It’s not that I’ve been finding great stuff at garage sales these last weeks and then not posting about it; it’s not even that I haven’t been going to garage sales. I have. Every week, without fail. I just haven’t been buying anything. Some of the sales even had really nice stuff that I thought about buying. But I didn’t. In order for me to buy something at a garage sale, it has to be something that I’ve already identified a need for, or something that is a true Antiques Roadshow find. And those things just don’t come around on a regular basis. Such is the unpredictable and random nature of the garage sale.
In the past, friends of mine have heard about my great garage sale finds, and insisted on coming along with me on a Friday or Saturday morning. After we’ve visited 10+ sales and walked away empty-handed, they sometimes get a puzzled look, as if to say “OK, where’s those awesome finds“? And the answer is that we may need 20 more Fridays. We may have to go to 95 more sales. That’s just how it is. But I always enjoy the ride. I enjoy the heck out of the 95 sales that I have to go to find the treasure hidden in number 96. The people, the clutter, the stuff, the peek into the choices someone else has made in their buying, and, in the case of an estate sale, a true look into the stuff of their lives – their travels, their kids, their memories. In a lot of cases, the stuff that I buy is just an added perk.