2016 World’s Longest Yard Sale Finds

We spent Saturday and Sunday at the World’s Longest Yard Sale, and came away with some great stuff. This Tennessee souvenir plate (purchased for $2) is just one of the many cool things that we loaded into the car. Come check out the rest of our haul.

This Cuisinart soft serve ice cream machine ($8) was an exciting find. We came across one at a church yard sale a few months ago, but it had a broken part, so we decided to pass. This one appears to be in working order. My youngest daughter’s birthday is tomorrow, so we’ll take it for a test drive tomorrow night after dinner. If it’s as good as our electric Cuisinart ice cream maker, I’ll be stoked.

I’m in the process of making an outdoor rug out of old, curb-shopped garden hoses and zip ties. I was starting to run out of zip ties, so I replenished my stash for $4. I’ll be sure to share a picture when it’s done.

Remember the vintage camp stool that I reupholstered earlier this year? Well, I bought three more. These will need to be reupholstered, too. I just happen to have bought some upholstery tacks at a yard sale Friday, so I have everything I need. The seller wanted $5 for all of them …

My husband asked her if she’d throw in this wooden box, and she said okay.

So, for $5 we got three camp stools and the wooden box, which is actually a maple, wall-mounted desk. Pretty cool.

I’ve had hair cutting scissors on my Amazon wish list for the longest time. so I was really excited when I unearthed this pair in a junk box, and got them for $1. I just cut the kids’ hair last week, so it’ll be a while before I get to try them out, but I already had the satisfaction of deleting something from my Amazon wish list this morning.

I bought this vintage wool coat ($2) for myself, but the sleeves are too short (I have long arms). If it doesn’t fit my oldest daughter, I’ll probably sell it.

If you like good quality soap, but hate to pay $4 (or more) a bar, buying ends is a great way to save. Soapmakers often sell the remnants they have left over after cutting their soap into bars for around $.50 a piece, and they tend to be pretty sizeable pieces. This is one of my tricks for keeping our shower stocked with fancy soaps.

Well, I happened to be walking by a soapmaker’s booth Saturday when I heard her tell a customer that she’d sell her the entire jar of soap ends for $20. She said she’d been making people that offer all day, and so far no one had taken her up on it. Well, apparently it’s because she hadn’t talked to me. I waited for her customer to leave. Then, promptly bought the whole jar. This should last us for years.

One booth we stopped at had a “fill a bag for $2” table. We stuffed everything you see here into a bag. We got a really nice pair of jeans, birthday candles, several packs of party napkins, popcorn bags (which we use when we do backyard movie parties), ribbon, tulle, gift wrap and a Harry Potter chess set.

My husband also added this Air Force ABU to the bag. We’ll probably sell it on Ebay. It looks like they’re going for around $20, with free shipping.

Another sale had everything for $.25 on Sunday. I loaded up on new-in-package rain coats. They don’t take up any more space than a poncho, and they’re a lot easier to move around in. I bought 16, so we could add a family set to our camping supplies, the trunk of both cars and keep a set at the cabin.

My youngest daughter asked to do fondue for her birthday. When I spotted these fondue forks for $1, I decided it be nice to have some extra forks.

She also picked out this silicone cookie cake mold ($2) for her birthday cake.

Her other purchases included a World’s Longest Yard Sale t-shirt ($5), a pair of Nike’s ($5), and a few pieces of jewelry, but she wore those things to school today, so I couldn’t photograph them.

My oldest daughter picked out this vintage embroidered apron ($4, bartered down from $5) …

a pair of suede Rocket Dog boots (new in box) for $4 …

a plaid semi-formal dress ($1) …

and this assortment of goodies, including a blue and white striped cardigan ($1), a NASA keychain ($1), a pair of headphones for school ($3.50), daisy magnets ($.50), a headband (free) and a wind chime/bauble made out of a tea strainer ($1). She plans to use the wind chime in her school locker.

My husband bought three Chimney Sweeping Logs ($1 each) …

a Star Wars 12-disc box set ($12) …

and a giant Maglite 4-cell D flashlight ($3) …

I also bought a bunch of vintage fabric and ephemera that I’ll be using to make stuff for my shop …

and these vintage Marquee letters will also be making their way into my shop once I get them cleaned up and electrified.

Not a bad haul, eh?

Want to see what the sale is like?

Here’s a video that we shot on our last trip.