Lansing resident Kimberly Whitfield watches the road as a car cruises by slowly Saturday afternoon during her garage sale. This is Whitfield’s first garage sale since 2001 when she and her husband moved into their Lansing house. She said they decided to have the sale to help raise a bit of money. By 4 p.m. Saturday she had made about $200.
—Kimberly Whitfield spent Saturday working to put a little extra money into her pocket, managing to earn about $200 with an American tradition: the garage sale.
After joining the growing number of those out of work because of the financial climate, Whitfield also became one of the growing ranks of people looking for new ways to make ends meet.
For Whitfield, that meant trying to sell some of the things her family had outgrown.
“I think oftentimes you have all these unique things you’re not using.” she said. “Someone else, it may be rewarding for them to have it in their home.”
There are signs the worst might be coming to an end. The chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben S. Bernanke, told Congress recently the economic decline seems to have slowed.
Still, it might take time for those affected to feel any change. Within four blocks of Whitfield’s home, there were three garage sales Saturday. In the meantime, Whitfield is keeping an optimistic outlook.
“You just have to turn that negative into a positive and just keep going,” she said.
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