Money on the Lawn

Saturday mornings provide quite the display. Drive around residential neighborhoods and you will see people who have laid out on their lawns all manner of items for sale. People empty their garages, storage rooms and closets in an effort to make room for the next thing they can’t live without. And we wander around, hoping to find our next treasure at a discount.


Every garage tells a story about the people who live there and the choices they’ve made. A decades old sewing machine, pots and pans that lack the name of a TV chef, used crockpots in the original packaging and soft leather boots reveal people who have been frugal about what they buy. They care for the items, often retaining the original paperwork from 1970 in case they needed to order a replacement part, until they no longer see a need for them. The decision to part with the item is often rational, “I had to sell my sewing machine, my arthritis was just getting too bad,” or “I just don’t cook for large groups anymore so I didn’t see the need to keep my crockpot.” They’ve lived careful lives, spent judiciously, and they often find bargain hunters curious when their worn but still useful items remain untouched. They can’t understand why anyone would buy something new when they have a perfectly serviceable one that they will sell to you for half price.

This contrasts sharply with the yard sale where the proprietor inadvertently reveals their weaknesses for the world to see. A yard filled with thousands of stuffed animals for sale at three for a dollar reminds us how easily we will throw away thousands of dollars, without even realizing that it’s happening because we are shelling it out in $10 increments over days and months and years. It’s only when shelves and closets are emptied that the truth stares at us from a tarp on the lawn. Some of the smallest homes yield the largest garage sales, making me wonder why we believe buying everything that catches our eye is the same as living the American dream.

I’m not immune. I frequently empty my closets and storage rooms and if I were to reveal my nature by holding a yard sale, you would see a person who likes projects and who rarely finishes them. I’ve pitched remnants of business ventures that I tried without success, crafts and scrapbooks that never even got started, and mountains of home décor that was replaced as soon as I got the new paint color on the walls. I look at an item I’m about to toss and find myself wondering why I thought this item was so important that I was willing to trade hours of working for the money it took to buy it. Most of the time I’m completely baffled. If I was making rational decisions, all my plates would be unbreakable and white so that they would never need to be replaced because the colors or design was out of style. I would buy classic clothing pieces only and a single pair of diamond studs for my ears since they work with everything. But that’s not how I roll, and based on what I saw out on my neighbor’s lawns today, most people don’t roll that way either. So tonight my question is this, why do we spend our lives and our money contrary to logic and what does cleaning out a closet reveal about yourself?