Garage Sale No No's

I've spent the past couple days doing a little Spring cleaning - although I'm a few months late to actually call it Spring cleaning. While cleaning up and cleaning out I thought about a comment from a fellow blog reader asking for garage sale pointers. After loading stuff up for Goodwill I do have my list of Garage Sale no no's.

1) I know many of us read other blogs posting garage sale finds. However, one person's taste is never the same as the others. So be wary when purchasing items at garage sales. Are you buying this because it's the popular item that everyone is searching for in blog-land or are you buying it because it's something you truly want. If you're purchasing it because it's the popular thing you may just end up with something that you don't really like after all and then you're stuck with something you need to get rid of yourself. Trust me I've done this more than once.

2) Remember the size of your home when making purchases. It is possible to purchase too many big items making it impossible to walk around comfortably in your home without breaking toes. Trust me been there, done that and my toes still hurt from it.

3) If you're purchasing something that needs to be repaired or renovated please consider your schedule and how many other projects you have going. It may just sit collecting dust for years.

My last pointer isn't actually about garage sale purchases but about all the lovely free items that people love to give away. I know it's hard to say no because you don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. However, sometimes it's better to take the chance of hurting their feelings than to end up with a lot of stuff that you didn't really want or like.

As I've been Spring (actually Summer) cleaning this week I've realized that I've made many of the mistakes I'm pointing out. My #1 example is the two scarecrow people purchased at Kroger this past Christmas. They're so cute - however, they've been standing in my dining room since I purchased them because they're too big to fit in my small attic and I have no where else to store them.

Then there's the free items that I've been given that I just couldn't say no to. Now I have a broken coffee table, a broken curio cabinet, a glass shelf that looks as though it belongs in a dorm room or college apartment, a rocking chair and several other smaller items that I didn't really like but couldn't bring myself to say no to. However, in my defense it is hard to say no to grandmothers sometimes. :)

Until next time . . .

ThriftyAnnabella