Moorestown’s spring yard sale – last held in fall – will take place on May 14.
Wolf Skacel, chair of Sustainable Moorestown, explained how the organization brought the idea for a town-wide sale to the township eight years ago.
“Sustainable Moorestown is all about trying to show what a great community we live in (and) to make sure that people appreciate the town and what it offers,” he said. “I think a lot of people do and we certainly want to keep it that way for future generations.”
“I noticed other communities in the area also had community-wide yard sales, so we thought, ‘Well, let’s try that,’ and while it doesn’t directly help small businesses, the goal was to drive traffic to the community,” Skacel added.
Residents are encouraged to register for the yard sale and a map of all participating households will be available on Sustainable’s website and its Facebook page. Skacel explained why registration became an option after the event’s first year.
“The first year we did it, we really had no measurement of how effective it was because we didn’t require registration,” he said. “We just simply asked (for) a resolution in town recommending everybody have a yard sale.”
“We found that by doing a registration, we could also produce a list (and) we could produce a map and let people know where these yard sales are.”
Sustainable Moorestown added the fall yard sale after the 2020 spring event was canceled due to COVID.
As noted on its website at sustainablemoorestown.org, because old clothing and toys are some of the hardest materials to break down and recycle, yard sales are a safe way to avoid sending them to landfills.
“Number one, you kind of remove excess material that you have accumulated over the years you don’t want,” Skacel noted. “Maybe somebody else can find a purpose or a joy (in) having it.”
“What it does is it reduces the impact on our landfill and ultimately on our taxes, because the taxes pay for trash collection in the community,” he added.
Items that people sell include children’s toys, old computers, clothing, furniture and car parts. Skacel said residents enjoy doing something different.
“Some people put out really good stuff and people are very happy because they find all kinds of things,” he said. “Our goal is just to create traffic, that community buzz. A lot of people look for it now, and it’s kind of a fun event to go around and look for things.”
To participate in the yard sale, register at sustainablemoorestown.org.
