Around the Sun: A Blog About Saving Money in Portland, Oregon, and beyond

Free Events This Weekend in Portland: June 20–22

As always, admission is free for all events below.

Also, the Eastmoreland Neighborhood Garage Sale is happening on Saturday and Sunday. This is my favorite garage sale of the year. Read what I said about the sale last year here and here.

Have a great weekend!

All weekend

• Pedalpalooza: The bike events continue. For the full schedule, visit the event website.

• Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts: All weekend, George Rogers Park and Lakewood Center For The Arts will host art exhibits, live entertainment, artist demonstrations, children’s activities and more. Most are free. For more information, visit the event website.

Friday, June 20

• Free Friday Show at Someday Lounge: Rifle, The Lark and Blue Horns will perform at 9:00 pm. Visit the Someday Lounge website for details.

• George Mitchell will perform at RiverPlace Hotel at 8:00 pm. Visit the PDX Jazz website for details.

• Pete Krebs Jazz Trio (website) will perform at Press Club at 8:30 pm. Press Club is located at 2621 SE Clinton St., 503.233.5656.

• Reina Collins (website) will perform at Edgefield at 7:00 pm. Visit the Edgefield website for more information.

• Voodoo BBQ (website) will perform at Rock Creek Tavern at 9:00 pm. For more information, visit the Rock Creek Tavern website.

• Comics professionals Jessica Abel and Matt Madden will talk about their book Drawing Words and Writing Pictures: Making Comics from Manga to Graphic Novels at 7:30 pm at Powell’s City of Books on Burnside. For more information, visit the Powell’s website.

• Author Barbara Pope will talk about her book Cezanne’s Quarry at 7:00 pm at Powell’s Books, Cedar Hills Crossing. For more information, visit the Powell’s website.

• Author Phillip Margolin will talk about his book Executive Privilege at the Tigard Library at 7:00 pm. For details, visit the Tigard Library website.

Saturday, June 21

• Bike to the Oregon Zoo and get in free: Free admission to anyone who uses a bike as his or her main method of transportation to the zoo, whether by riding the entire distance or riding part way and taking advantage of MAX. For more information, visit the zoo website.

• No.Fest: Nu Music.Arts St. Johns: This all-ages music and art festival runs from 10:00 am to midnight at four venues in St. Johns: Towne Square, St. Johns Booksellers, Legong Gelato and Proper Eats. The lineup includes new jazz, rock, electronic, acoustic, spoken word and more. For details, visit the event website.

• “Explorando El Columbia Slough” Bilingual Environmental Festival: This family-friendly event offers activities in both Spanish and English, including guided canoe trips, live music, rock climbing wall and more. Whitaker Ponds Nature Park, 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Visit the festival website for details.

• A Taste of Portland Dance: Agnieszka Laska Dancers will perform, as well as Polaris Dance Theatre, Northwest Professional Dance Project, Minh Tran & Company, Rumpus Room Dance, Luciana Proaño and Dancing People Company, at Imago Theatre at 5:00 pm. For more information, visit the ALD website.

• Declare Your Independence: At this event, you can view the typeset version of the Declaration of Independence and enjoy live entertainment. First 500 people get t-shirts and posters. Rose Garden, Lexus Club Level, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. Visit the Rose Quarter website for more information.

• Two Buggy Puppet Shows: Northwest Library will host “The Insect-lopedia,” a performance by Mudeye Puppet Company at 3:30 pm. Across town, Holgate Library will host “The Great and Wonderful Marionette Flea Circus!” by the Oregon Fantasy Puppet Theatre at 3:00 pm. Visit the Multnomah County Library website for more information.

• Tibetan Festival in Vancouver: The Northwest Tibetan Cultural Association is hosting this event featuring Tibetan artwork, dance, food and more. Esther Short Park, noon to 5:00 pm. Visit the event website for more information.

• Here Comes Everybody (website) will perform at Music Millennium at 5:00 pm. Visit the Music Millennium website for more information.

• Andrew Oliver (website) and Tim Wilcox (website) will perform at RiverPlace Hotel at 8:00 pm. Visit the PDX Jazz website for details.

• Lisa Stringfield (website), Kaitlyn ni Donovan (website) and Amoree Lovell (website) will perform at Press Club at 8:30 pm. Press Club is located at 2621 SE Clinton St., 503.233.5656.

• Eddie Parente (website) will perform at Edgefield at 7:00 pm. For more information, visit the Edgefield website.

• Carlyle (website) will perform at Rock Creek Tavern at 9:00 pm. For more information, visit the Rock Creek Tavern website.

• Cloverdayle (website) will perform at Borders in Tigard at 7:00 pm. Visit the Borders website for more information.

• Author Molly Gloss will talk about her work at the Central Library at 1:00 pm. For more information, visit the Multnomah County Library website.

Sunday, June 22

• Sunday Parkways: Six miles of North Portland streets will be closed to traffic from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm to give people the opportunity to enjoy the neighborhood car-free. Parks and businesses will host entertainment and activities. For more information, visit the event website.

• Junie B. Jones Stupid Smelly Bus Tour will make two stops in Portland. First, Junie will give a performance at Powell’s Books, Cedar Hills Crossing, at 11:00 am. At 4:00 pm, she will perform at Borders in Tigard. For more information, visit the Powell’s or Borders website.

• Hillsboro Art & Wine Festival: Admission is free to this celebration of art and wine, featuring live music and about 55 art and wine vendors. East Main Street in downtown Hillsboro, noon to 6:00 pm. For more information, visit the event website.

• Lincoln’s Beard (website) and Love Trucker (website) will perform at Music Millennium at 5:00 pm. Visit the Music Millennium website for more information.

• Mary Flower (website) will perform at Edgefield at 5:00 pm. For more information, visit the Edgefield website.

• Author Mark Schorr will talk about his book Fixation at 5:00 pm at Murder by the Book. For more information, visit the MBTB website.

If you know of any other free events happening this weekend, please write a comment about it. If you’d like me to include an event in a future round-up, feel free to contact me.

1 comment June 20th, 2008

Tips for a Profitable Garage Sale

Last Saturday, a couple of friends and I hosted a yard sale. All in all, I spent about 12 hours gathering my items, pricing them, transporting them to my friend’s house, setting up, selling and tearing down. I made $105, a little better than minimum wage ($7.80 in Oregon). I was happy overall, given that nothing I sold was more than $3, and most things were $1 or less. It felt good to cart away noticeably less than I’d brought.

What do you do to make your yard sales a success? Here are my tips:

• Advertising is a must.

  • Post garage sale ads for free at websites like Craigslist, gsalr.com and ThriftMapper (Portland).

  • Take the time to make or acquire good signs. Make sure the print on your signs is readable from oncoming cars. At an intersection, be sure motorists can read the sign from far enough away to make the appropriate turn. Also post signs to accommodate traffic from different directions.

• Presentation goes a long way.

  • Display good-looking items so that they’re visible from the street. As these items sell, replace them with other winners.

  • Arrange your items in an orderly and appealing manner. Mimic the way merchandise would look on a store shelf or in an enticing window display. If possible, put items on tables and shelves rather than on the ground, so that they’re closer to eye level.

  • Make sure people can reach things easily. Again, tables and shelves are preferred because they bring items closer to the customer’s fingertips. If you’re putting items on a big tarp on the ground, try to arrange merchandise along the borders only. People may not want to crawl over other items to reach something in the center of the tarp.

  • Group like items together, for example, kitchen stuff in one area, computer stuff in another. Clothes should be separated clearly into children’s, women’s and men’s categories.

  • Take things out of boxes and bags. One year, my husband and I were selling a glass chess set for a good price. For hours, no one gave it a second glance. My husband decided to take the chess pieces out of the box and arrange them on the board. Within minutes of doing so, the set sold.

  • Make sure nothing is blocking your sale from view. If possible, move any cars that might be parked in front of your yard.

  • Walk out onto the street and make sure your yard sale looks good.

  • Put prices on your items. I feel that people are less likely to buy an item if they have to ask you how much it costs. A good price can also turn an OK item into a must-have.

• Interacting with customers seals the deal.

  • Greet customers as they arrive, smile.

  • Approach them and ask if there’s anything they’re looking for.

  • Point out attractive or well-priced items. Point out new items. Point out items that relate to the specific individual (for example, draw men’s attention to the men’s clothes, women’s attention to the women’s clothes).

  • Invite people to test electronics, toys and appliances by having an outlet/extension cord available outside as well as batteries.

  • Be willing to bargain and to lower your price.

  • But it’s also okay to stick to your guns. If lowering your price will leave you feeling cheated, you don’t need to do it. If your item doesn’t sell, you may be able to get your price on eBay, Craigslist or next year’s garage sale.  

  • Look for opportunities to sell complementary items. For example, if someone is purchasing a cocktail shaker, point out that you also have a copy of The Bartender’s Bible for sale.

• Getting more than money from your sale makes profits sweeter. Personally, I feel garage sales are hit and miss in terms of a fundraising venture—big money is not a guaranteed outcome. As such, I recommend looking for other benefits as well. In addition to selling, take time to chat, ask questions, and swap business cards with customers. Use the opportunity to meet and get to know your neighbors. My garage sale last Saturday was really more than a garage sale. It was also “bonding time” as my friend described it. And that made the day worthwhile, regardless of the amount of money I made.

Do you have a tip for hosting a successful garage sale? Please write a comment about it.

2 comments August 28th, 2007