Mangowood Community Garage Sale

Garage sales are cathartic.  You free your home from built-up clutter and start anew. It is liberating, organizing and energizing.  And, as George Carlin once observed, it “makes room for you to go out and get… more stuff!”

On February 25, the Mangowood Estates section of Palmetto Bay held their 34th Annual Garage Sale.  That morning, another home’s junk became someone else’s discounted treasures on a mass scale.  Of the 288 homes in the Association, about 70 houses set up shop in their driveways and nearly a thousand people arrived.

Miami Stingray catcher Kaitlyne Musa, 16, helps at the Mangowood garage sale

One house sold me two barely used file cabinets.  Another peddled a like-new gooseneck table lamp.  Total cost for everything, six bucks!  Besides being fun for the customers, it is a great community event.  Any time you get residents to do things together, you accomplish great things.

One long-time homeowner told me that he’s proud of Mangowood.  He was President of the Association when Hurricane Andrew struck.  He recalled how within 2 days of the storm, his neighbors had banded together and cleared all the streets of debris, making them single-lane passable.  Few other areas accomplished this for weeks.

Today was no hurricane, but Lisa & David Greenwell certainly organized a great community fundraiser.  With several hundred patrons visiting their driveway each year, they decided to raise money for daughter Megan’s traveling softball team.  The Miami Stingrays (a Flagami Khoury League team for 14-16 year old girls) are a traveling showcase team.  “We have a trip to NYC this July and we need to raise $15,000 to support that,” explained Lisa Greenwell.

Miami Stingray catcher Kaitlyne Musa (age 16) and her teammates were on hand to help sell.  “I think we’ll make nearly $2000 from this.  That will go a long way to getting to New York,” said Musa.  “I have a blast playing softball and traveling.  This is a great way to have fun and raise some money.”

Besides the garage sale, they plan to have a car wash in March and a golf tournament in May.  So, when you’re ready to clean the garage and have your next yard sale, think about what community activity you can help fund.  In Mangowood, this is second nature.