The time is coming soon, and I’m not talking about the birth of my baby. I’m talking about the post-wide garage sale coming up on Saturday. You can bet that if I’m not in the hospital delivering, you’ll see me waddling from house to house in search of hidden treasures.
My mom flies in on Tuesday and because she’s the one who taught me a love for all things garage sale, I’m guessing she’ll be just as excited as I am. From a very young age, I learned to scour the tables for low-priced items that I might actually use. Since I came from a very frugal home — something I’m quite proud of, not something I lament — it was one of the few times where name-brand clothes were a possibility, so it came to be one of my most beloved outings.
Now, several years later, I can’t help but seek out the things we want and need through venues like garage sales, classified ads, websites and clearance racks before ever considering paying retail. Now, with the couponing trend finally catching my attention, I’m discovering even more ways to save a little money and still get what we need.
But even with so many different ways to save, garage sales still rank as my favorite. There’s something special about sorting through a table full of miscellaneous items and coming across something that’s so “you” that you can’t imagine it ever was someone else’s. The stories sellers will tell, the quick tongue of a person set on haggling down prices that already are very reasonable, the little rush you get when you leave a sale with three bags of items and you only paid a few dollars — it’s all a part of what makes garage sales so great.
So, I’ll make sure my hospital bag is packed, just in case this baby decides to come a couple days early. But I’ll be there at the garage sale if I can, armed with a very small budget and the woman who taught me everything I know about garage sales. I hope you’ll be there, too.