UPDATE: Due to rain in the forecast for Saturday, the yard sale will be held on Sunday, May 22.
If you like a yard sale, Brookfield will be the place to be this Saturday. That’s because there will be nearly 300 yard sales going on at once in the village on May 21 as part of what organizers are calling the Brookfield Community-Wide Front Yard Sale and Giveaway Day.
The event is being organized by Brookfield residents Molly Truglia, Michelle Busse and Kristy Herrera, who connected over the Brookfield Free Swap Facebook page.
Truglia, who has lived in Brookfield since 2017, originally posted this spring about having a community-wide giveaway day. Busse reached out to Truglia, saying she was thinking about organizing a community-wide yard sale.
They decided to team up. Last year Busse and Herrera had organized a yard sale on their block of Oak Avenue so Herrera got involved as well. The three women met at the Linda Sokol Francis Brookfield Public Library to brainstorm and plan the new community-wide event.
“We just connected over the free swap group and went from there,” Truglia said.
They created a Google form so people could sign up, and Busse’s husband, Steven, shelled out approximately $200 to buy 17 signs that they put up around Brookfield to advertise the event. They were surprised by the response.
“I thought that maybe there would be 40 or so houses taking part,” Truglia said. “There was a lot more interest than I thought. And I’d say most people are doing a little bit of both, like doing a yard sale but also giving away a few items.”
They’ve created a Google map to show all the locations where yard sales are taking place, which can be found at bit.ly/brookfieldyardsale2022.
The yard sales will run from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. In case of rain, the yard sale will be held on Sunday, May 22.
“Hopefully the weather will be good,” Truglia said.
Truglia said she is looking to get rid of some toys that her two boys have outgrown.
“Usually we would just do a donation, but it seemed like it might be a fun way to get neighbors together and meeting one another,” Truglia said.
Truglia, a graduate student in social work, is especially enthused about the community-building possibilities of the yard sales.
“This sort of informal social organizing can lead to greater community cohesion,” Truglia said. “Obviously that’s not going to happen with one day of a yard sale, but if it gets people talking and meeting one another, I think that has real positive impacts for community and that can kind of trickle down to individual impacts as well.”
