Why you should consider buying second-hand Christmas gifts this year

Elijah Manis, a Sydney-based creative, stumbled upon a small garage sale in Sydney’s Lilyfied on the weekend. It was a small clay pin with a woman’s face that initially drew his eye, and he struck up a conversation with one of the stallholders, Julia Manley, who had made the pin. “We actually had lunch the other day,” he says.

It’s the communal nature of shopping pre-loved items that has drawn Manis to op shops since he was a young boy growing up in Brisbane. He recalls places called free shops where you could pick up clothing and other items for no cost, and says that he would always run into interesting people.

“I believe in recycling,” he says. “I love the fact that I can have something, knowing that another person used to own it.”

“It’s about taking from the community and giving back to the community. I love that sense of sharing.”

Julia Manley’s stall (347 Catherine St, Lilyfield) was one of many across Australia taking part in this year’s Garage Sale Trail, which will return for its second week this weekend.

Andrew Valder and Darryl Nichols were living in Bondi in 2010 when they noticed the sheer amount of illegal dumping on the footpaths – a lot of which remained in “perfect working order” – and decided to do something about it. They put up some signs in the neighbourhood with the slogan “Don’t dump it, sell it”, and, as Valder says, everything “went bonkers”. That weekend, he says 130 stalls popped up in the area. Just like that, The Garage Sale Trail was born.

Now in its 12th year, Garage Sale Trail works with more than 100 local councils across Australia, and has also run sales with Opera Australia, MONA in Australia, and NSW Parliament House.

Valder says the garage sales are a simple means to drive open conversations about waste and sustainability. “It’s not uncommon for people to glaze over when you talk about waste,” he says. “But when you talk about garage sales, people’s eyes light up.”