Santa Monica: Yard Sale Mecca

I reside in Santa Monica. So does Oliver Stone, Calista Flockhart, and Harrison Ford...from what I'm told. It's one of the higher end neighborhoods in Los Angeles. No freestanding house sells for under a million, even in this crappy economy. Check out the LA Times Real Estate section for proof. It's kind of depressing. Which is why it was beyond jarring to find 50 or so signs popping up on street corners across Santa Monica ever Friday evening advertising YARD SALES and GARAGE SALES for the upcoming weekend. Now, I have NOTHING against a good old fashioned garage sale to relinquish unnecessary baggage when one is about to move or move on from a relationship that went sour. I've been known to host a ceremonious burning, myself, from time to time. It's good for the soul to purge. And I'm a huge proponent of second hand furniture; there's just something more to a piece when history comes attached to it. Not to mention how well it fits into the whole environmentally aware movement. And we all know how important it is to at least appear that you are doing your part, especially in LA where one risks being blackballed for not recycling plastic. But these yard sales are for the most part shameful; full of old sweaters, soiled concert t-shirts, beat-up children's toys, seventies era knick-knacks, novelty salt and pepper shakers, Clint Eastwood paraphernalia and framed movie posters of hits like The Double 0 Kid starring Corey Haim. Exactly. Albeit, sometimes a beach cruiser or an actual piece of furniture does make it into the mix...sometimes.

Beginning Saturday morning at 8am -7am for the truly motivated- hundreds of residents set up shop and reside at their post until Sunday evening. One innovative woman employed Vitamin Water and lemonade as an added incentive to lure would-be shoppers into her nest of junk; not unlike the real estate agents back East who were known to throw in an actual car with the purchase of a new home to sweeten the deal.

Here's my question: Where does all of this crap keep coming from? And hasn't anyone out here ever heard of the garbage? In NYC, there's simply no room to keep anything that does not have a vital, current, weekly if not daily use. One gets used to throwing out or selling on eBay what is superfluous and simply living with less. Have some standards good people of Los Angeles (or at least Santa Monica), even Good Will employs the "If you wouldn't give it to your best friend, then don't give it to us" rule. Leave the holey underwear in the giant black bin in the alley.

Although who am I to judge? As the saying goes, "One mans garbage is another man's treasure." Only in LA...