Mayor Walsh said it best: “Disposing of bulk waste comes at a significant cost to the City…Yard sales are a great way for residents to divert waste, save money, and even get to know your neighbors better.” That is why Greenovate Boston is hosting the city’s first ever Community Yard Sale on June 28 and 29. In preparation for this event, we were doing some research on yard sales, and surprisingly (or not), we found some interesting facts worth sharing.
1. Yard Sales: Made in the U.S.A.
The yard sale moniker originated in the United States. Some consider it to be as American as baseball and apple pie. Starting out as “romage sales”, shipping yards would sell unclaimed or damaged cargo at discounted prices. These became rummage sales, moving off shipping docks and into community centers, and later into neighborhoods. Why are “yard sales” so quintessentially American? Because we’re one of the only countries in which everyone has a lot of land that includes a yard in the first place!
2. There are A LOT of them
An estimated 165,000 yard sales happen in the U.S. each week! Boston has roughly 300,000 residential units, so imagine if half of all your neighbors had a yard sale each week. Not hosting a yard sale? C’mon – all your neighbors are doing it. No pressure.
3. Those cheap items really add up
Yard sale attendees (do we call them “sailors”? “Yardies”? “Yard-sale’ees”?) spend $6.12 on 7 items on average, per sale, per week. That means the average cost of an item is only 85 cents! But it really adds up. $4,222,375 is the estimated total weekly revenue from yard sales in the United States.
4. A yard sale by any other name…
Other names for a yard sale: attic sale, garbage sale, junk sale, lawn sale, moving sale, patio sale, rummage sale, tag sale, thrift sale, or garage sale.
5. Yes, there is a National Garage Sale Day
National Garage Sale Day is the always the second weekend of August (but we were too excited about Boston’s FIRST Community Yard Sale, we couldn’t wait till August!).
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