I’ve been on a quest to find some household items and so I checked out some local garage sales this weekend. I mentioned my plans to a friend on Friday night, and turns out she had a circular with garage sale ads. Score. This gave me a much more economical and environmental plan of action that my last strategy: driving around random neighborhoods on Saturdays looking for cheap stuff. Craigslist has a garage sale section as well, but ours isn’t well utilized.

I hit up a number of garages in three different neighborhoods. Most of the sales started at 8am though a few started earlier. Since it’s all first come first serve, the earlier you go, the more likely you’ll find nice stuff with the choicest items often going in the first hour or so. I’m sure there was some good stuff that I missed, but there is a limit to how early I will get up on a Saturday morning to rummage through other people’s used goods. In one of the neighborhoods there was a coordinated effort of about a dozen different houses so you can just find a place to park and go to town.

I spent about 2 hours and $7.75. I got:

  • 4 cups size jars with lids: $0.25 for the set
  • green curtains still in the original package: $5.00
  • little beige trash can: $1.00
  • 2 ice trays: $0.25
  • metal picture frame: $0.25
  • painted frame with decorations: $0.75
  • peanut butter brownie: $0.25

The curtains cost more than everything else put together, but they were a color I really liked and in very good (new?) condition. I was pretty much happy with everything I purchased except the brownie (turns out it was covered in cheap chocolate frosting). I didn’t do much in the way of bargaining, except for on the ice trays (they were originally 25 cents each), but I may try a little more negotiating in the future.

When it comes to garage sales, I can sometimes go over board. Since my goal here is to save resources and money, I’ve come up with some questions to ask myself before I purchase anything at a garage sale:

  1. Can I see this item in my house long term? Sure, the Rudolph figurine with the patriotic apron may look cute now, but what would I do with it?
  2. Do I actually want this item? Would I use it for something, or am I just tempted to buy it because it’s shiny and costs less than a dollar?
  3. What’s the maintenance cost on this puppy? Do I have to fix it and would it be worth it? Is it an efficient product, or would it take up a lot of space, time, and resources?

If I can come up with satisfactory answers to all of these questions, than I go ahead and get it, provided I think that the cost is reasonable. And I don’t even ask myself if I absolutely need it; I mean, I know I don’t need a bathroom trash can that matches my current color scheme. I don’t even really need a trash can at all. But since it is nice to have a trash can, and since this one only costs a dollar, them I’m okay with buying it. Since garage sales are generally cash-only transactions, as long as I limit the amount of money I take, it’s actually pretty easy to stay within my budget.

I know that there are some people who swear by garage sales, and other who never bother. Do you love them, hate them? End up with a lot of stuff you don’t need, and eventually just give away (not that I’ve ever done that)? Have any good tips on becoming a garage sale maven?