Last Saturday 24th October was National Garage Sale Trail Day here in Australia.
Full disclosure: I was given the chance to work with the PR team to help spread the sustainable word across New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory in 2015 🙂 It was such an interesting experience (and hectic, which is one of the reasons why KBD has been so quiet over the last few months), allowing me to look at sustainability from a new perspective.
One of the reasons I think the initiative has become so popular – it’s grown from a handful of sales to over 12,000 in just five years! – is that it’s simple, fun to participate in and encourages making human connections. Despite being surrounded by millions of people, living in the city can make you feel very isolated at times. It’s also important for people living in remote areas to gather together with other members of their far-flung community for some essential face to face time. According to Garage Sale Trail, the average seller last year made 12 new connections in their community, with 61% of people saying they felt they had developed stronger ties to their local area from participating in the day.
For those of us who love a bit of second-hand shopping (or window shopping!), it’s a great day for stumbling across some pretty unexpected items such as: a 5 seater pedal boat; a 1940s vintage Mobo Bronco pressed steel metal pedal horse; an original King Kong movie poster from Belgium; a Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit board game; a Bedford motor-home; a dress from Sass & Bide with its tags still on; or a mirror which came over with the First Fleet. Yep ALL of those things and much more were up for grabs last Saturday!
Hubby and I made tracks to the sale happening at the Cat Protection Society of NSW – how could I resist helping out the kitties? It was a kitsch wonderland of kitty delights!
We also visited the famous Mitchell Road Antique and Design Centre’s sale in Alexandria, which was packed to the rafters (literally) with the weird and wonderful. There was also plenty of gorgeous vintage homewares and upcycled treasures to be found. Here are some highlights:
The initiative was driven by over 170 local councils representing more than 50% of Australia’s population.The hope is that a significant amount of items have been redistributed to happy homes rather than to landfill!
kindnessbydesign.net 