My Weekend Companion...

I love garage sales, thrift stores, antique stores, Goodwill, Salvation Army, you name it-- I LOVE IT! I recently stumbled upon a website that has now become my weekend companion for when I go garage sale-ing.  It's YardsaleTreasureMap.com.

This site has so many great features!  It's really easy to use and is great for the browser, or the professional garage saler like myself who likes to plan my route out among the neighborhoods.

Here is what the main page looks like upon entering the site:

All you need to do is type in your starting address, pick a range of miles that you want to travel within along with the day (most garage sales start on Friday afternoons, but the big sales are always on Saturdays.  Click "Find Sales" and you are on your way to the greatest treasure hunt ever!

Your search results will appear and it will already have your route for the day charted out. 

Now you may not have all of the time in the world to garage sale on a Saturday morning like most people, so how do you know which sales are going to be worth your while?  Just click on the garage sale marker target and a description of the sale will pop up along with a tab so that you can see a street view of the house.  This will help you determine how to allocate your time so you can shop fast and shop efficiently.  I'm definitely not going to waste my time at a garage sale that is advertising lots of baby cloths or children's toys. :) 

Most of these posting are from Craigslist or local newspapers, so chances are you will find another 2 or 3 garage sales that haven't been advertised along your treasure hunt.  That just makes it all the more fun!  A couple of weekends ago I used this website to plan out my garage sale treasure hunt and I ended up with 2 GREAT finds! Well I should say my next two projects :) 

I'm finishing up my first painting project on my chair I found a long time ago.  (Hint: blog post coming soon on that)  I will be starting on the side table first, but I'm not sure what color I should paint it.  I'm thinking either a paprika red or an Anthropologie mint green.  What do you think I should paint it? Cast your vote and I will paint it whatever color YOU pick!

 Happy Garage Sale Treasure Hunting!