This stoop sale will take the cake — and you can even take home a pew.
The blockbuster June 12 event will transform Red Hook into a massive red tag sale, billed as one of the biggest stoop sales — ever!
Bargain-biased shopaholics have long-time Red Hook resident Stephanie Silhavy to thank for feeding their addiction. Her Richards Street loft was so overcome by clutter that she was forced to move the mammoth pile to her boyfriend Max Connolly’s wood shop.
“I kept thinking I would put things on eBay, but that was going on for five years,” she confessed. “The last straw was when I was trying to put away Christmas toys for three kids — and there was no more space.”
Instead of hauling the massive pile — antiques, bicycles, pots, pans, clothes, toys — to another neighborhood, Silhavy decided to organized a sale closer to home, enlisting friends and neighbors to join the schlock party.
Connolly cheered his girlfriend’s initiative.
“It’s good for Red Hook and it’s certainly good for us,” he said. “Getting rid of stuff and making money at it seems like an awesome idea.”
Already, the response has been enthusiastic: 26 families selling from 29 locations have signed up for the event by e-mailing redhooksale@gmail.com.
“From a seller’s perspective, it is great, because you can just unload your stuff, and for buyers, it’s nice to get something cheaper, and I think a lot of people are into the idea of reuse and recycle,” said future-seller Stephanie Cherry.
Cherry hopes to peddle a pew, asking price $300, that she acquired from a Sunset Park church. “It’s beautiful, but I just don’t have the space for it anymore,” she admitted.
Stoop sale enthusiast Mia Barker contributed money to the sale’s advertising fund, and said she is “psyched” to make the event a success. “The allure of tag sales is finding that inexpensive treasure, usually at the right price,” she said. And there is also a social component to the unprecedented sale, as residents will get a chance to meet — and haggle — with familiar faces. “It’s a big party,” Barker said.
But just like at a party, it is best not to overindulge, she warned. “My goal is not to bring home too much junk.”
Red Hook Stoop Sale will be at various locations on June 12. Visit www.melrub.com/redhooksale to view them all.
