It is hard to explain it to people.
The Kindness Yard Sale.
But the thing is, it is SO MUCH MORE than that.
Yeah, it’s a yard sale, big deal…
And for the last month and a half, my life has basically been consumed by it. Asking for donations of items. Begging for hangers (and more hangers, and more hangers…). Borrowing tables and clothes racks. Washing load after load of clothing, stuffed animals, blankets… Coming home to new bags and boxes on our porches - treasures donated by neighbors, some of whom I do not even know. Our front porch got so filled with donations that for a couple of days there was only a skinny walk-way IN and OUT of the front door (and this is a wrap-around 3 sided porch we are talking about!!). Driving around picking up donations. Setting up bookshelves and tables. Posting little on-line auctions on my Facebook page to raise some money before the actual sale and give out of town friends and family a chance to participate.
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| This is probably about 1/5 of the jewelry donated to this year's sale! So pretty!! |
In the end, all of the work was supposed to be for ONE WEEKEND. But oops, that first weekend went so well that we stretched it into TWO weekends. But those two weekends were magical!
I met SO MANY fun people. People from many different countries, speaking different languages and having different traditions. If you have never tried to explain the concept of “Nothing has a price tag, you pay whatever you would like to pay, and we will use your money for kindness…” to someone who does not share a common language with you, well, let’s just say the concept is a tricky one! I did a lot of mime, gesturing, and sometimes sounded like – “Shirt? You buy. Money – you give. Money big, small – you choose. Your money I take – help other people!!”. Often I was met with what can only be described as a, “Those nutty Americans…” look of disbelief.
That first weekend we had NO slow times at the sale. People were waiting (pacing!) when we opened the “doors”, and we had a steady stream of shoppers well into the night both days. I thought I would have enough reusable shopping bags to last the whole sale, but I think they were all gone the first day! The 2nd weekend was calmer but still busy and productive.
There are so many things I love about the Kindness Yard Sale. Here are just a few:
1. Some parents use the sale it
as a teaching tool for their children. It
DELIGHTS me to see kids being taught the concept of kindness. The children would show up (with masks on!)
and their own money in their pocket. They
would look around (usually for a very long time) and decide what they wanted to
buy. Then I would ask how much they
wanted to pay, and many of them were so thoughtful. They really considered the value of the items
and paid generously (and I often rewarded that by giving them another item they
had been eyeballing for free – a gift with purchase if you will).
2. The sale quite literally
SAVED things from the landfill. I know
this for a fact, because one evening as we were on the porch organizing
donations some people rode by on bikes and declared that they had just passed a
dumpster that had loads of CDs and book ends in it. They asked if we would like them to get in
the dumpster, get them out, and donate them to the sale. “Sure!” I said, not know exactly how MANY CDs
they were talking about!! They brought
back tons of music! It was both
fun and funny! And do you know what? Those CDs sold! People were excited to sort through them and
find their favorite artists or music genres that they liked. The
sale also saved things off the side of the road, because the months leading up
to it, I would holler, “Pull over!!!” whenever I saw something good being
thrown out. We carried a lot of “treasures”
in our car these past few months. 😊
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| I found this lantern on the side of the road and rescued it. Rehabbed it and its' twin and sold one at the yard sale! |
3. The sale gives people the
opportunity to be HELPFUL and KIND. Whether donating items, shopping and giving
money, or helping set up or tear down. Opportunities
to be helpful are sometimes hard to find, believe it or not. And I think we all crave them. I am so very thankful to friends and
neighbors who helped with it all.
4. The sale re-homes SO MANY items. You know the old phrase, “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure”. It is so true!! A Pilates ball. A board game. A swimming suit. A hula-hoop. A set of dishes. All things no longer needed in one household, but now treasured by another. I love when things find the perfect home. I kept a couple of larger items inside our home during the sale and kept my eyes open for a good fit for them. One was a horse from the American Girl Doll series. The horse was really nice – it even came with accessories like a bridle! I wanted it to go to the “right home”. I asked several kids during the sale if they had American Girl dolls, and I wasn’t finding a good fit. Then I asked one little girl who told me she had a doll like the American Girl dolls and she really liked playing with it. Well, you should’ve seen her eyes light up when I brought that horse out for her to examine. She loved it!!! And soon after she left with it (and other purchases) her parents sent me photos of her playing with it. Perfect fit!!
5. And finally, the sale brought the neighborhood together. I don’t know if it was because we were all jones-ing for some face to face interaction with people or what, but people TURNED UP in the heat. We masked up. We stayed socially distant. They shopped. And we TALKED. We laughed. And it. Felt. Good.
So now we are a week out. I am nursing a sore back (from all the lifting, standing, and heat I think), but my heart is still joy-filled with the whole experience and when I think about it I get giddy.
Last year the inaugural Kindness Yard Sale raised $1905.76. That was a LOT of money and it allowed me to spread kindness around the world for an entire year!! We did so many things with it and I wrote about them in my blog so you could follow along.
Well, this year’s Kindness Yard Sale more than QUADRUPLED 2019’s total!!!
The Kindness Yard Sale 2020 raised $8,265.10!!!!! Yes, over $8,000!!!! It raised $8,265.10 to be precise. Now you can understand why I am giddy!! The possibilities of kind things we can do with that amount of money seems almost limitless! We can spread it so far, so wide. And I can’t wait!!!
As promised, I will keep clear records of where the money goes and share the stories here. We began spreading the kindness yesterday so I will leave you with the first three stories for 2020’s accounting.
1. We bought this fun basket of goodies and delivered it to an amazing family. The mom lives with her two adorable kids and her very soon to be born 3rd child. They are so kind and generous to others, in fact the American Girl horse that I talked about above was donated by this family for the sale!! The mother is a shining example of kindness for her children. She told me that they have a neighbor who is, how should I put it, very cranky. But instead of being cranky back, these kids wanted to bake COOKIES and make “happy cards” for the neighbor! So that’s just what they did. And one time the little girl gave a child she saw with too small shoes the SHOES OFF HER OWN FEET – her favorite sparkly sandals!! (She DID tell the new owner to keep them clean because they needed to sparkle 😊.) Anyway, this mom and her children spend a lot of her time being kind to others, and I thought a little kindness needed to come her way. She was surprised and excited to get the basket. (Accounting - $179.78)
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| Basket of goodies for the whole family |
2. A little neighbor girl that I am very fond of came to the Kindness Yard Sale a few times. She was spending her own money and using it very wisely. I happened to know she is a fellow mermaid fan, so I set aside a few mermaid items for her to look through. While at the sale, unbeknownst to me, she begged her parents to let her buy “Corny”, our inflatable unicorn with glued on googly eyes. They kept explaining that the unicorn was NOT for sale… Her mom told me that she must’ve asked to buy it 1,000 times. 😊 Finally, the mom said that they could take a picture by the unicorn, but not buy it. That was good enough for then, but once I heard the story I knew she needed her own unicorn. So, we ordered one, glued on some eyes, and snuck out last night to leave it outside her home. (Side note – apparently her dad got spooked by it when he saw it in the dark!) When she found it today she was thrilled!!!! I am certain it will be the most well cared for unicorn in the neighborhood. She has named her Uni, shaded her with an umbrella, bathed her, and given her a nap (all in one day!). (Accounting - $24.45)
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| At the sale - she wanted to buy that unicorn SO badly! |
TADA! Her own unicorn, with mataching mask!!
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| Seriously, WHO could resist this cuteness?? |
We have the next kind act all lined up, just waiting for the right time to do it! And there will be soooo many more this year, thanks to generous donors and shoppers.
It’s not too late. If you still want to pitch in for Kindness, you can donate via PayPal or Venmo. All donations appreciated, accounted for, and used wisely for spreading KINDNESS.
PayPal – thompsongaines@msn.com
Venmo -
@susan-thompson-gaines
THANK YOU. Thank you neighbors. Thank you donors. Thank you shoppers. Thank you rain for holding out and only dripping on us a bit during the sale. Thank you woman who ran and got ice for the cooler. Thank you person who translated into Spanish for me one time. Thank you online friends and family. Thank you to people who loaned things. Thank you to the kind stranger who volunteered to sew masks from donated fabric (that everyone loved!). Thank you to the woman who grew and donated little plants. Thank you to my sweetheart for indulging this huge “disruption” in our home and being so supportive.
See you at the Kindness Yard Sale in 2021!!
You go girl!!!
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