Neighborhood Super Sale to Sweep the Chain of Lakes in September

The Neighborhood Super Sale returns to the area around Lake of the Isles this September, when a wave of more than one hundred yard sales sweeps across East Isles, Lowry Hill, East Bde Maka Ska, Kenwood, Cedar-Isles-Dean and the Wedge in a single Saturday.

The sale has settled into the second weekend of September in recent years, and its density is the whole draw. With so many homes participating within walking distance of one another, bargain hunters can cover dozens of sales on foot or by bike without ever moving the car — which is also, conveniently, the most pleasant way to spend a September morning in these neighborhoods.

How it works

Households that want a spot on the map register in advance through their neighborhood association, which compiles the addresses into a single guide so shoppers can plan a route. Sellers set their own hours and prices; the associations simply handle the map and the promotion that turns a hundred separate sales into one event.

That coordination is what makes the day worth circling on a calendar. A lone garage sale is a coin flip. A hundred of them, mapped and clustered, becomes a reason to spend a whole Saturday wandering, and a reliable way to move the contents of a basement before winter.

Tips from the regulars

The advice from veterans is simple and time-tested: come early for furniture and the genuine finds, when the tables are full and the good stuff has not been picked over. Come late for the deals, when sellers would rather drop a price than haul the rest back inside. Bring small bills, a tote or a backpack, and a rough route built from the map.

Sellers, for their part, do best by pricing to move, putting the eye-catching items at the curb, and being ready for an early rush — serious buyers are out before the coffee is cold.

A neighborhood turned inside out

There is a sociable quality to the day that goes beyond the bargains. For one Saturday the neighborhoods turn themselves inside out, driveways and front lawns become storefronts, and neighbors who normally only nod on the sidewalk end up haggling and chatting over a box of records. It is a reunion disguised as a rummage sale.

It is also a quietly green tradition — a hundred households keeping usable goods out of the landfill and in circulation, one folding table at a time.

If you go