West Seattle, Washington
04 Saturday
More updates as West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day approaches (9 am-3 pm tomorrow): Just before their second night of donation-accepting ended at 8 pm tonight, we stopped to see the Pigeon Point Neighborhood reps at Cooper Elementary (which benefits from their sale) …as you can see above, quite a haul. Also a possible candidate for the Most Unusual Item contest (can you guess what it is? PP Council prez Pete Spalding showed it off):
If you’re going to Pigeon Point, the North Delridge Neighborhood Council sale raising money for Cottage Grove Park play equipment is a stone’s throw away at 2512 SW Genesee. Here’s one of the items they hope to buy for the neighborhood’s littlest kids to play on:
Other neighborhood/block/business/group sales: The Community School of West Seattle, 9450 22nd SW, with more than 100 families participating – this was the first sale to sign up this year! … Block/multifamily sales include 8818 18th SW, 4115 32nd SW, 4136 Beach Drive, 6701 21st SW, SW Dakota between 46th and 47th, 3260 42nd SW, 5406 36th SW. Three coffeehouses on California SW have multi-participant sales: Hotwire (WSB sponsor) at 4410 California, C and P at 5612 California, and Freshy’s at 2735 California … Other businesses with sales include Click! Design That Fits (WSB sponsor) at 2210 California, Skylark at 3803 Delridge, PB&J Textiles at 5962 Fauntleroy, Westside Glassworks at 1904 SW Dawson. And while we don’t know how big their sale will be, we were excited that our first West Seattle Neighborhood Garage Sale Day sign sighting — a sign not put up by us, anyway — was on a utility pole steps away from WSB HQ!
Quick links again:
*Printable map with sale listings (8-page PDF)
*List of places to get preprinted map if you don’t have printer access
*Clickable Google map showing all sales (so you can take a closer look at locations)
The Weather Service still says rain not likely in the metro area before Saturday night, so we’re looking dry for West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day 9 am-3 pm tomorrow. Here’s hoping. Meantime, quick links in case you are not already all geared up for shopping 143 West Seattle garage/yard sales big ‘n’ small tomorrow:
*Printable map with sale listings (8-page PDF)
*List of places to get preprinted map if you don’t have printer access
*Clickable Google map showing all sales (so you can take a closer look at locations)
*Info on fundraiser sales and contests
We’ll be spotlighting business and block sales later tonight. One fundraiser addition: The WSB Forum Community sale at 2655 45th SW will include a chance to donate to a fund that’s being set up for longtime WSB reader JanS, a self-employed massage therapist who’s going to be out of work a while after hip-replacement surgery this coming week (read more in this forum thread). And a couple trivia points: The northernmost sale is 1418 Palm SW; the southernmost sale is 3737 SW 108th; westernmost sale is 3247 64th SW; easternmost sale is 7937 11th SW. We’ll be out and about with as-it-happens coverage tomorrow starting in the 8 am hour (though again, official sale time is 9 am-3 pm) – and more previews are coming up later tonight.
As we publish this, it’s 33 hours till the 4th annual West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day (got your map yet?). Putting it together has been a blast. Now, it’s up to the shoppers and sellers (and the weather). Three updates:
EVERYBODY: We have yet another prize up for grabs in the WSCGSD contests – whichever contest gets more entries, we’ll award two prizes. In addition to the Illusions gift certificate and Hotwire coffee card (both WSB sponsors), tonight we received a gift certificate from the new Body Bar day spa north of The Junction (more on them tomorrow). The contests are: For shoppers AND sellers, “Most Unusual Item”; for sellers, “Best Sign.” For both contests, take photos of your entry and e-mail them to us at garagesale@westseattleblog.com; we’ll announce the winners here and at westseattlegaragesale.com Monday night.
SHOPPERS: Another advance shoutout to the sales that are raising $ for causes, and an addition: 7717 California is donating proceeds to the Orca Network. In addition, 9450 22nd SW is The Community School of West Seattle‘s big annual fundraising sale; 2512 SW Genesee is North Delridge Neighborhood Council raising $ for tot play equipment at Cottage Grove Park (more tomorrow on a chance to get involved with that NEXT weekend); 19th & SW Genesee is Pigeon Point Neighborhood on behalf of Cooper Elementary; 3003 61st SW is the Log House Museum‘s fundraiser; 7138 32nd SW is raising $ for childhood-cancer research via Alex’s Lemonade Stand (and will be selling lemonade too!) – read their personal story here; a few blocks south at 7955 32nd SW, a leukemia patient gets half the proceeds; 3919 41st SW benefits the Breast Cancer 3-Day; 1418 Palm is donating proceeds to the animal-rescue group Homeward Pet; 5637 42nd SW is on behalf of Kiwanis Club of West Seattle; 6115 SW Hinds is Alki UCC with its annual plant sale; and before you leave the house (or set up your sale) on Saturday, please put out a bag of nonperishable food for the annual Stamp Out Hunger letter carriers’ food drive!
ADMIRAL NEIGHBORHOOD SELLERS: Your Neighborhood Association needs your help. It, like other neighborhood groups, is building a neighborhood disaster-readiness kit and would love donations of any of the following items if you’ve come across them while getting ready for your sales, or if they’re left over after sale day. Read on:Read More
One of the neighborhood-group sites with a sale participating in West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day this Saturday is accepting donations tonight and tomorrow — the Pigeon Point Neighborhood sale is a fundraiser for Cooper Elementary, and Matt Swenson from the PP Council asked if we’d post this:
Past garage sales have raised more than $3,000 for the kids at Cooper. We will be accepting donated items tonight (Thursday, 5/8) and Friday, 5/9 from 6:00 – 8:00 P.M., and on Saturday morning from 8:00 – 9:00 A.M. Please bring donations to the covered basketball court at the north side of Cooper Elementary (1901 SW Genesee St). Items must be received by a volunteer. We’re hoping for plenty of donations and for lots of visitors on Saturday!
Lots of other fundraising sales – we’ll mention more tonight and tomorrow, and you can see them now on the official map, available in printable and Web-explorable versions at westseattlegaragesale.com.
Just two days till the big day, and now you can see who is selling what where. Go here. 9:42 AM UPDATE: Just got e-mail from someone who says he is part of a group coming here from the YAKIMA VALLEY! for WSCGSD. Re: the weather – if you read the “forecast discussion,” the chance of rain on Saturday keeps getting pushed back later and later in the day.
We have just posted a three-part update at the official West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day site (westseattlegaragesale.com), including the prizes confirmed for the contests (both contests are open to sellers; one is also open to shoppers!) and the latest on The Map. Final confirmed count: 144 sales! If you have time to browse through the WSCGSD site, we’ve been posting some infobits about sales, participants, and more.
ART WALK THIS THURSDAY: Another record number of participants — 29, from Click! Design That Fits (WSB sponsor) in the north, where you’ll find a reception Thursday night for the Jewels in May show — to Bubbles on Delridge in the east, to West Seattle Nursery in the south. Here’s the official map; more info on the Art Walk blog. 6-9 pm Thursday, lots going on as the Art Walk expands.
WEST SEATTLE COMMUNITY GARAGE SALE THIS SATURDAY: The official map of all 140-plus locations (still doublechecking to make sure we haven’t missed anyone, before we get an accurate count) 
is just about ready to print and will be available Thursday as promised – online (and clickable!) at westseattlegaragesale.com, where we are posting ongoing updates as preparations continue, or preprinted and available for pickup at 11 West Seattle locations: Alki Community Center, Admiral Library, Cafe Rozella, Capers, Delridge Library, Fauntleroy YMCA, Hotwire Coffee, Senior Center of West Seattle, Southwest Library, West Seattle Chamber of Commerce, West Seattle Family YMCA. Sale sites are literally all over the map, from Alki to Arbor Heights, from Fauntleroy to Pigeon Point to Westwood, and every place inbetween; more than a few fundraisers, too, including the Log House Museum, Community School of West Seattle, Kiwanis of West Seattle, Pigeon Point Neighborhood raising money for Cooper School, North Delridge Neighborhood raising money for tot play equipment at Cottage Grove Park, Homeward Pet, Breast Cancer 3-Day, Alex’s Lemonade Stand, Alki UCC … You’ll see it all on The Map. And tomorrow, a special Garage Sale Day pitch from local neighborhood leaders working on disaster preparedness
A little too early for a reliable long-range forecast, but of course we are thinking bright sunshine for West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day 
one week from today, 9 am-3 pm, more than 145 locations all over West Seattle. Our registration closed more than a week ago but if you have some stuff to sell, there’s a chance you can still be part of one officially participating venue – the courtyard next to Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor; see the Hotwire website or drop by Hotwire for more details). If you are going to be a shopper that day — maps will be available online (here and at westseattlegaragesale.com) starting Thursday, and at 10 locations around West Seattle (see the list here). If you are going to be a seller — the last dozen or so infopackets are in the mail as of this morning; if you don’t get yours by Tuesday at the absolute latest, please call us 206/293-6302. Remember we’re having two contests as a fun little side note — “Best Sign” (photograph yours on sale day and send it to garagesale@westseattleblog.com) for sellers, “Most Unusual Item” for sellers AND shoppers (same drill, send photo to that same address) – Hotwire Coffee cards are the prizes in both contests. Last note, we’ll be tabling at the Sustainable West Seattle Festival tomorrow in The Junction, 10 am-3 pm, to continue getting the word out about WSCGSD, so if you’re there, look for us and come say hi.
Nine days to go till the 4th annual West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day! Today we finish mailing info-packets to participants, which will be followed up by supplementary e-mail with a few extra infobits. We now have a final count of participating sales: 147, a new WSCGSD record! We’re posting more details daily on the official WSCGSD site at westseattlegaragesale.com (the latest update is here, including the contests we’re having – one of which will be for shoppers too, not just sellers! – and where maps will be available). 9 am-3 pm Saturday, May 10, garage-salers’ paradise all over West Seattle — if you can help spread the word outside WS (we’ve put up posters in WS, bought ads and placed announcements around the region and the Web, and sent news releases, of course) maybe consider printing this 8 1/2 x 11 miniposter and tacking it up on your nearest bulletin board? Thanks!
Thanks to everybody who signed up to participate in the 4th annual West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day coming up two weeks from today — 9 am-3 pm May 10 — the semifinal registration total (depending on how many last-minute mail-in forms arrive today/Monday) is 142 sales!!!! – including some group/business/school sales and block sales, too! Now the big job ahead is to make sure EVERYONE in West Seattle knows about the garage-sale-shopping opportunities that await that day, and also folks in surrounding communities who can head this way to enjoy great shopping and spectacular scenery. We’re plowing the registration $ back into promotion and printing, but beyond that, we’d like to ask your help in spreading the word outside WS … if you get a chance to tell friends, relatives, co-workers that May 10 is THE day to head this way; you can even use the “Share This” feature under this post to e-mail it to someone. (Maps will be available May 8 online and at locations we will list soon at the WSCGSD site, westseattlegaragesale.com, as well as on a new round of posters you’ll be seeing around town!)
Maybe it’s the sunshine; lots of folks are getting in the mood for garage sales in this final day of signups for the 4th annual West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day, which WSB is presenting this year — taking the baton from the late great Megawatt — on Saturday, May 10. 11:59 pm tonight is the registration deadline, so if you were registering by mail, we hope you’ve already sent it off; the online form is good till the last minute (find it at our WSCGSD site). 
Please be aware of something we should have made clearer earlier (we promise to streamline it next year) – the online registration/payment is a two-step process; first you fill out the form, and when you click send, it takes you to PayPal. You will get a confirmation e-mail regarding your registration after that first click, and your info goes to us then — but you’re not officially signed up till your fee is received — PayPal would have sent you a separate receipt confirming you’ve paid. If you signed up in the first week and didn’t get a PayPal receipt in addition to the confirmation e-mail from us, you should have received a followup e-mail from us offering you the PayPal link again OR the option to send a check; we’re going through the second week registrations tonight and will send e-mails to those for whom that seems to have happened in recent days. Anyway, thanks for your patience and your decision to be part of this fun community event; if you’re not selling but you plan to be shopping, we’re excited about that too – we have just finalized the list of where maps will be available, but we do encourage you to print out your own copy from the online link, which – along with preprinted ones – will be available May 8. And be sure to keep an eye on the official WSCGSD site at westseattlegaragesale.com, where the registration talk is about to end and the promoting/buying/selling fun talk is about to start, with more than 130 participating sales so far!
Our 100th registration is just in for the 4th annual West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day on Saturday, May 10th — thanks to everybody who’s decided to join in! One community, one day, (now we can say) more than 100 sales around West Seattle — including some group/business/school/organization sales — As soon as registration closes tomorrow night, we’re getting down to the next round of fun stuff: Mailing info packets to participants, making the second round of posters promoting Garage Sale Day itself (we’ve had registration posters up for two weeks, and of course they had the sale date too), and sharing information about The Big Day — if there’s something really unusual or interesting about your sale (and you are registered for WSCGSD, of course), e-mail us at garagesale@westseattleblog.com — remember we’re planning “Best Sign” and “Most Unusual Item” contests too. Again, registration’s open till tomorrow night; go here to sign up online (or to get a mail-in form you can print, but please get it in the mail ASAP). If you’re just coming in on this, WSB is sponsoring WSCGSD now because its creators @ Megawatt closed down earlier this year and needed new presenters for their signature events (we took on WSCGSD, the Gathering of Neighbors is being organized by DNDA). May 10, whether you’re a shopper or seller, mark your calendar!
Been thinking about joining in on the West Seattle-wide day of selling/shopping/recycling (that really is what garage sales do, after all), but haven’t quite made up your mind? Three more days … registration for the 4th annual West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day closes Friday night, April 25. You can sign up to have an individual sale, school/business/organization sale, or block sale; online registration is available this year for the first time, or you can print the form to mail in (but hurry … we’re going to start work on The Official Map on Friday night!). All the links you need are here, plus some bonus info (such as, 10 principles of garage-sale secrets, and 2 places to join in a group sale if you don’t have enough room/stuff for your own). WSCGSD is Saturday, May 10, 9 am-3 pm, and we’re on the brink of 90 signups, from all over West Seattle. (If you’ve already signed up, info packets will start going out later this week.)
The big day – dozens of sales all over West Seattle, a shopper/seller’s dream! — is Saturday, May 10; registration ends this Friday night 4/25 so we can work on the map, get packets to the participants, and intensify the areawide publicity blitz. Join the fun! Registration links and more info are on the official West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day website.
Less than a week left to sign up to be part of the 4th annual West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day (go here to see how); we’ve now passed 60 sales signed up to be part of one fun day of West Seattle-wide shopping and selling on May 10, but there’s room for more on the map – invite your neighbors to set up a block sale, or have one at your business/school!
Haven’t decided yet if you’re going to have a sale on West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day (9 am-3 pm Saturday, May 10; official website here)? Check out the Top 10 Reasons to Have a Garage Sale! In the case of WSCGSD, another top reason is to join in a communitywide event — maybe even get to know your neighbors better by having a block sale — if you don’t want to have an individual sale, have a block (3 or more homes) or business/organization/school sale — we’ve got some great-sounding ones already in the nearly three dozen sales that are on the list so far. Get on the map (literally) – plan your sale and sign up online (go here) or by mail (download the form here, or pick up a copy at one of the locations listed here). We’ve added a few extras this year including a “Best Sign” contest (here’s some inspiration from last summer; wasn’t part of WSCGSD but sure caught our eye). Registration’s open till April 25; even if you’re more a shopper than a seller, mark your calendar for May 10 and get ready to shop till … you know. P.S. Shopper alert, this weekend is the granddaddy of all Seattle community garage sale days, the one that inspired Megawatt in 2005 to start one in West Seattle — 9 am-3 pm Saturday (April 19) is Greenwood Garage Sale Day, a tradition that’s been going on for more than a decade now; help build ours to match (maybe eclipse) theirs!
As of this morning, through Friday, April 25, registration is open and the first signups already have rolled in for the 4th annual West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day, which is happening 9 am-3 pm Saturday, May 10. (Backstory: WSCGSD is a creation of the late great community-connection organization Megawatt; its leadership hoped its signature events would go on, and allowed WSCGSD to be taken over by WSB, while Gathering of Neighbors will now be presented by DNDA.) If you haven’t participated before, as a sale-holder or shoppers, just to be clear: This is NOT one big day in one location — this is one day set aside for people to have sales all over West Seattle – as many as people sign up to have – in the past few years, there’ve been more than 100! – all promoted with a map and citywide advertising. For the first time, you can register online — go to the official West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day website at westseattlegaragesale.com to do that, or to get a downloadable registration form you can print out and mail in, or to see the list of locations where you will be able to pick up a registration form starting later today (just in time for the West Seattle Art Walk tonight – some of our form-distribution locations are Art Walk participants). And even if you’re not going to have a sale as part of WSCGSD on May 10, please set aside some time to shop till you drop – as happens every year, we will have maps available online and at several in-person locations starting a few days ahead of time; we’re also promoting/advertising the event to areas outside West Seattle so shoppers will flock this way. One more new feature this year: Contests – including “best sign” and “most unusual sale item.” Questions? E-mail garagesale@westseattleblog.com – and keep checking westseattlegaragesale.com for updates.
If you missed the news earlier this year, WSB is the new sponsor of West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day. The big day is Saturday 5/10; we’re opening registration this Thursday, 4/10. Check our WSCGSD website for full updates including the list of where you’ll be able to pick up mail-in forms if you don’t want to sign up online.
That’s the scene a short time ago in the Seattle Lutheran High School Gym on the north edge of the Junction (Genesee just west of 42nd) – the Booster Club‘s rummage sale to raise money for SLHS athletics is under way till about 4 pm today, and one of the most surprising finds we noticed was a large quantity of lovely wood furniture. This is yet another reason for us to remind you that WSB is presenting West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day this year, and it’s now six weeks away! We have set the date for registration to open — APRIL 10 — and hope you’ll sign up to be part of it – both individual sales and group sales are welcome and we’ll be promoting the heck out of it in hopes of bringing garage-sale throngs here to WS to shop and buy; watch both WSB and also our official WSCGSD site (westseattlegaragesale.com) for ongoing updates, and if you’d like to be on the e-mail list for announcements and reminders (we promise, no spam, no high volume) please e-mail us at garagesale@westseattleblog.com – thanks!
The official start of spring is still a week away, but garage-sale season gets off to a running start tomorrow and Saturday, with two megasales at West Seattle churches: One is at West Side Presbyterian Church (3601 California SW). 9 am to 5 pm Friday and 9 am-2 pm Saturday, church members are selling linens, books/CD’s/records, antiques/collectables, clothing, vintage and better labels, craft/holiday decorations, garden items, tools, furniture, household goods, salesman samples from the kitchen and home industry. Photos have just been posted – here’s a big collection. Also, Tibbetts Church is having its semi-annual rummage sale, 9 am to 4 pm Friday and 9 am-3 pm Saturday, with clothing, books, linens, kitchen supplies, sporting goods, yard and lawn tools, furniture, and collectables, 41st SW/SW Andover. This also gives us the opportunity to remind you that WSB is sponsoring this year’s West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day, Saturday, May 10; we will soon announce the dates for and other details of registration — and we’ve got the stirrings of a website going at westseattlegaragesale.com. Hope you’ll be able to join the fun!
As you may recall, the community-building organization Megawatt decided last month to disband, but its leaders were hopeful that its legacy, and its best-known events, would carry on, with new organizers. As just officially announced in Megawatt’s last e-mail bulletin, that’s going to happen:
Megawatt’s Legacy Lives On
Megawatt is thrilled to announce that the West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day and the Gathering of Neighbors will continue in 2008 and beyond under new leadership.
The West Seattle Blog is the new organizer of the West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day. Tracy Record and Patrick Sand have a lot of creative ideas for this beloved West Seattle event. Check out the West Seattle Blog at www.westseattleblog.com for ongoing updates.
The Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association will take on leadership for the Gathering of Neighbors. DNDA is a trusted West Seattle steward and under their guidance GON will continue as an inspired community event. Contact Derek Birnie at www.dnda.org for more information.
Megawatt is officially signing off. Thank you for making all of this important work possible.
Here’s to community. Here’s to West Seattle.
Congratulations to Megawatt founder Mary Ellen Cunningham, her board, and their colleagues for everything they’ve accomplished. And to DNDA for taking on Gathering of Neighbors, which is an awesome way to find out more about community resources and opportunities. And now, about those garage sales — We are thrilled that Mary Ellen and the Megawatt board decided to trust WSB with Community Garage Sale Day. It’s something that truly and literally all of West Seattle can be part of – as sellers and/or shoppers (and we’re hoping for some community partners in other roles too) – and something that also can draw people from other areas to come visit our fabulous peninsula. Plus, we can all talk a lot about it online before, during, and after. Megawatt created an instant tradition by launching this event in 2005, and we hope you will help make the 4th Annual West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day ’08 a ton of fun. If you were a seller or buyer last year, and you have a thought on what you hope won’t change and what you think would make it an optimal experience, please leave a comment here or e-mail us any time at a special mailbox we’ve set up: garagesale@westseattleblog.com. Oh, and mark your calendar – we want to continue the Megawatt tradition of scheduling this for the second Saturday in May – that’ll be May 10th, 2008! We’ll talk more about this soon, and we’ll set up a forum topic when it gets a little closer.
As promised, Megawatt has just posted the map and guide to all 130-plus locations planning yard/garage/whatever sales this Saturday during its 3rd Annual West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day. The guide splits the list into “quadrants” — check it out to see who’ll be selling what near you!
Just starting to get into the yard-sale groove now that it’s May? Get ready to maneuver between 120 WS sales next Saturday during Megawatt‘s 3nd annual Community Garage Sale Day. You’ll have a couple days to plot your course, since the maps will be available starting Thursday at 9 WS locations as well as at the Megawatt site.
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