Orillia residents encouraged to participate by holding or attending garage sales
Thinking of holding a garage sale this spring? The City of Orillia is encouraging residents and organizations to host their garage sales on June 15, 2024, during a new city-wide Garage Sale Day aimed to help fundraise for affordable housing. The event will take place rain or shine.
“The city-wide Garage Sale Day is an excellent opportunity for our residents to declutter their homes, host a garage sale, and help contribute to a cause that directly impacts our community,” said Mayor Don McIsaac. “There is no obligation to donate on June 15, but by contributing a portion of proceeds from your garage sale to the Affordable Housing Reserve, our community can help further support the crucial cause of affordable housing in Orillia.”
There is no need to register your garage sale to participate. For participants who would like to donate, proceeds from their garage sales on June 15 can be donated to the City of Orillia Affordable Housing Reserve by visiting orillia.ca/GarageSale.
The City established an Affordable Housing Reserve Fund in 2020 to provide financial assistance to eligible non-profit and government organizations willing to increase the supply of affordable housing in Orillia. For more information about available affordable housing grant opportunities, visit orillia.ca/housing.
Residents who are not hosting garage sales themselves are encouraged to support the initiative by attending garage sales throughout the city on June 15.
“In addition to this initiative benefiting affordable housing, garage sales provide an environmentally friendly way to repurpose items and reduce waste in our landfill. By selling or purchasing gently used items at garage sales, residents can actively contribute to sustainability efforts within our city,” said Barb Shakell-Barkey, Chair of the City’s Waste Management Advisory Committee.
Garage sale hosts can leave unsold items out on the curb for treasure hunters for the remainder of the weekend as part of the City’s Treasure Hunt Program, which is also taking place June 14 to 16, 2024. Residents are encouraged to leave unwanted, but still useful, household items at the curb after 5 p.m. on the Friday of the event weekend, but must remove all uncollected items by Sunday at 11 p.m.
Residents and organizations who would like to participate in the city-wide Garage Sale Day are encouraged to advertise their information through social media and community platforms using the hashtag #OrilliaGarageSaleDay. A Facebook event page has also been created for residents and organizations to post their garage sale information for the Garage Sale Day.
To ensure a successful garage sale, here are a few tips:
- Advertise your sale through social media, and community platforms.
- Price items competitively to attract buyers.
- Organize items neatly and clearly label prices.
- Provide adequate signage to direct visitors to your sale location, but make sure to follow City of Orillia signage regulations. Signs must be removed within 24 hours following the garage sale, and signs can’t be attached or supported by a utility pole, tree, garbage can, planter. They can not be located within 10m (30 ft.) of an intersection and can’t impede pedestrian traffic.
For more information on the city-wide Garage Sale Day, please visit orillia.ca/GarageSale or contact Ward 3 Coun. Jay Fallis at orilliagaragesale@gmail.com or 705-279-3249.
