Thrifty Shopping

At the end of Tip #5, I indicated that once your sale is over, to make sure you take down your signs.

Because of my experience this past weekend, I’m going to reiterate that statement and make it Tip #6.

Tip #6:  ONCE YOUR
SALE IS OVER, MAKE SURE YOU TAKE DOWN YOUR SIGNS!

Sorry for yelling, but I’m making a point here.  It’s important that you take down your signs after your sale.  Here’s why:

My husband and I just moved across country.  We’ve been in this town less than two weeks now.  We don’t know anyone here, and we sure aren’t familiar with the lay of the land yet. 

Last weekend we decided to check out a few of the garage sales in town.  We figured it’d be a good way to become familiar with the town, and maybe pick up a few bargains for our new home at the same time.

So, armed with our trusty city map, we climbed into our Wrangler and headed out.  There were signs on almost every street corner advertising garage and yard sales.  Most of them contained addresses, so, using our friend the map, we managed to figure out where they were.

As we were driving around, we kept seeing bright green signs touting “HUGE SALE! FRI & SAT”, with arrows pointing the way to the sale.  Being as it was Friday, we decided to go check it out.  So, we’re driving along, following the trail pointed out to us by the signs.  It was easy enough to follow, all the signs were the same color, so we just kept our eyes open for the fluorescent green signs.  The arrows led us through winding streets, in a part of town I didn’t know existed. (Ok, so being here less than two weeks, there are lots of parts of town that I don’t know about yet, but that’s beside the point of my story.)

Anyway, as we get closer to the destination, the signs begin to reveal the address of the “HUGE SALE!”  We finally get on the right street, but something doesn’t look right.  There are no cars parked along the street, no yards or garages that look like they are having the advertised “HUGE SALE!”  We finally find the address, and THE HOUSE IS EMPTY!  As in, the people who were living there were not anymore!  There was a “For Sale” sign in front of the house, but that was it.

I was a bit angry.  We had just spent around 20 minutes following a trail of signs that led us on a wild goose chase.  The people who had held the sale did the right thing initially with their signs by leading would-be customers to their door.  However, they should have taken the 20 minutes or so that it would have required after the sale to remove their signs.  It would have saved us, and the two other vehicles that I know of who were on the same journey, some frustration

So, please, please, please, if you plan to hold a sale, take the time afterwards to remove your signs!