Final Garage Sale Trail after 16 years of re-homing second-hand goods

From casual beginnings in Bondi in 2010  to a nationwide annual event, the Garage Sale Trail has found a new home for more than seven million pre-loved items and, in doing so, generated $52 million for sellers.

It is a long way from what co-founder Darryl Nichols said started as a "smell of an oily rag production".

He and friend Andrew Valder called for community members in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs to host a second-hand sale.

To their surprise, 130 people signed up, and it grew from there.

The success and the impact are beyond anything they could have imagined.

"Garage sales are a quintessential part of Australian culture,"

Mr Nichols said.

"They go along with Vegemite, going to the beach, watching the cricket in summer and all that good stuff.

"When the internet sort of started to kick in, in the late 90s and early 2000s, and we saw … marketplaces like eBay enter the game, maybe the humble old garage sale did take a bit of a hit.

"But we've certainly found over the years that the Garage Sale Trail provides a wonderful opportunity for people who have been thinking about having a garage sale but never sort of got around to doing it ."

This year, the final event occurs across two weekends, with Sunday, November 15, to be the final day.

Mr Nichols said it was the right time to walk away.

"It's been such an incredible journey we feel like we've really made a big contribution to reuse and circularity in Australia,"

he said.

"Perhaps there's someone out there … that might be interested in taking on the custodianship of Garage Sale Trail … but we feel like we've made a strong contribution and we're ready for the next chapter."

Reducing landfill

According to the NSW Environment Protection Authority, Greater Sydney is on track to run out of landfill space by 2030 unless more is done to reduce waste.

In a statement, the EPA described the Garage Sale Trail as "a fantastic initiative that helps to divert waste from landfill and reduce illegal dumping by encouraging reuse as part of a circular economy."

From her garage sale at Kanwal on the NSW Central Coast, Kalie Chaney agreed.

"I honestly don't think I could work at a tip because it would break my heart seeing all the things people throw away," she said.

Ms Chaney collects items from the 1960s and 70s.

"Things were made to last back then … whether it's furniture or Tupperware or dinner plates, they are still usable," she said

"It's good to save them, because a lot of these items [would otherwise] go to landfill."

Community connection

Recycling and reuse aside,  there is something about a garage sale that gets people talking.

Bill Mallie popped into Ms Chaney's garage sale for the social aspect.

"It brings neighbours together … it's a community thing,"

Mr Mallie said.

"At my age I need to get rid of stuff, I don't need to bring stuff in."

"[But] it's neighbours … helping each other clearing out stuff, recycling things [so] they don't wind up in the dump … what a great idea."

Mr Nichols said the social side of the movement has been almost as profound as its environmental side.

"The average person that gets involved makes about 30 new neighbourly connections through the day," he said.

"When you have a garage sale … people drop their guard a little bit because you're putting all this stuff out the front of your house, it kind of says a little bit about who you are and provides this lovely opportunity for people to connect."

"At the end of the day, it's the contribution it's made to keeping perfectly great stuff out of landfill and bringing local people together that probably is the real win for our nation."