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Health & Fitness

Junk Week - The Ultimate Garage Sale

Grassroots recycling at its finest, Spring Clean-Up Week in Narberth is a gigantic, free, curbside garage sale.

The slow procession of vans and pickup trucks down our street can only mean one thing—it’s Spring Clean-Up Week here in the borough of Narberth.

I’m not sure if the rest of Lower Merion and the Main Line have some variation of what locals call “junk week,” but they definitely should.  Officially, it is a week where residents are allowed to put all their unwanted items, big and small, on the street for trash and recycling pickup.  Unofficially, it is a garage sale where everything is marked “free.”  A steady stream of bargain hunters shop to their heart’s content at an endless buffet of curbside castoffs.

The week is a big hit with locals, who look forward to the opportunity to rid themselves of unwanted clutter, but hope that any still-useful items will be recycled by someone in need.  Some residents actually schedule their yard sales for the weekend before, reasoning that that their things will either be sold on Saturday or donated to the curb “superstore” during the following week.

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Spring Clean-Up Week is also incredibly popular with locals and not-so-locals who are looking for a bargain.  We’ll see everything from working class families in minivans, shopping for gently-used toys and furniture, to work trucks—full of professional garage sale/auction pros, looking for a steal. 

There are also the inevitable neighbor swaps, where we each grab items from each other’s castoffs up and down the street.

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Of course, there’s always an idiot out there who wants to ruin a good thing for everyone.  Last year, one neighbor had some electronics stolen out of her car by someone we assume got carried away with the “help yourself” concept. 

That brings me to obvious Rule #1:  If it’s in a car, it’s not part of Junk Week.  Rule #2 is also pretty common-sense:  Don’t make a mess.  If you rummage through a box of curbside items, please put the things you don’t take back in the box. Ninety percent of the world doesn’t need to be told something like that, but the other ten percent mess things up for everyone else.

Those minor issues aside, the event is a win/win for almost everyone.  It’s a natural complement to efforts like the Yahoo Group, LM-Narberth Totally Free Items, where people routinely list items they don’t need, and things they are looking for, in an effort to reduce clutter and recycle useful toys, furniture and household items.

Now it’s time to head down to the basement to grab a few more things for the pile.

 

 

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