Posted on: Saturday, July 24, 2004
SATURDAY SCOOPS
Planning makes dollars and sense
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| Le Jardin Academy development director Lauren Avery held a garage sale last week at her Manoa home, raising nearly $250 to benefit a student's class trip.
Photos by Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser |
Advertiser Staff
Kris Meyer of Makaha will be the first to say her heaps of garage-sale hodgepodge were just plain junk.
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| Boxing like items, top, and using price stickers (bottom) can make things easier for buyers. |
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| Salvage site
Download "How to Sell Stuff You Don't Want" free at www.myvesta.org (click on publications, then money management). |
Last weekend, the 53-year-old flight attendant and business owner organized a community block sale that involved dozens of her neighbors. For Meyer, who's lived in the area for 16 years, the event was more about bonding with new neighbors than ridding her home of clutter.
Lauren Avery of Manoa also held a garage sale last week, but hers was more of a fund-raiser than anything else.
Avery, director of development at Le Jardin Academy, sold nearly $250 worth of toys, clothes and books to help academy 8th-grader Sophie Luu pay for a class trip to Washington, D.C., next year.
Whether your mission is to clean out your house or earn a little cash, there are ways to make the most of a garage sale.
Meyer recommends making a list of what and when everything needs to be done.
"When you get to the 11th hour and there are things that you haven't done yet, don't beat yourself up," she said. "Just try to have fun."
Here are more tips from Meyer and Avery, as well as Myvesta, a nonprofit consumer education organization:
Ahead of time
• Before you begin planning, make sure you've met your community's guidelines. Some require licenses, others don't.
• Place an ad in the newspaper the week of the sale.
• Get change at a bank. Avery recommends a roll each of nickels, dimes and quarters, and some $1 bills.
• Rather than spread merchandise out on a table or on the ground, organize like items — shoes, purses and stuffed animals — in large boxes that customers can dig through.
• Use stickers to price items. Avery purchased pre-printed price stickers at Office Depot.
• Creative pricing works well: for example, four toys for a dollar or a bag of clothing for $3.
• Place signs throughout the neighborhood. Large, colorful posters with arrows are attractive and make finding your home easy. But, Myvesta warns, some communities don't allow stapling or attaching of signs to lampposts or street signs, so check with local authorities.
During
• Make a little more money by selling refreshments or snacks to customers. They'll appreciate a cool drink on a hot day.
• Pay attention to the customers. "If you're not there to answer questions, they'll leave," Meyer said.
• Be willing to negotiate. "These are things we want to get rid of, so if people want to bargain, I'll bargain," Avery said.
After
• Take down all the garage-sale signs you put up.
• Consider donating to charity the items you didn't sell.
Reach Zenaida Serrano at zserrano@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8174.
'Sunset on the Beach' travels to Pearl Harbor
The city's Sunset on the Beach event packs up and visits a neighborhood this weekend: "Sunset in the Park at Pearl Harbor" takes place noon-10 p.m. today and tomorrow at Richardson Field, Pearl Harbor, across from Aloha Stadium.
Attractions include entertainment; kids games, face painting, a paintball challenge, pony rides, a petting zoo, vehicle displays; arts and crafts; a showcase of businesses and services in the area; lots of food; and blockbuster movies on a 30-foot screen.
Tonight's featured film is "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," the big Oscar winner this year based on the fantasy tales of J.R.R. Tolkien. Tomorrow's movie is "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World," starring a swashbuckling Russell Crowe.
Admission is free. Park for free, too, at the stadium.
Here's your chance to make your pet a star
Don't put it off any longer: Go through those photos of Fluffy and Buddy and Miss Kitty and Snoopy and send the best ones to the Hawaiian Humane Society, and $15 per photo, for inclusion in the organization's 2005 "Pets in Paradise" calendar.
Here are the rules: Only horizontal color prints of pets (no people) will be accepted; they will not be returned. On a piece of removable paper attached to the back of the photo, write your name, the pet's name and a daytime phone number.
Send to Pets in Paradise Calendar, Hawaiian Humane Society, 2700 Wai'alae Ave., Honolulu, HI 96826.
A panel of judges will choose the cover image and the 12 monthly top pets, but all submissions will be published in collage format.
Money raised by the entry fees and the calendar helps society programs.
The deadline is Friday. See www.hawaiianhumane.org (News & Events, Calendar of Events) for a form.
Arts festival gets creative in Hale'iwa
Out Hale'iwa way, the waves may be small now, but the arts are always in season. The 7th annual Hale'iwa Arts Festival, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. today and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. tomorrow, features a juried art show, entertainment, trolley tours, student art, demonstrations, food and all the North Shore atmosphere you can soak up.
Where to go? Hale'iwa Beach Park and throughout the town itself. Admission is free. www.haleiwaartsfestival.org.
Two goodies for Neighbor Island film aficionados
Film fans on the Neighbor Islands have a couple of goodies to anticipate:
• "The Agronomist" (3 1/2 stars from critic Roger Ebert) is on at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Aloha Theatre on the Big Island. It's about Haitian journalist Jean Dominque, who was killed in 2000. (808) 322-2122.
• "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter ... and Spring," at 5 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center, is a meditative portrait of the seasons of life. Subtitled. (808) 242-7469.
Melveen's friends gathering for star-studded concert
A benefit concert for Melveen Leed (left), 11 a.m.-3 p.m. tomorrow at the 'Ainahau Showroom of the Sheraton Princess Kai'ulani Hotel, will assemble more than a dozen acts. It's shaping up almost like a star-studded Na Hoku Hanohano Awards event.
Leed, who has heart-related problems but no medical plan, has amassed more than $40,000 in bills from a recent hospitalization. But her friends, led by Cha Thompson, are rallying to kokua.
Those set to perform include Marlene Sai, Imai & Friends, Nina Keali'iwahamana, Bill Kaiwa, Mel Cabang, Mike Kaawa, Jimmy Borges, Andy Bumatai, Tony Conjugacion, Tina Santiago, Jay Larrin, Sean and Lani Na'auao and Cecilio Rodrigues. Leed will close the show.
Time constraints prevented more volunteer talent from performing.
Tickets: $20, available by calling Thompson at 864-5454.
