Credits Host: Maggie BlahaTheme music: “Thanks for the Memory” written by Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger, performed by Bob Hope and Shirley Ross in the 1938 film of the same name
In this season finale episode, I recap what I’ve learned from visiting 4 different types of garage sales. Featuring clips and interviews from episodes 1, 2, and 4, I attempt to uncover why our possessions often become so important to us, even if we don’t use them on a regular basis.
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Episode transcript
INTRO.Maggie: You’re listening to Thrift: What Your Garage Sale Says About You, a podcast that explores the stories behind the things we once loved and are ready to let go of.
THEME MUSIC. (30 seconds)
Maggie: Hello everyone and thanks so much for tuning in to this final episode of the first season of Thrift. In case this is the first time you’re listening to the podcast, my name is Maggie Blaha, and in each episode I visit a yard sale and interview people about the stuff they’re selling or buying.
I thought that talking about yard sales would be a good way to explore our relationship to stuff—the things we own that don’t exactly serve a purpose in our lives, why we hold on to them, and when (if ever) we decide to let them go.
If you’re new to the podcast and you like what you hear, I hope you’ll stick around and start listening from the beginning. There are only 6 episodes and each one is about 10-15 minutes long, so you can pretty much binge them all in a single 60-minute workout session. Though I would recommend listening while doing more leisurely things like drinking a cup of coffee or glass of wine, cooking dinner, or maybe sorting through things you’d like to sell at your own yard sale.
Just a heads up that I’m going to be taking a short break to work on season 2, but I’d love to hear from you while I’m away. Please feel free to share your questions about the podcast and ideas for future episodes by sending an email to hello@thriftpodcast.com. You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, I’ll share my usernames in the show notes. And even though I won’t be putting out new episodes during the break, there will be some extra-special content that I’ll be sharing with newsletter subscribers—you’ll find a link to sign up in the show notes, as well, and thank you to everyone who has already subscribed.
II. For the season finale, I want to recap what I’ve learned while creating the last 5 episodes. After visiting a variety of yard sales, I think that the people I talked to had some unique perspectives on why we hold on to stuff and why we would even bother to have a yard sale.
At the time that I am recording this episode I will be in the process of moving from Atlanta, Georgia—my home for the past 5 years—to Brooklyn, New York. Next season, most of my episodes will be based out of New York and New Jersey, but the point I’m making here is that moving has forced me to sort through my possessions and decide what’s worth keeping, even though I’m not actually having a yard sale.
I had accumulated a lot of stuff after 5 years in Atlanta, and deciding what I was going to throw away or donate wasn’t as challenging as I thought it would be. Mainly because I just wanted the ordeal of moving to be over. I noticed that I didn’t have a problem parting with furniture or kitchen appliances or clothes—they’re all replaceable, and I don’t find myself missing them on a daily basis.
Not that whether or not you use or even see something on a daily basis should be a litmus test for what you keep or throw away. The things I couldn’t part with were my journals and notebooks and college papers; post-its and index cards with random notes scribbled on them; planners that help establish a timeline for the past 10 years; postcards and knick knacks and mementos from traveling and other poignant moments in my life. I wanted to hold on to these things, but I don’t look at them every day, every month, or ever, really. I couldn’t even bring myself to look through my old journals when I was packing (it would’ve been too emotional).
III.There are some things you shouldn’t throw away—journals are one of those things. And then there are all the books I keep accumulating faster than I can read them. So I have a fairly extensive unread library, an “anti-library,” as Umberto Eco would say. I’m still on the fence about whether I should continue trying to read them all or just accept that if I’ve had a book for more than 2 years and still haven’t read it I never will. This was one conclusion that Coco came to in the first episode.
AUDIO CLIP #1
When I was packing to move, I found Coco’s method of not thinking about what she was getting rid of helpful when it came to my closet, but my books… I couldn’t let go of any of them. And you know what? That gives me joy. As for the journals I’ll most likely never read again, I think that parting with them would be too much like parting with previous versions of myself.
Only I’m not sure how real or authentic the person who is depicted on thousands of pages of notebook paper actually is. After reading The Diary of Anne Frank at a young age, I’ve always had this awareness while journaling that my diaries might one day be found and read and, dare I say, published as if I were somebody. In this image or fantasy (I’m not sure what to call it) I have about my diaries being discovered, I am dead. This is never made explicit in my imaginings. I’m just gone, gone after a short life. A life interrupted.
IV. For me, my diaries are tied up with my own mortality. My diaries are written records, whether they’re factual or not, that will remain after I die. This is the pressure I feel when I write—my words have significant weight because they will be my life after death. I think I also feel this way about other things I own, particularly my books. I can technically die at any moment. If I do, what books do I want to be found on my shelves? What sort of life do I want people to imagine I had based on my possessions?
We all want to leave behind a record of ourselves, and the things we buy or collect at different points in our lives is our way of “writing” that record. I’ll go as far as to say that it’s the surest way we can maintain control over our narratives after we die. We’re curating the stuff that surrounds us for a purpose.
AUDIO CLIP #2
V. Linda has experienced first hand what it’s like to sort through the things a loved one leaves behind. She helped her friend Georgia go through her late mother’s storage locker. Linda even made the very difficult decision to sell a few items that once belonged to her own mother. When someone dies and their possessions are all that remain, it can feel like you’re giving away pieces of that person.
What Linda learned from going through her mother’s belongings is that stuff really is just stuff. Your stuff is not you. And this lesson helped her part with a lot of her own stuff that she didn’t need anymore
AUDIO CLIP #3
VI. At the Atlanta Cosplay yard sale, it was very important for the vendors I spoke with to find good homes for their old costumes. They couldn’t just donate them to Goodwill or a thrift store; they needed to find cosplayers who would appreciate them.
AUDIO CLIP #4
VII.This was the first episode where my interviewees explicitly mentioned wanting to find a “good home” for their stuff, but I think it’s what’s at the heart of a yard sale.
Maybe if I had planned to have a yard sale before I moved I would have been more willing to give up some of my books. Or maybe I’m hopeless.
In case you were wondering, pretty much everyone I talked to said there was an expiration date for the things they wanted to sell.
AUDIO CLIP #5
That wraps up the first season of Thrift. Thanks for listening!
OUTRO. (5 seconds)
