Free House Plants, but the cat stays.
Last week I put these plants on the curb for anyone who would like to take one or more home. They sat on the curb for two days and no takers. The weather is changing fast around here, I couldn’t let them stay there for long and I didn’t want the city rubbish collectors thinking I was throw them out. So, what did I do? I posted them as free house plants on an app called “Nextdoor”. It’s a free app for nearby neighbors to share information and community events. It looks like a little green house. It’s a good app to have. It didn’t take long for these plants to find new homes. A week later I posted more.
These too went fast. I even had people ring my bell, (I invited them to do so) and come up for more I had inside. I felt very good about the people who came for these plants, they weren’t just out to grab free pots or do anything destructive. I wouldn’t do this with animals though. I cringe when I see free kitten ads and such. Anyway, this plant experience gave me an idea. I live in a part of the city that’s hard to find, it’s a little corner behind hospitals, colleges and institutions. People don’t look beyond those blocks and see there’s a neighborhood, so I’m hidden. It’s definitely not a good area to have a yard sale. The app allows you to expand your area and reach out to other parts of the city and suburbs, that’s where a lot of these people came from, many on their way home from work downtown.
Well, to begin with, I had one successful yard sale since I lived here and that was a number of years ago after my next-door neighbor died and his family hired an estate sale company to sell his belongings. I realized that this was an opportunity not to be missed and had a pop up yard sale and I was out there early. People will come from all corners for an estate sale and they will find the address no matter how difficult or well it is hidden. Yardsales are different, people don’t normally go out of their way to look for a single yard sale. People will come early to an estate sale too. They take numbers and wait in line for a good hour before the doors open so a next-door yard sale gives them something to do while they wait. They’re treasure hunters and pickers and love a sale! Be ready by 8:00am for that one! My yard sale did very well. I didn’t just pile the stuff around the yard, I somewhat mimicked the estate sales I’ve been to and worked at in the past, where items of likeness, like kitchen stuff, linens, etc. are organized together, clothes are hung on racks or folded neatly, it’s clean, tidy and displayed for attraction. There’s room to move around and get a good look. I didn’t have much left to sell after that sale. I didn’t have to advertise it either.
As much as I loved my plants, I’m so relieved that I don’t have to drag them all indoors for winter and crowd the spaces in my house. This spring I intend to fix up some garden vegetable starters from seeds. I got the space now. I’ll have the few I want for myself and the rest I’m going to put up another free plant ad and yard sale on Next-door. Maybe it’ll work, maybe it won’t. We’ll see.
Road Trip Minnesota 