The joys and perils of yardsaling

I’ll admit it – I came to yardsaling late in life. When I think back on my childhood, I don’t remember yardsales at all. I’ll grant that they probably weren’t as common, and, of course, I lived in a much less populated area. But even if I’d grown up in an area surrounding a big city – and if yardsales happened several to a block – I still wouldn’t have known the joys of yardsaling when I was young. The idea of second-hand anything is a foreign concept to my dear mother. Something pre-owned? No way, no how! It just wasn’t done! I am not sure how she ended up with the second-hand aversion. I knew it didn’t come from her father – Grandpa LOVED the dump (much to mom’s dismay). He was forever dragging something home from there (I have an old washtub that he brought home from the dump – it’s a planter in my backyard.) So I figured maybe Grandma was the one who poisoned Mom against preowned goods. Not so. A few years before she passed away, I was visiting Grandma and she pointed out that the next door neighbors were having a yardsale. She made the comment “you can find lots of good things at rummage sales.” A few minutes later, I was yardsaling with my 90 year old grandma.

Okay, let me steer myself back on course. Point being, I was in my late 30’s – or was it early 40’s – when I was bitten by the yardsale bug. It started out innocently enough. I had a collection of 1930’s planters that had been my other grandma’s. I wanted to add to it, and found that yardsales could yield some nifty planters for very little money. And I reasoned that I was really antiquing, not rummaging (ingrained aversions die hard, I guess.)

But then, I started really looking around at the sales. And realized that there were lots of other things to be had for pennies! My first non-antiquey purchase was a beautiful, like new, wheeled suitcase for $2. Followed by a London Fog raincoat for $3, that I still wear. A $3 food processor soon followed. As did many designer clothing items. (It just cracks me up when Mom compliments me on what I’m wearing, and it came from a yardsale.) And oh, how I wished I had yardsaled when my son was young. When I think of what I spent buying all his clothes brand new – clothes that he seemed to wear for a week before outgrowing – someone get me a butterfly net, because I want to catch all those dollar bills that grew wings and are flying away!

There was a point, however, when I think I got a bit TOO much into yardsaling. I started buying stuff I really didn’t need – and never used. Hey, it was too good of a deal to turn down, right? For awhile I belonged to a yardsale website, and everyone was posting their great finds. I didn’t want to be left out…so I probably ended up buying even more stuff. (I never admitted that to the other members of the site – I’m sure they would have shook their heads over my newbie yardsale fever.)

Since I had finally identified that I was a bargain junkie, I took steps to get myself back on track. I mean, what good was a ($4) complete set of dishes if I already had two that I didn’t use? (I inherited them, guys, I wasn’t THAT compulsive about bargain shopping! ) Making a list helped in a couple of ways. I tended to stay on track and only buy what I truly needed (most of the time), and – more importantly – I actually REMEMBERED what I was looking for.

So, at the ripe old age of 50, at the end of each winter, I start feeling like a kid waiting for summer. Not for school to end, but for yardsales to be in full swing (I’ve found that early season yardsales tend to be higher priced – at least around here – and the yardsale- starved shoppers are willing to pay the higher prices). This past summer, my absolute great WANT was a new-old crockpot. I had an older one (yardsale purchased, of course) that was great, but did not have a removable crock. I replaced it with a brand new one, only tolearn that the new ones cooked at higher temperatures – and burned many a meal! Last weekend, I found the fraternal twin to my original crockpot. I say fraternal because, while it appeared identical in appearance, this one DID have a removable crock. Oh, yes! I grinned all the way home. There’s just something so fun about a great yardsale score!

SUE