Great Glebe Garage Sale – Saturday, May 28

By Catherine Waters

With spring finally in the air, it is time to start thinking about getting ready for the Great Glebe Garage Sale (GGGS). This year, the neighbourhood-wide garage sale takes place on Saturday, May 28, from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m., rain or shine! However, as veterans of the event well know, the keen shoppers will be out searching for the best buys as early as 7 a.m.

Shoppers from far and wide, even beyond Ottawa’s borders, come to the Glebe to buy and sell, to wander through the neighbourhood enjoying the festive atmosphere and the spring weather. Everywhere you look, there are children, dogs, performance artists and musicians, buskers and balloons, and crowds of people chatting, eating hot dogs and shopping.

So mark your calendar and start planning what to sell!

Ottawa Food Bank

But the Great Glebe Garage Sale is not just a festive occasion and an inspired recycling event. It is also a day of giving. Once again, the Glebe Community Association is asking vendors, visitors and businesses to contribute to the Ottawa Food Bank. By giving 10 per cent or more of our sales from the GGGS, we can make a big difference. Please give generously either online, by mail or in person at the Glebe Community Centre on May 28.

How To Get Ready For The Sale

One week before the GGGS, sort out the items you want to sell and get ready with all the important items you will need. Go to the Glebe Community Association’s web page on the Great Glebe Garage Sale at www.glebeca.ca/events/garage_sale_faq.html to get more information and tips, and also to learn about the City’s regulations on food preparation, parking and block parties.

Be sure to prepare masking tape, markers, post-it notes, grocery bags, a cash box with lid, lots of change, sun hat, sunglasses, beverages and plastic cups for the sale day.

The day before, you can price your items, normally between 10 and 25 per cent of what it originally cost, and make sure everything you want to sell is clean and fixed up.

If you plan to sell lemonade and baked goods, make sure you have change, a clean selling area and covered food display.

Test all electrical items to make sure they work, and have an extension cord to show shoppers how they work.

Remember to have a garbage can and recycling bin ready to keep the street tidy.

Planning to sell barbequed food?

Baked goods, such as muffins and cookies, are easy to sell at the GGGS, but any food requiring cooking, especially meat, requires careful planning. If you are planning to barbeque products on your property to sell at the GGGS, you must have some sort of rubber mat or painted plywood flooring under the BBQ and a wash station available (perhaps a garden hose and soap). The City’s public health inspector will inspect your food sale, so you must be sure to meet City regulations for preparation and hygiene. You will find a link to the City of Ottawa’s website to help you make sure you know the rules.

Please Remember

Make sure you set up your sale table on your lawn or driveway. You cannot use the sidewalk or road. If on the sidewalk, you could be ticketed by a City bylaw officer.

There are no road closures during the GGGS, so please keep the roads clear and drive carefully if you need to get in or out of the neighbourhood on that day.

Please remember that you cannot park that day on Fifth, O’Connor, Strathcona or Metcalfe, even with a parking permit, as they are reserved for emergency vehicles.

Bank Street Sidewalk Sale

The Bank Street merchants, through the Glebe Business Improvement Association, will be taking part in the GGGS with a wonderful sidewalk sale on Bank Street. Take a stroll to visit the merchants and see what they have on offer.

After The Sale

Once the day is over, please be ready to tidy up and pack things away. Place any unsold items on the lawn for a couple of hours with a free sign, and then post them on a site like www.UsedOttawa.ca, or contact the Salvation Army. Please remember to clean up any garbage and leftover items.

If you have questions, you can contact me, Catherine Waters, at gggs@glebeca.ca.

Catherine Waters is the volunteer coordinator of the Great Glebe Garage Sale for the Glebe Community Association.

Glebe Collegiate’s free electronics recycling on May 28 and 29

TWIGS, Glebe Collegiate’s environment club, is hosting its third annual free electronics recycling on Saturday, May 28, noon to 5 p.m. during the Great Glebe Garage Sale, and on Sunday, May 29, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Acceptable electronics are listed on the Ontario Electronics Stewardship’s site at www.ontarioelectronicstewardship.ca/accepted-electronics-and-product-clarification/.

Contact judith.slater@ocdsb.ca for more details or visit www.green4glebe.wix.com/twigs.

Heritage plaques at the 
Great Glebe Garage Sale
By Johanna Persohn

WHAT: Third Annual One-Day Heritage Plaque Event in the Glebe

WHY: To celebrate the wonderful architecture and social history of the Glebe

WHEN: During the Great Glebe Garage Sale on Saturday, May 28, 2016

WHO: The owners/residents of Glebe homes, with support from the Glebe Community Association Heritage Committee

HOW: Prepare and install a simple temporary plaque or sign that identifies the history of your home and its architectural style, and attach it to a stick or tree on your lawn near the sidewalk. The plaque could include details on the builder or architect, and a brief history of the home and its owners. It can be typed and printed or handwritten, include photographs, whatever you like! We suggest you put the information on a half-page adhesive label that can be adhered to a foam board or cardboard, and stapled to a stake or tree.

Find a basic half-page template with example at the committee’s website, www.glebeca.ca/committees/heritage/heritage.html, or by emailing heritage@glebeca.ca for help, or create your own. The committee is happy to help identify the architectural style of your house, or prepare your label and plaque for you with the information you have.

For research help, check out the City of Ottawa Archives Guide on Researching the History of your Home. You may also wish to use a seven-day free trial of Newspapers.com to research your home by viewing articles in the Ottawa Citizen, or for homes built prior to 1923, the City Directories Online (search archive.org).

The Heritage Committee supported a Heritage Ottawa project to put up temporary plaques at homes on Glebe Avenue east of Bank and on Linden Terrace during the 2014 Great Glebe Garage Sale. In 2015, the committee expanded the project, encouraging all residents in the Glebe to post plaques for their own homes. The heritage plaques were well received and enjoyed by hundreds of passers-by. The GCA Heritage Committee is making this an annual feature of the Great Glebe Garage Sale to increase awareness and appreciation of the valuable heritage character of our Glebe neighbourhood.

Johanna Persohn is chair of the Heritage Committee of the Glebe Community Association.