Mid-Winter Garage Sale Fix Looms for Bargain Hunters

The days of hitting up the summer yard sales seem like light years away in the middle of a Minnesota winter, but St. Michael-Albertville bargain hunters can get their fill of it this Saturday morning. The Albertville MOMS Club and STMA’s ECFE and Bright Beginnings Preschool are teaming up for their popular annual garage sale, the fourth year they have done the sale.

From 9 a.m.-noon on Saturday, moms with young kids will be able to browse through children’s items from 17 local families in the Community Education Center’s gymnasium. Items for sale include clothing (maternity, baby and kids), books, baby gear, bedding and toys. Entrance to the sale is $1 with the fee waived for those who bring a donation of baby food, which will be given to the Hanover Food Shelf.

While some of the proceeds from the garage sale will go back to the families who sold the items- all of whom are members of the MOMs Club- a percentage will also go to ECFE/Bright Beginnings Preschool’s scholarship fund to help low income families take a class with their child or put them in preschool. ECFE/Bright Beginnings partners with the Albertville MOMs Club by giving them the space for the sale, helping with advertising and providing some of their staff members to help run the sale.

“I think if we had just asked people to donate their things we wouldn’t end up with as much stuff, and the items wouldn’t be as nice of quality,” said Albertville MOM’s Club garage sale organizer Angie Underthun. “This is a good way to have quality items but still make enough money to donate to charity.”

 For example, Underthun said that one year the Mom’s Club did a garage sale of their donated items and raised only $75 total. With these larger, more consignment-style sales she said they were able to donate $830 to ECFE/Bright Beginnings’ scholarship fund last year in addition to the money the sellers earned.

Two things that will not be for sale at the garage sale are cribs and car seats, because of safety concerns. The sale is cash only starting this year, and there will be diaper boxes on hand to load up your purchases.

If buyers are in search of larger baby gear items, ECFE/Bright Beginnings Coordinator Deb Spencer said it’s best to arrive right at 9 a.m. for the best chance at snagging a big ticket item, but otherwise she said there will be plenty of items available throughout the sale, especially clothing.

 “They do a good job of having everything organized,” Spencer said, noting that all items will be ordered by category and clothing will be separated by size and gender. “It’s good to go with a game plan.”