Mountain View brings back annual city-wide garage and yard sale

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -
For two straight years, Mountain View's city-garage sale couldn't happen due to the threat of COVID-19. 

In 2022, the city gave the OK to move forward.

In past years, the event brought in about 200 households to participate; this year about 93 signed up.

Hoang Tran was one of those homeowners selling old goods.

"Some furniture, some pandemic activity stuff," he explained. "We just wanted to have someone else enjoy it, because we did."

Tran is giving away a ping-pong table and pieces to build a trampoline. It's his first time ever participating in his 12 years living in Mountain View.

This year, homes packed their front yards with toys, antiques, and what appeared to be a dentist chair.

Shoppers told KTVU they felt comfortable enough this year interacting with one another.

"Depending on how crowded it is, I have my mask in the car," said Lisa Crossfield, who commuted from Sunnyvale to find furniture. "I'm outside, so I do feel more comfortable doing that. If it's crowded, I will definitely put my mask on."

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Some yard sales became a bit more meaningful. A few homes turned theirs into a fundraiser.

"It's nice that people want to help us out and help out the troop," said Wyatt Parry, troop leader for the local Boy Scouts Troop 87. The group hasn't had fundraisers for two years, so money collected from the weekend will be donated to their troop.

"So we can go do fun group activities like Philmont, which is a 50-mile backpack ride," said Parry. 

City leaders say the event supports its Zero Waste initiative which looks to prevent sending reusable good to the trash. Mountainview neighbors say they like that idea.

"We didn't want to dispose of it and have more stuff in landfill," said Tran. "Hopefully these items get re-used and that's what we wanted."

The event is on Saturday and Sunday, from 8am to 2pm.