Rummage Sale Reflections

First of all, I would like to announce that the rummage sale was a huge success! The change still has to be counted, and there are still some things that are going to be put up on the charitable section of Ebay, but so far the count is at $24,500!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just want to talk here about the general observations I made over the three days.

The volunteers were great. Project Purr is not only a non-profit, but it is also completely volunteer based. That means no one who was working there was getting any money at all out of it, not even Lynne or Margaret. (This is true though with everything Project Purr related.) The volunteers all worked extremely hard, often spending hours in the sun obtaining nasty sunburns, lifting furniture and boxes that were too heavy, dealing with nasty clients, and all the while smiling away. I was very impressed with the commitment and dedication from everyone, especially the people who had been doing the rummage sale twice a year for 15 years.

The food was also great. There were several vegans and vegetarians, and so I was thrilled that there were always excellent sandwiches, combined with chips, cookies, water, soda, cake, and coffee, that I could eat! For a vegetarian like me, finding food I can eat is difficult in the first place, but finding good food is even harder. What was even more amazing, was that all of the food was donated from local businesses!

Looking at all of the donated stuff, and seeing an entire dumpster filled with trash, I could not stop thinking about my own impact on the environment. It really brought home for me the connection between my own items at home and the landfill. In one ironic twist, I found the book "Garbage Land"- it had been donated and was for sale. I had read this book a few summers ago, and most of the connections and thoughts about landfills came directly from what I had learned in this book. (I recommended this book to my new friend, and she gladly took it home. I also recommend it to anyone else. It's a thought provoking and eye-opening book, and it's also hilarious.) Finding "Garbage Land" made me think- won't all of the books I buy eventually end up at a garage sale like this? And eventually in a landfill? It is possible they'll end up recycled, but nothing can be recycled forever. And even more than books I buy- what about my knitting? Here I am, making clothing, so what's going to happen to it? For example, a pink beanie I knitted a couple years ago is already starting to wear out. It's possible that if the beanie is so worn down that it has holes, then I'll take the whole thing out and use the yarn in another project. Eventually, though, that project will wear out too. So in bits and pieces, the yarn will end up in a landfill. Another option is that the beanie will go to a yard sale (although in reality I would never give up one of my own projects like that, so I guess in this scenario I must have died). Whoever buys the beanie might wear it, or use the yarn in another project. Either way, once the yarn gets too worn out or re-used, then again it will end up in the landfill. Another option is that the beanie for some unknown reason is unsalvageable, and has to be put directly into the garbage and landfill. This case would obviously be the worst, as none of the yarn would get to be re-used. I guess my point here is that everything always ends up in the landfill, so I want to be more conscious of what I buy and think about where it will go after I buy it.