Banana Shire households, schools and community groups are set to join over 400,000 people across the country on Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 October as a part of the ninth annual Garage Sale Trail.

A multi award-winning community and sustainability event, Garage Sale Trail is powered by over 140 local councils nation-wide. It is expected that this year’s weekend long event will involve more Australians than ever before, who will choose to reuse at over 16,000 garage sale events to be held across the country.

Mayor Nev Ferrier commented that “Garage Sale Trail presents a fun and social way for Banana Shire Council to encourage reuse and help educate the community about the impact we can all make when we buy secondhand. At the end of the day we need to learn as a society to take responsibility for the waste we create.”

Mayor Nev Ferrier went on to say “Garage Sale Trail provides a way to meet your neighbours and connect with the broader community whilst also decluttering and raising money for yourself or charity.  We're really pleased to be involved in this grass roots national event as reducing waste and bringing community together are priorities for both Council and residents.”

Last year on average:

• household garage sales made $309
• participants connected with 46 local people
• more than 500kgs of stuff was sold and re-distributed at each garage sale

Event organisers project that more than 2 million items will be listed for sale and reuse. “The sellers who have a bit of fun with their garage sale name and go to town on marketing are the ones who bring home the bacon and sell the most” said Garage Sale Trail Co-Founder Andrew Valder.

“Garage sale names like Sale Of The Century, The Almost-Deceased Estate Sale, It’s a Divorce, and the Crap & Crepes Sale stick in our minds. At The Crap & Crepes Sale four students from France gave away a crepe with every purchase. You can see how businesses start in garages!”

Host a sale or shop the trail.