Reminiscence and Recompense: Reuse and the Garage Sale

Gretchen M Herrmann

doi:10.5334/wwwj.12

Abstract

Among the mix of motivations that inspire people to sell and shop at garage sales is the desire to prevent the disposal of still usable goods. Sales can be so effective for redistributing consumer goods and reducing waste that numerous municipalities, such as Sunnyvale, California and Sydney, Australia, promote their sales through a community-wide staging. Lengthy corridor sales in the U.S., like that held annually on Route 127 (the “World’s Longest Yard Sale”), serve the same function, drawing positive media attention and promoting civic pride. But unlike the mundane act of recycling used papers and cans at the curb, making goods available for reuse at garage sales is an action loaded with personal sentiment. Second-hand purchases are often imbued with “sticky” emotional orientations (Ahmed 2010) and reminiscences. This article therefore examines the garage sale as a site for redistributing goods with emotions and histories attached. Participants derive some small recompense in the form of money made, the acquisition of inexpensive goods, and the self-satisfaction associated with reducing waste, but shoppers and sellers are also allied in a tug of war against the landfill to claim the future of goods, especially the storied items adopted by shoppers. Beneath their goal of cleaning out the garage, garnering some extra cash, or obtaining a bargain, participants assert that the reuse of and care for still serviceable goods is meritorious and morally praiseworthy. In the process of reuse, they enhance their moral selves and perform a good deed, however minor, by preserving both the stories of these objects and the embattled earth.

Highlights

Garage sales are complex, multifaceted social, economic, and ecological events
Garage sales are a major venue for promoting the reuse of serviceable used goods, largely from in and around the home, in the circular economy that is resistant to externalizing waste
The Australian Garage Sale Trail (GST) emphasizes the ability of sales to keep volumes of usable goods from the landfill, while the U.S corridor and city-wide sales foreground the size of their events

Summary

Introduction

Garage sales are complex, multifaceted social, economic, and ecological events. People become involved in shopping and selling from the home for a variety of reasons: decluttering, life-cycle changes, moving, downsizing, generating money, a death in the family, a change in taste or status, recreation, socializing, and in an effort to prevent waste. This article examines how garage sales extend the useful life of goods—an important practice to reduce waste headed to already crowded landfills—and at the same time help some participants to construct moral identities. Various cities, both in the United States and Australia where I have focused my research, have adopted community-wide garage sale days as a public policy strategy, designed to encourage more reuse and less landfilling. Large sales expanding along lengthy highways serve to reduce landfill waste and garner positive media attention Through their participation in garage sales, shoppers and sellers mutually construct something of a moral ecological identity through reuse activities that save goods from the oblivion of the landfill. These sales, similar to garage sales, attract collectors and the curious on Sunday outings.

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion