Everybody’s Bazaar & Yard Sale Oct. 21
Ready. Set. Shop. It’s time again for Everybody’s Bazaar & Yard Sale. This is the fifth time this bargain extravaganza has tempted treasure-seekers. Each sale gets bigger and better and I anticipate every one with excitement that’s almost shameful. I so enjoy getting things on the cheap. But, like many of you, I don’t always have time to shuttle from one sale to the next. And sometimes, when I do find a few hours to paw through other people’s stuff with the hope of finding that one thing I didn’t know I needed, crummy weather encourages me to stay home and clean my closets instead.
No weather worries this weekend – Everybody’s Bazaar & Yard Sale happens rain or shine. And, because there are over 250 private and business sale spots – all under one weatherproof roof – you don’t have to waste valuable bargain-hunting time driving around town. You just park (for FREE) in the Spokane County Fair & Expo parking lot and head into an unbelievable assemblage of housewares, sporting goods, collectibles, jewelry, tools, furniture, crafts, antiques, toys, linens, books, clothes and – my, oh, my – so much more.
You really should plan to make a day of it. But I must warn you, if your willpower is on the puny side, this probably isn’t the best place for you. Even the most staunch minimalist among us finds it difficult to say no with so many temptations stacked right in front of our faces.
Let me give you a rundown of just a few things we’ve purchased at past sales (sales we swore we were going to walk out of empty handed, by the way): A set of three retro cast iron trivets featuring kitschy psychedelically painted tiles in their centers (I swear these were the very trivets my mother used to stop her casserole dishes from warping our table top in 1978); out-of-production board games – with all the pieces!; old-school garden and farm tools (that I display as unexpected decor around the house – they’re way too cool to put in the dirt); a 3-piece aluminum canister set (looks like stainless steel but doesn’t collect fingerprints); the ideal chair to tie our existing living room furniture together; and an iron headboard (we’d been looking for almost two years for just the right one – walked into the spring Bazaar and there it was for a price we couldn’t resist).
We’ve had a booth at two of the Bazaars and had great fun finding new homes for our unnecessary stuff: A street-side basketball hoop; an impressive collection of kitchen utensils (they multiply like rabbits as soon as the drawer closes, I swear); racks of gently used name-brand size 8 boy’s clothes; landscaping cloth; a super cute shower curtain (cotton, neutral-tone stripes, still in the original, unopened package); an only-used-twice crock pot; miscellaneous tools (I’d list them but the memory of letting them go still pains my husband); children’s books (from the Tawny Scrawny Lion to the Hardy Boys); a vacuum cleaner; and a food processor (does anyone really know what these contraptions are used for?).
You’re looking at your shelves right now, aren’t you? You’re thinking it’s time for a fresh supply of knickknacks. Or maybe your wrist is lusting for a vintage bracelet. Your collection is missing a vital coin. You’ve been craving gourmet fudge. You know where to go. And you know you’re going to find what you’re looking for. See you there!