Here’s an interesting phenomenon I’ve noticed the past two springs. Right around March or April (depending on the weather, I guess), I start to see these signs pop up everywhere:
image from here
Some of you may know that my mom and her sisters LOVE yard sales. Growing up, I tried to participate as little as possible.
Then, our neighbors had a moving sale, and I offered them $20 for this granite-topped kitchen cart:
The granite and the wood-tone don’t go with anything else in our house, but hey, the kitchen’s a complete disaster anyway, and the cart adds a lot of function: a drawer and two shelves for extra storage, a bit of extra countertop work space, and a place to hang dish towels.
So I guess I’m kind of a convert, but nothing crazy. On Saturday, Emily and I drove around to some yard sales (we started with ones that were posted on craigslist, but really, from my limited experience, it seems like the best ones are always the ones we stumble across from following those handwritten signs). Emily is my bargain-hunting buddy; she was with me when I found my Goodwill table too. She never buys anything though. Weird.
Aside from some books, here’s what I got:
$5 cast iron Christmas tree stand. They were asking $6, but I don’t know if you know this about me – I drive a hard bargain. For the past two Christmases, I’ve told Andrew that once the holidays are over, we’re going to buy a deeply-discounted tree stand so we can get a live tree the next year. And two Christmases in a row, I have done exactly not that. But 2012 – the year of the live Christmas tree!
The only other thing worth noting were these glass ornaments that I got for 25 cents. They were asking 50 cents. Again: hard. bargain.
They are the type that allow you to jazz them up, either by popping off the top and shoving something inside or by decorating the outside. I might try to do this snazzy glitter trick I saw on pinterest:
image from here
Stayed tuned for that happening. Most likely around June 2014.
Does anyone else out there buy used stuff? There were a few things I passed on, like a $3 set of little Pampered Chef nesting glass bowls with lids and a $10 three-tiered shelf with baskets. I couldn’t think of an immediate use for either, so I think that’s a good rule of thumb. Andrew and I are a little bit stuff-averse, so the less useless junk we have around, the better.
