What comes closest to your feelings about garage sales?

Camper6 said:
I found a lot of people don't know or want to bother fixing a simple electrical problem. Usually a cord worn out and right now I'm looking for an electric lawn trimmer. Battery operated stuff is too to fix usually needing a complete new battery gif you can find it.
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I had a friend who bought a house when he was about 25. I had to show him how to replace a light switch...he grew up in apartments where you just called Maintenance.

Conversely, I was likely 10 years old the first time my father shoved me in the crawlspace with a hacksaw and a blowtorch to fix a busted frozen pipe...I was the only one who could fit.

Like many here, I've fixed all sorts of appliances throughout my life. I once owned a 1959 Austin Healey and the wiper motor went out. I took it apart, went to an appliance repair shop, and had the guy cut a new set of motor brushes for me (probably meant for a MixMaster.) I was back on the road, good as new. Most stuff these days does not lend itself to being opened, repaired, and reassembled like that.
 

debodun said:
Thirty years ago, you couldn't even stand in your driveway with the garage door open without people pulling up and asking if you were having a garage sale. Now it seems nobody is collecting anymore, people are de-cluttering and minimizing and there seems to be a trend of thinking buying other people's unwated items is socially unacceptable. I wonder how society got turned 360 in the last few decades.
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Baby Boomers downsizing, and the current generation is traveling light.

Check out what's happened to the price of antiques...it's bottomed out.
Nobody wants the stuff anymore.

It's sad.
 

debodun said:
Maybe in your area they pick up - here they don't. And they do have a retail outlet where they sell donated items. This is the outlet store closest to me - about 10 miles away.
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It's the same here. The Salvation Army used to send a truck to pick up furniture, but then came the bed bugs .. so that stopped the pick-ups. One can drop off clothing, etc. to their stores. I'm sure they still do give free clothing to people who need it.
 
Arlington VA used to have this short block of old houses that were all second hand shops of one type or another. The one I used to frequent got stuff from estates, so the selection was always random. The owner and I got to know each other, and I'd get a call if something came in that he thought I might like.

Those houses have long since been replaced by high rises as Washington DC crept ever outward.

I now live in a rural area where folks still crowd Goodwill and the occasional junk store. But you're right...it's not like it used to be.
 
In The Sticks said:
I had a friend who bought a house when he was about 25. I had to show him how to replace a light switch...he grew up in apartments where you just called Maintenance.

Conversely, I was likely 10 years old the first time my father shoved me in the crawlspace with a hacksaw and a blowtorch to fix a busted frozen pipe...I was the only one who could fit.

Like many here, I've fixed all sorts of appliances throughout my life. I once owned a 1959 Austin Healey and the wiper motor went out. I took it apart, went to an appliance repair shop, and had the guy cut a new set of motor brushes for me (probably meant for a MixMaster.) I was back on the road, good as new. Most stuff these days does not lend itself to being opened, repaired, and reassembled like that.
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I'm trying to learn electronics because one small component goes and the item is useless. But you need good test equipment.
 
Camper6 said:
I'm trying to learn electronics because one small component goes and the item is useless. But you need good test equipment.
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Troubleshooting it tough to do without schematics...and then you gotta find the part somewhere.

When I moved in to my current place, I had yet to remediate a hard water problem. It trashed a Cusinart coffee maker I really liked. I tore the thing down and discovered a fried thermal fuse...it had done it's job. But there was no way to buy another one. Generic thermal fuses looked nothing like it, and Cusinart told me that it was not a "user serviceable part."

It the trash it went.
I hate doing that.
 
In The Sticks said:
Troubleshooting it tough to do without schematics...and then you gotta find the part somewhere.

When I moved in to my current place, I had yet to remediate a hard water problem. It trashed a Cusinart coffee maker I really liked. I tore the thing down and discovered a fried thermal fuse...it had done it's job. But there was no way to buy another one. Generic thermal fuses looked nothing like it, and Cusinart told me that it was not a "user serviceable part."

It the trash it went.
I hate doing that.
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I would have tried any fuse available before I trashed it. Even connect the wires without the fuse. I found the best cleaner for a coffee maker is a weak solution of javex through the brew cycle followed by cycling water through. Chlorine is used in water systems. Instead of using hard water buy those big jugs of spring water. Inexpensive.
 
Camper6 said:
I would have tried any fuse available before I trashed it. Even connect the wires without the fuse. I found the best cleaner for a coffee maker is a weak solution of javex through the brew cycle followed by cycling water through. Chlorine is used in water systems. Instead of using hard water buy those big jugs of spring water. Inexpensive.
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Yeh, this was not a regular fuse. It "breaks" when the thing overheats (which it did due to the mineral build up.) I found one that is supposed to do the same thing but was so physically different there was no way to mount it in my machine (it lays against a specific spot on the unit so as to received transferred heat.)

I then did what you recommend with my next coffee maker...used bottled water and kept it clean. I'm on well water, and I finally bought a Whirlpool water softener at Lowes and installed it myself along with 2 whole-house filters (particulate and charcoal.) It was my first time using Pex. Great product!!! Way better than sweating fittings. Over 45 connections and not one leak.

Now I have softened well water that I can drink and use in my coffee machines. (The water was so hard it brought back my kidney stones.) And I can finally use my dishwasher!

Here's the installation:

Water softener.jpg
 
Probably the best yard sale I had was close to Christmas one year. I called friends with growing kids, asked, do u have gently used toys u want to get rid of? I fixed/freshened up dolls and toys and had a good turn out for folks looking for still-good toys at a bargain
 
In the past it would have been (and was) #3. Drive past unless I saw something interesting, although when my husband was living, if I was with him we'd have stopped. Now with the CV-19, I wouldn't bother. I really don't need anything else anyway.
 

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