots & pans and four clear plastic chests of drawers, each three drawers high. It's also stimulated wardrobe purging.

We should all try it sometime; it's what brings fuel to hosting a garage or yard sale: items with which to cover all those tables you've set up in your yard & lining your garage walls.

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