Oh, how I do love a rummage sale

People love themselves some yard sales around here. Flea markets and rummage sales and white elephant sales and estate sales and whatever else you can call used-stuff-for-sale-at-bargain-prices, are all popular. (Hoarding is also popular…)

Although I’m increasingly selective and particular about what I’ll buy, I love these sales too. It’s not only the actual bargains that draw me but other aspects too.

I find it very relaxing and fun to poke around, hunting for potential treasures, imagining how I might use something or fix it up, or if it’s clothes, how good I might look in it or what I might pair it with that I already own. The camaraderie with other shoppers is enjoyable too and usually people are in good moods. I mean a yard sale is not Target on Black Friday. (Although you do have to watch out for the occasional aggressive, crazed yard salers who’re throwing elbows, crowding, and trying to swipe your finds (I hang on with a death grip and watchful eye).

Sometimes in summer little kids will have a lemonade and whatnot table at their parents’ yard sale. In late summer an industrious young couple was firing up a grill at their yard sale; sadly I was done looking and wasn’t going to hang around just to wait till food was ready to sell. Hotdogs, donuts, bake sale goods, and even egg breakfasts are sold at the larger church sales. (I almost always avoid any such temptations, reminding myself the treats aren’t healthy and I’ve got food at home. Not to mention, I shop these events to save money.)

The upside of living in a country/area awash with consumer goods, is how much stuff now turns up at such sales. It’s not unusual even, to see somebody loading up bags or boxes, especially of clothes, to send back to family in their home country. There’s just so much. And it’s usually priced to move.

This weekend featured two big annual sales at a church and a synagogue. (I don’t mind going to houses of worship to buy junk, so long as that’s it.) I thought I’d share my finds.

$1 Dough blender. My last one broke. Used instead of two knives to blend pastry dough, like a pie crust. Very handy.

$1 6-outlet plug. Where I live doesn’t have nearly enough outlets for “modern life.” These are terrific.

$1 skinny belt. I have to belt almost all my jeans, no matter the brand. If the ass fits, the waist is too big. Buckles on wide belts make a weird, misshapen lump under shirts. I’m trying for a “lower profile” belt.

$3 Don’t-know-what-it-is lovely houseplant in ceramic pot.

$3 Pretty, flattering sweater, longer than most.

$2.50 Working 6″ 2-speed Lakewood fan with 7‘ cord. Once home I googled the model. This fan is vintage! From the 1980’s. There’s even a couple (dull) YouTube videos dedicated to it. Sure, I needed to clean two dozen years of *dust* off the blades but it’s a champ! So excited!! It may be perfect with an extension cord in my seasonal screen tent next year. THE find.