We’ve all seen yard sales before – assuming we’ve all been out of the house at least once on a weekend morning at some point in life.
What many people never see is the untold story: What happens to all the stuff that doesn’t get sold?
After all, even the biggest and best yard sales in the land will still end up with some stragglers – “I can’t believe nobody bought my great aunt’s Christmas dish collection!”
So what happens to those hypothetical dishes? Will they be put up for sale again, maybe online or at another yard sale? Will they go to a friend of a friend who was looking for that very thing? Will they end up in the dump?
The answers depend on whom you ask.
For Glen and Kim Masters on Broken Ground Drive, the two-day yard sale was the only opportunity they’d take to sell their stuff. After that, everything would be given/thrown away for free.
“Either Goodwill, charity or the dump,” Kim said. “Some things I know we can donate – about 90 percent will go to Goodwill,” she said. This means if you saw something you liked from that yard sale on pages 16-17, there might still be a chance to buy something – you’ll just have to take a trip to the Goodwill to see what’s there.
A family clearing out some space on Lawrence Street (who asked not to be identified due to previous problems arising from appearing in print) hadn’t quite figured everything out yet, other than that they might have another sale at some point or they might donate the stuff. When you’re in the moment of a hot yard sale, you tend to get caught up in it and not really think about what to do after.
That wasn’t the case for Julie Pitz, another Lawrence Street resident who was sale-ing away Saturday.
“Goodwill, Salvation Army, some churches on the Heights,” she said of her plans for her unsold items.
The retired teacher said she really didn’t need any of the stuff she was selling, so whatever was left over would surely be given away.
“Friends can kind of go through whatever they want, too,” she added.
We wish we were friends with her, because there were some really bizarre (dummy heads with wigs) and cool (vintage records) things that we’d like to help take off her hands.
Ultimately, the yard sale folks we met were eager to donate the leftovers. Maybe we’ll see them at a future yard sale?
