Garage Saling - Our New Hobby

My husband and I have discovered that a new hobby - garage saling. I used to despise garage sales because I never seemed to find anything worth buying. Everyone else's junk looked like junk to me, too. However, when I was pregnant with our daughter, my sister-in-law, who was also pregnant, got me hooked on garage saling. I became amazed at some of the deals she got on baby items and decided to give garage saling a second chance. I soon discovered how much money I could save on baby items by buying used! And being from a Mennonite background, how could I resist a good deal! We got tons of baby items at garage sales - we got an exersaucer, baby swing, baby clothes, a snuggly, toys, jolly jumper, and much more - all at a fraction of the cost it would be to buy these items new. Some baby items I found were brand new (with $20 tags on them), but I only paid 25 cents for them! Garage sales are especially good for buying baby items because often the items have only been gently used.

My husband was happy I was saving us money by buying baby things second hand, but he was still not a big fan of doing the "garage sale thing." He was happy enough to let me go travel from sale to sale, but he didn't bother coming along most of the time. Now that we've recently purchased a house, we've discovered other things we can get at garage sales. A few weekends ago, I went to an awesome garage sale and got several items (including a toddler bed, pine night stands, and some baby toys) for a very, very good price. When my husband got home from work, he was so thrilled with my purchases and what I paid for them that HE set the alarm for 7:30 a.m. the next morning to go garage saling with me! My husband woke me up bright and early, excited to go find some good deals. And so began our new hobby...

Here are a few of our garage sale finds this summer.


Matching pine night stands for $5 each.


A toy for our daughter. It reminded me of the toys they had at the dentist's office when I was a kid.
A brand new door knob for $3 to replace a really nasty looking one for our bathroom door downstairs. (At that same garage sale, we also picked up 5 more brand new door knobs (still in original packaging) for $2 each that we hope to use upstairs when we change the old doors upstairs.
An apartment sized deep freeze for $50 for downstairs. We had been thinking about buying a new one for awhile and had looked at a few other used ones before we found this one. Now I can bake and cook in bulk all I want!! I had to hold myself back before because our freezers were full. This one will especially come in handy after this summer when I hope to freeze our garden produce and berries.
A storage unit for our downstairs bathroom for $5.

Those are just a few of our garage sale finds! Now my husband and I enjoy just going from place to place, even if we don't always find something. The only challenge now is making sure we don't buy things we don't really need. Love 'em or hate 'em, you have to admit that garage sales can be a great way to save a buck or two.