Garage sales are one of a kind. You get unwanted things off your hands. You earn a profit. You get more space in your house for new things. If you’re joining a community garage sale, you get to meet your neighbors. You can sell anything, from used clothing to secondhand floor tiles. Many buyers — some from your own neighborhood — will find uses for these things.
If there’s a recent construction or renovation in your home, you don’t need to immediately call a junk removal company in Pennsylvania or other states. You can find useful items in the rubble and put them up for sale. That’s a great way to get some of the money you have spent on the renovation or construction of your new home. Remember this: There is money in “garbage.”
But neighborhood garage sales are more than a way to chit-chat with your neighbors. It’s a way of building the community and instilling a sense of cohesiveness — that neighbors will watch over each other. Communities can use garage sales to get to know each other and bring about change in the social fabric of America.
The Decline of Community
Studies show that in the past decade, there has been a decline in America’s sense of community. There is a decreased in associative networks because parents are spending more time at work. Their children are busy with school and non-school activities. Mothers used to stay at home and get to know other women in the neighborhood. But society has changed now. Women work as much, if not as more, as men.
Families spend more time indoors nowadays. Communities rarely have barbecue parties with their neighbors anymore. A hello to people they pass by while jogging in the early morning is all the interaction neighbors have these days.
How Garage Sales Can Help
Neighborhood sales have the power to get people outside of their homes. These sales empower them to mingle with each other. Most of the time, it is events like these that make for a first-time interaction between neighbors. Some neighborhood sales are, in fact, organized with this exact agenda in mind.
As neighbors, you can exchange goods, talk about the unused items on sale and share stories about other garage sales. It is a great way to foster that sense of community in the neighborhood. These are the building blocks in creating neighborhood programs such as neighborhood watch.
Kinds of Garage Sales That Can Be Successful
The most successful garage sales are those organized in neighborhoods with houses that sit close to each other. There should also be high foot traffic and few community-integrating activities. Child-friendly programs and events bring the most people outside their homes. You can use these events to integrate a garage sale. Homeowners mingle with other parents and their kids during these child-friendly events.
Combating the decline of community in the United States is a goal that everyone should work on. Every family in every neighborhood must do its part in fostering a sense of community. This should not be the goal of one person. Everyone will benefit from a community that gets along well with each other.
