First ‘Simplify Sale’ draws crowds, returns this weekend

[This article originally appeared in the Tigard, Tualatin, Sherwood Times]

Image courtesy of Pixabay and stormbringerser

The Simplify Sale is intended to help raise household goods for the needy in the local area and to help folks get rid of their clutter, make money and give well

The first Simplify Sale, July 25, drew a sizeable crowd to Vicki Norris’ Sherwood home.

It’s official – the first in a series of free “Simplify Sales” in Sherwood was a success, and it will become an annual one.

Vicki Norris, a national organizing expert and president of Restoring Order, launched the vintage yard sale, outdoor concert and barbecue event July 25, to be held the fourth Saturdays of the summer. Two more are coming this Saturday and again on Sept. 26.

The Simplify Sale is intended to help raise household goods for the needy in the local area and to help folks get rid of their clutter, make money and give well.

More than 500 people attended the first sale to check out the new affair and enjoyed 40 participant stations, said Norris, who hosted the event at her Sherwood home. The combination charity event, bargains, band and barbecue generated media interest, including a KPTV Fox 12 on-site television interview, she said.

Norris has announced that she intends the Simplify Sale to become an annual community event.

“It was heartening to see so many locals at our first event and to experience how everyone has embraced the sales,” she said. “Each year I will grow the Simplify Sale to help participants simplify their life – from station vendors selling their household clutter to attendees who are connecting with life-simplifying service providers at our events. Best of all, we’re raising practical items for the needy.”

Norris said she created the Simplify Sales in part to benefit Love INC, a national nonprofit ministry with offices in Newberg, Beaverton and Clackamas. Each office serves as a clearinghouse connecting the needy to area churches and organizations who each have something to contribute, like food pantries, clothes closets, supplies for the homeless, and practical household items. Station vendors participating in the sales can arrive with a car full of clutter, sell their wares, make money and donate remaining useful items to Love INC and everything else to either the Newberg Charitable Organization Thrift Store or 1-800-GOT-JUNK.

“It was a wonderful set-up, and I enjoyed the band and just the general fun feeling,” said station vendor Alison Duncan of Beaverton after the July event. “This was a great opportunity for me. I’d needed to get rid of a lot of things and had considered, several times, doing a yard sale at my house, but my yard and small street aren’t conducive to traffic or setting up a level table.

“Having the sale off-site also allowed me to get rid of some of my children’s old items that they might have gotten upset about had they seen them for sale in our yard,” Duncan added. “Perfect!”

The Simplify Sale is a new venture for Norris. Her core business is hands-on organizing services for homes and businesses. Over the last decade she has added products, speaking, books, workshops – and now organizing events – to her company’s offerings.

-By The Times