BULLETIN! Sunshine just broke out at the halfway mark. Now, more of the bigger sites:

That’s the bake sale at the North Delridge Neighborhood Council sale, 2512 SW Genesee, raising money for tot-size play equipment at Cottage Grove Park. Heading northwest from there:

Booming business when we stopped by the Log House Museum sale (3003 61st SW). Next – in the Admiral District, Click! Design That Fits (WSB sponsor; 2210 California SW) is participating:

South of The Junction, there’s a group sale (like Hotwire & Freshy’s, both shown earlier) at C and P Coffee (5612 California SW):

Alki UCC church (6115 SW Hinds) is having a plant sale as part of WSCGSD:

And here’s another one of the fundraising sales – a multifamily sale at 4136 Beach Drive, raising money for the American Cancer Society:

Sales continue till 3 pm; get your map here.

That’s Amber Bennett, proprietor of Freshy’s Coffee at 2735 California SW, holding their entry for the “Best Sign” contest – one of two contests we’re having as part of West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day today — “Best Sign” is for sellers; photograph your creative sign(s) and e-mail the photo after the sale to garagesale@westseattleblog.com; “Most Unusual Item” is for shoppers OR sellers – e-mail a photo and tell us which participating sale you bought/sold it at – same address, garagesale@westseattleblog.com. Prize for “Most Unusual Item” is a Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor and sale location today) card; prize for “Best Sign” is an Illusions (WSB sponsor) gift certificate; whichever contest gets the most entries will also have a second prize awarded, a gift certificate from the new Body Bar massage/skin care dayspa; winners will be announced Monday night. Back to Freshy’s for a sec – they’re doing the “Handmade Brigade” arts/crafts sale as well as yard-sale stuff – here’s a look down their sidewalk across from Hiawatha:

More group-sale updates coming up next. The sales continue till 3 pm; get your map here.

That’s Gina (left) and JanS from the WSB Forum Community, at their sale @ 2655 45th SW (near Lafayette). Part of the sale is raising $ for Jan, a longtime WSB’er who’ll be out of work a while after hip-replacement surgery this week – some items are offered at whatever you’re willing to pay as a free-will donation; read more about this sale in this thread on the forum. (More updates to come; sales continue till 3 pm; get your map here.)

ADDED 10:29 AM: Those are photos from 7138 32nd SW, a sale raising money for the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, which fights childhood cancer. The family hosting the sale has a child fighting cancer, and is telling their story online here. (Click the address in that sentence to see where it’s at on the Google version of the WSCGSD map; get the printable map here.) ORIGINAL UPDATE: Another round of photos is headed this way – first some anecdotal observations, as the WSB team member who’s not on photo patrol took a quick side trip down the hill to the store – saw lots of folks browsing the sales in the Gatewood/Upper Fauntleroy area – and the sky’s getting lighter all the time! P.S. If you just can’t find a preprinted map (we know our official locations still have some, we checked this morning), we’ve also put a few out in a box by our sandwich board sign near WSB HQ – look for it @ California/Thistle.

That’s the courtyard next to Hotwire Coffee, one of today’s group-sale spots (proprietor Lora offered space in exchange for a nominal donation to Furry Faces, a West Seattle-based animal-rescue group). Next — after stopping at the Community School of West Seattle megasale (see previous post), we hopped a couple blocks over to 9211 21st SW, where the sale’s in the back yard:

(Map/list of all sales available here.)

Brief shower at 8 am. We can see breaks in the clouds behind it, so don’t panic. Meantime, our roving field crew just stopped at the Community School of West Seattle; they started at 8 am – by 8:05 they’d already made $100! 9450 22nd SW. (Photo above) (Map/list of all sales available here.)

From the National Weather Service, updated at 4 am, still looks like the rain (aside from a spatter or two) SHOULD hold off till AFTER West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day‘s official shopping time ends @ 3 pm:

TODAY…MOSTLY CLOUDY. A CHANCE OF RAIN THIS AFTERNOON. HIGHS NEAR 60. SOUTH WIND TO 10 MPH.

TONIGHT…RAIN LIKELY IN THE EVENING…THEN CLOUDY WITH SCATTERED SHOWERS AFTER MIDNIGHT. LOWS IN THE LOWER TO MID 40S. SOUTHWEST WIND 10 TO 15 MPH.

Need a WSCGSD map/list? Get it here.

More updates as West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day approaches (9 am-3 pm tomorrow): Just before their second night of donation-accepting ended at 8 pm tonight, we stopped to see the Pigeon Point Neighborhood reps at Cooper Elementary (which benefits from their sale) …as you can see above, quite a haul. Also a possible candidate for the Most Unusual Item contest (can you guess what it is? PP Council prez Pete Spalding showed it off):

If you’re going to Pigeon Point, the North Delridge Neighborhood Council sale raising money for Cottage Grove Park play equipment is a stone’s throw away at 2512 SW Genesee. Here’s one of the items they hope to buy for the neighborhood’s littlest kids to play on:

Other neighborhood/block/business/group sales: The Community School of West Seattle, 9450 22nd SW, with more than 100 families participating – this was the first sale to sign up this year! … Block/multifamily sales include 8818 18th SW, 4115 32nd SW, 4136 Beach Drive, 6701 21st SW, SW Dakota between 46th and 47th, 3260 42nd SW, 5406 36th SW. Three coffeehouses on California SW have multi-participant sales: Hotwire (WSB sponsor) at 4410 California, C and P at 5612 California, and Freshy’s at 2735 California … Other businesses with sales include Click! Design That Fits (WSB sponsor) at 2210 California, Skylark at 3803 Delridge, PB&J Textiles at 5962 Fauntleroy, Westside Glassworks at 1904 SW Dawson. And while we don’t know how big their sale will be, we were excited that our first West Seattle Neighborhood Garage Sale Day sign sighting — a sign not put up by us, anyway — was on a utility pole steps away from WSB HQ!

Quick links again:
*Printable map with sale listings (8-page PDF)
*List of places to get preprinted map if you don’t have printer access
*Clickable Google map showing all sales (so you can take a closer look at locations)

As we publish this, it’s 33 hours till the 4th annual West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day (got your map yet?). Putting it together has been a blast. Now, it’s up to the shoppers and sellers (and the weather). Three updates:

EVERYBODY: We have yet another prize up for grabs in the WSCGSD contests – whichever contest gets more entries, we’ll award two prizes. In addition to the Illusions gift certificate and Hotwire coffee card (both WSB sponsors), tonight we received a gift certificate from the new Body Bar day spa north of The Junction (more on them tomorrow). The contests are: For shoppers AND sellers, “Most Unusual Item”; for sellers, “Best Sign.” For both contests, take photos of your entry and e-mail them to us at garagesale@westseattleblog.com; we’ll announce the winners here and at westseattlegaragesale.com Monday night.

SHOPPERS: Another advance shoutout to the sales that are raising $ for causes, and an addition: 7717 California is donating proceeds to the Orca Network. In addition, 9450 22nd SW is The Community School of West Seattle‘s big annual fundraising sale; 2512 SW Genesee is North Delridge Neighborhood Council raising $ for tot play equipment at Cottage Grove Park (more tomorrow on a chance to get involved with that NEXT weekend); 19th & SW Genesee is Pigeon Point Neighborhood on behalf of Cooper Elementary; 3003 61st SW is the Log House Museum‘s fundraiser; 7138 32nd SW is raising $ for childhood-cancer research via Alex’s Lemonade Stand (and will be selling lemonade too!) – read their personal story here; a few blocks south at 7955 32nd SW, a leukemia patient gets half the proceeds; 3919 41st SW benefits the Breast Cancer 3-Day; 1418 Palm is donating proceeds to the animal-rescue group Homeward Pet; 5637 42nd SW is on behalf of Kiwanis Club of West Seattle; 6115 SW Hinds is Alki UCC with its annual plant sale; and before you leave the house (or set up your sale) on Saturday, please put out a bag of nonperishable food for the annual Stamp Out Hunger letter carriers’ food drive!

ADMIRAL NEIGHBORHOOD SELLERS: Your Neighborhood Association needs your help. It, like other neighborhood groups, is building a neighborhood disaster-readiness kit and would love donations of any of the following items if you’ve come across them while getting ready for your sales, or if they’re left over after sale day. Read on:Read More

We have just posted a three-part update at the official West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day site (westseattlegaragesale.com), including the prizes confirmed for the contests (both contests are open to sellers; one is also open to shoppers!) and the latest on The Map. Final confirmed count: 144 sales! If you have time to browse through the WSCGSD site, we’ve been posting some infobits about sales, participants, and more.

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.