While COVID-19 restrictions are being eased across the country, Garage Sale Trail has developed a four-point plan to ensure the campaign can be successfully delivered no matter what restrictions are, or aren't, in place later in 2020.

The plan was developed in consultation with state and local government partners and sees the usual ten-week campaign and weekend of garage sales still being delivered in 2020, with additional online elements of the program being developed to maximise community participation.

Date change

Garage Sale Trail 2020 will move to the later date of 21 & 22 November 2020. This date change will mean a more effective window for community engagement (between September and November), will decrease the likelihood of any COVID-19 restrictions remaining in place and as a result mean higher levels of participation than may have been possible in October. 

The change of date takes into account the importance of continuing to deliver one big national weekend of garage sales as research on the program has demonstrated that being part of a national movement on one weekend is a significant motivator for the community and one of the main reasons why Garage Sale Trail gets so many people to host a garage sale for the first time. 

Socially distant & contactless garage sales

To ensure the health and wellbeing of participants, Garage Sale Trail will provide support and toolkits to ensure real world garage sales meet social distancing and hygiene requirements. 

This will include: 

• New email, social and website content providing tips and support to enable participants to have contactless garage sales. 
• Toolkits for sale organisers to make it as easy to organise a socially distant garage sale. 
• Changes to terms and conditions requiring items to be sanitised prior to sale and ensuring social distancing regulations are followed

Online reuse workshops and virtual garage sales

New online elements of the program are being developed to include a series of online reuse workshops and virtual garage sales.

At least two online waste education workshops will be provided for residents in participating council areas. Themed around the topic of “sustainability at home”, these practical workshops will be hosted by high profile ambassadors and cover topics such as mending and responsible decluttering (pointing to the right ways to dispose of items).  Data will be provided on the number of residents who attend and a survey undertaken to understand participant feedback and learnings. These sessions will enable anyone with an internet connection to participate in the program irrespective of whether they host or shop at a garage sale.

For the first time, the program will also provide participants with a way to sell their pre-loved stuff online. This might include providing virtual garage sale toolkits, running a series of virtual garage sale events on Facebook and / or enabling people to sell items direct from their Garage Sale Trail sale page. Importantly these virtual garage sales will offer a new and different way to sell items online than is currently offered by existing marketplaces such as Facebook Marketplace, Buy Sell Swap groups and Gumtree.

Economic development

While the campaign will continue to focus on promoting reuse and secondhand, key messaging around the campaign will be adapted to give greater prominence to the role the program (and secondhand in general) can play in helping participants (whether they be households, community groups, schools or local businesses) make or save money.

More information

Tune in our recent COVID-proofing webinar for more information on our response to COVID-19.  Watch here.

Or get in touch by emailing [email protected]