You just dont' seem to find garage sales in these parts. From what I can decipher, there are many reasons for this. In London, for example, nobody has a garage. This is in face true for a much larger proportion of UK households than US households. Perhaps one would refer to them by the grassier term 'yard sale'? Again, while terraced houses do have front yards, they a) tend not to be that large and b) are called gardens.
In areas such as mine, people still have options for getting rid of items (some of which are also popular in areas such as the U-District). You can put something out on the sidewalk in front of your residence and hope it disappears, or give stuff to charity. But instead of you finding your nearest Salvation Army truck, you are perhaps more likely to donate your items (of small size) to a local charity shop, conveniently located EVERYWHERE. You can pick the charity you deem the worthiest and walk away with more space at home and a nice warm fuzzy feeling in your heart. Aaaahhhh. Charities with shops include the standard Oxfam, charities for taking care of old people (Age Concern), blind people, people with cancer, children, animals, and the Notting Hill Housing Trust (I don't know about that one either...).
But what about those who like to come face to face with the source of their bargains? My inside source, who I shall call 'Kram', has alerted me to the concept of the car boot sale. This allegedly involves the gathering of the people in a flea market like fashion, selling things out of their 'boots' (being trunks, I wouldn't buy anything that I had to pick out of someone's footwear). These are the places I'm assuming you would flock to if you were going for that whole shabby chic thing as glamorized on the E! channel on the weekends. I'm not sure if these sorts of these extend to serve as church fund-raisers.
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4 comments:
I once had a boot sale type experience on a trip to the dump. I went away with a warm fuzzy feeling in my heart because that stuff that I wasn't sure even worked didn't end up in a landfill after all. At least, not directly from my boot.
Venting-- I wish the people up the street from us would cough up the $25 necessary to have that fridge in their driveway go away.
Your dad furnished his dorm room and later the houses he lived him with "treasures" that people had taken to the dump. He had the pleasure of working at dumps in the summer, so he got first pick. They were definitely "treasures."
Sara -- have you thought of putting a "free" sign on the fridge, and maybe one in the street pointing to it?
Oh--and a "hi" to "Kram."
i didn't realise that kram was mark spelt backwards! woops! though i did get the general gist. :-)
Westbourne my parents local village just had one big garage sale with lots of houses taking part with 25% of all proceeds going to the new church hall...where my parents managed to sell a futon (the metal one from dancer road fame) for 50 quid!
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