Saturday, June 18, 2011

Garage Sale Faux Pas

I love Garage Sales.
In fact, I wrote a must-read post about Putting on a Successful Garage Sale right here.

And although having your own garage sale is a lot of work, going to garage sales is fun!

If you're ambitiously searching for something, you need to get up at the crack of dawn and hit as many sales as you can - early.

But if you're not looking for anything particular, you can just go from sale to sale, chatting with people and casually perusing merchandise to find that special something. Here's what I bought yesterday:


An old blue pot (I like old things. And blue things.)

What in the world am I going to use it for?


Why to plant more flowers in, of course! *grin*


Oh, but I didn't tell you about our giant garage sale social blunder yesterday, did I?

My friends and I were idly driving up and down streets in a small town, looking for garage sales advertised in the newspaper, but having no luck. Where were they?

There, we said, pointing.

Lots of cars surrounded a house on the corner, with the small garage open and motorcycles, shelves, old bookcases, miscellaneous junk strewn all over the yard. We shook our heads. Looked like kind of weird stuff - and maybe we'd just pass.

But me, ever the optimist, spotted a pretty pot of flowers on top of a shelf near the road. I got out to ask the price - and a woman scolded "This isn't a sale!"

Whoops. I jumped sheepishly back in the car and we varoomed away.

Do you like garage sales?
Are there lots of them in your part of the world?
What great treasures have you found there?

5 comments:

Alison said...

Linda we must be twins--loving horses, writing AND flowers in pots. I have flowers everywhere but none in neat old yard sale pots. Now you have me inspired . . .

Linda Benson said...

Yes, we must be twins, Alison! I love gardening in containers - less weeds, and when they start looking scraggly, just wheel them somewhere out of sight. I love flowers in old watering cans, old teapots, and I love old granitewear. If it's nice, I display it in my house. If there are holes in the bottom (like the pot I just bought)it becomes a flower pot. ;)

Dreaming said...

I enjoy garage sales but rarely get to them. We did stop at one last week... Tucker dog told us he wanted some new stuffed animals. So, we spent $1.00 and walked away with 4 animals. Tucker was thrilled!
Since we are moving soon I need to pare down my own stuff. But, living way out in the country getting a lot of customers at a garage sale is tough. We may move the stuff and sell it at our new house, closer to town!
My favorite thing to go to are auctions! I love finding old bric-a-brac there and having the thrill of bidding. At my last auction visit I walked away with 4 bird houses and some Christmas decorations for $20. It was well worth it!

Linda Benson said...

Dreaming - that cracks me up - 4 stuffed animals for your dog. Yup, Penny the pup could use some more of those. She loves soft furry toys, and goes through a lot of them. Good find!

I tried to comment on your fledgling bird post, btw, but Blogger wouldn't let me. *boo* Sometimes blogger is weird, but I like to watch baby birds learn to fly, too ;-)

Cynthia Chapman Willis said...

That's a great garage sale story, Linda! LOL! I do like garage sales, but not as much as my hubby. The things that man comes home with.