I like to think of myself as fairly easy-going, but I don’t cope well with garage sales.
Over the years, I’ve prowled my share and even found a treasure or two, like these mint condition Woolenius tiles manufactured in Berkeley in the early 1900s. But artifacts of the Arts and Crafts movement are hard to come by, and the thought of hours spent pawing through plastic soap dishes and mismatched cutlery no longer appeals. People with growing children in need of clothing or toys, inveterate readers, Ebay resellers or folks with truly limited income no doubt have a different perspective. But I’m not a shopper, and I’m trying to simplify my life. In my world, garage sales rarely meet real needs. They provide little more than a few hours of distraction and an indiscriminate pile of “stuff” to be hauled home and squirreled away before being “repurposed” by sending it off to Goodwill. (more…)
