Garage Sale Saturday

We live in a small neighborhood. I've heard a bit about a "homeowner's association," but our FHA loan specified we cannot be in an HOA...apparently ours is defunct or not real but theoretical? All I know is there an old man, in an old school, very sad looking golf cart that rides around smoking cigars and telling people what they shouldn't do and asking for dues. Seems like a legit set-up right?

Well once a year they do the community garage sale...or as I like to call it, pandemonium for leaving your damned house. Every home in this neighborhood has a minimum of a two car garage, and most residents don't have more than two cars. For some reason people still park on our very small streets. It gets to the point where you have to go two miles an hour to make sure you can squeeze through if two cars are parked on the same street across from each other. A fire truck would struggle any old day.

I learned during the hurricane that the reason the cars aren't in the garage, is because everyone is some level of hoarder, which actually makes garage sale day kind of interesting, if you don't live here. Doing something simple like leaving your driveway becomes the most aggravating part of your day. No one knows how to drive. Then you get stuck behind the people who need to slow down to look to see if anything catches their eye instead of parking. Did you feel the eye roll there?

It makes me super happy to have an escape and I pray for the end of the sales to be swift. On our way to Saturday morning routines I saw at least 5 other neighborhoods advertising their own community garage sales.

My daughter thinks garage sales are so amazing. And I recall having that same idea when I was her age. To me it was fascinating that people had so much stuff, but that you buy their stuff for cheap? That was awesome! My niece had a "garage-sale-ing" obsession too that drove my sister insane. I now know why.

I was happy to avoid our neighborhood like the plague. So much so that I bought my daughter a new craft kit just to keep her from asking to wander the neighborhood. It's not that I wouldn't let her have a few things, but we don't need more stuff.

I stopped pretending I would re-sell things and just give them all away because I feel like that's what I'm meant to do with them. They served me well and now someone else can use them. We always accept hand me downs and garage sales are just shopping hand me downs!

So many neighbors just have random, for lack of a better word, crap that they want to make money off of. It's rare that you find a good deal for an actual necessity. While I like to imagine that people are using the money for a good cause, I mean let's be real here. It's probably not that. Maybe they are figuring out a new appliance or upgrading something but they likely aren't about to toss it into the church offering.

While garage sales can be an adventure I dislike this day every year and this year it caught me by complete surprise. Luckily I was able to get errands done early today, so the inconvenience was minor, but I was in no rush to get home. 

We managed to push through unscathed and without so much as a quick dog walk tour of the goods. The shoppers were great people to watch though and I'm glad some neighbors got rid of their wares. Perhaps my enchantment with garage sale Saturdays will have another seasonal visit one day but for now, I'm happy not out people-ing. If you are out there "garage-sale-ing" make sure you have your negotiation skills ready for action and enjoy the weekend!