A little too early for a reliable long-range forecast, but of course we are thinking bright sunshine for West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day one week from today, 9 am-3 pm, more than 145 locations all over West Seattle. Our registration closed more than a week ago but if you have some stuff to sell, there’s a chance you can still be part of one officially participating venue – the courtyard next to Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor; see the Hotwire website or drop by Hotwire for more details). If you are going to be a shopper that day — maps will be available online (here and at westseattlegaragesale.com) starting Thursday, and at 10 locations around West Seattle (see the list here). If you are going to be a seller — the last dozen or so infopackets are in the mail as of this morning; if you don’t get yours by Tuesday at the absolute latest, please call us 206/293-6302. Remember we’re having two contests as a fun little side note — “Best Sign” (photograph yours on sale day and send it to garagesale@westseattleblog.com) for sellers, “Most Unusual Item” for sellers AND shoppers (same drill, send photo to that same address) – Hotwire Coffee cards are the prizes in both contests. Last note, we’ll be tabling at the Sustainable West Seattle Festival tomorrow in The Junction, 10 am-3 pm, to continue getting the word out about WSCGSD, so if you’re there, look for us and come say hi.

Nine days to go till the 4th annual West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day! Today we finish mailing info-packets to participants, which will be followed up by supplementary e-mail with a few extra infobits. We now have a final count of participating sales: 147, a new WSCGSD record! We’re posting more details daily on the official WSCGSD site at westseattlegaragesale.com (the latest update is here, including the contests we’re having – one of which will be for shoppers too, not just sellers! – and where maps will be available). 9 am-3 pm Saturday, May 10, garage-salers’ paradise all over West Seattle — if you can help spread the word outside WS (we’ve put up posters in WS, bought ads and placed announcements around the region and the Web, and sent news releases, of course) maybe consider printing this 8 1/2 x 11 miniposter and tacking it up on your nearest bulletin board? Thanks!

Thanks to everybody who signed up to participate in the 4th annual West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day coming up two weeks from today — 9 am-3 pm May 10 — the semifinal registration total (depending on how many last-minute mail-in forms arrive today/Monday) is 142 sales!!!! – including some group/business/school sales and block sales, too! Now the big job ahead is to make sure EVERYONE in West Seattle knows about the garage-sale-shopping opportunities that await that day, and also folks in surrounding communities who can head this way to enjoy great shopping and spectacular scenery. We’re plowing the registration $ back into promotion and printing, but beyond that, we’d like to ask your help in spreading the word outside WS … if you get a chance to tell friends, relatives, co-workers that May 10 is THE day to head this way; you can even use the “Share This” feature under this post to e-mail it to someone. (Maps will be available May 8 online and at locations we will list soon at the WSCGSD site, westseattlegaragesale.com, as well as on a new round of posters you’ll be seeing around town!)

Maybe it’s the sunshine; lots of folks are getting in the mood for garage sales in this final day of signups for the 4th annual West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day, which WSB is presenting this year — taking the baton from the late great Megawatt — on Saturday, May 10. 11:59 pm tonight is the registration deadline, so if you were registering by mail, we hope you’ve already sent it off; the online form is good till the last minute (find it at our WSCGSD site). Please be aware of something we should have made clearer earlier (we promise to streamline it next year) – the online registration/payment is a two-step process; first you fill out the form, and when you click send, it takes you to PayPal. You will get a confirmation e-mail regarding your registration after that first click, and your info goes to us then — but you’re not officially signed up till your fee is received — PayPal would have sent you a separate receipt confirming you’ve paid. If you signed up in the first week and didn’t get a PayPal receipt in addition to the confirmation e-mail from us, you should have received a followup e-mail from us offering you the PayPal link again OR the option to send a check; we’re going through the second week registrations tonight and will send e-mails to those for whom that seems to have happened in recent days. Anyway, thanks for your patience and your decision to be part of this fun community event; if you’re not selling but you plan to be shopping, we’re excited about that too – we have just finalized the list of where maps will be available, but we do encourage you to print out your own copy from the online link, which – along with preprinted ones – will be available May 8. And be sure to keep an eye on the official WSCGSD site at westseattlegaragesale.com, where the registration talk is about to end and the promoting/buying/selling fun talk is about to start, with more than 130 participating sales so far!

Our 100th registration is just in for the 4th annual West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day on Saturday, May 10th — thanks to everybody who’s decided to join in! One community, one day, (now we can say) more than 100 sales around West Seattle — including some group/business/school/organization sales — As soon as registration closes tomorrow night, we’re getting down to the next round of fun stuff: Mailing info packets to participants, making the second round of posters promoting Garage Sale Day itself (we’ve had registration posters up for two weeks, and of course they had the sale date too), and sharing information about The Big Day — if there’s something really unusual or interesting about your sale (and you are registered for WSCGSD, of course), e-mail us at garagesale@westseattleblog.com — remember we’re planning “Best Sign” and “Most Unusual Item” contests too. Again, registration’s open till tomorrow night; go here to sign up online (or to get a mail-in form you can print, but please get it in the mail ASAP). If you’re just coming in on this, WSB is sponsoring WSCGSD now because its creators @ Megawatt closed down earlier this year and needed new presenters for their signature events (we took on WSCGSD, the Gathering of Neighbors is being organized by DNDA). May 10, whether you’re a shopper or seller, mark your calendar!

Been thinking about joining in on the West Seattle-wide day of selling/shopping/recycling (that really is what garage sales do, after all), but haven’t quite made up your mind? Three more days … registration for the 4th annual West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day closes Friday night, April 25. You can sign up to have an individual sale, school/business/organization sale, or block sale; online registration is available this year for the first time, or you can print the form to mail in (but hurry … we’re going to start work on The Official Map on Friday night!). All the links you need are here, plus some bonus info (such as, 10 principles of garage-sale secrets, and 2 places to join in a group sale if you don’t have enough room/stuff for your own). WSCGSD is Saturday, May 10, 9 am-3 pm, and we’re on the brink of 90 signups, from all over West Seattle. (If you’ve already signed up, info packets will start going out later this week.)

The big day – dozens of sales all over West Seattle, a shopper/seller’s dream! — is Saturday, May 10; registration ends this Friday night 4/25 so we can work on the map, get packets to the participants, and intensify the areawide publicity blitz. Join the fun! Registration links and more info are on the official West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day website.