Kelly Donaldson Wyatt, longtime Mapleton Hill resident on Maxwell Ave, started the Mapleton Hill Rummage Sale in 2005. She wanted to help get rid of her toddlers’ old clothes, toys, and books in order to make room for new items, teach her kids to recycle and up-cycle, and eventually to help them make some summer fun-money so they wouldn’t need to beg her for ice cream funds!

 

It started small, with just a few neighbors participating and, as the years went on, MHRS grew to become an incredibly popular event with upwards of 70 houses participating in any given year. Kelly told me it was so successful that she would have people from out of state contact her to find out the date of that year’s sale, so they could plan their visit to Boulder around the date. Her kids learned to love seeing other children get so much joy out of something they used to enjoy owning, and the whole of Boulder (and beyond) looked forward to this wonderful annual celebration of community connection, beautiful neighborhood strolling, and circular economy.

 

After 16 years of organizing Boulder’s favorite community rummage sale, Kelly left the Mapleton Hill neighborhood and the event was going to die because no one was willing to take on the rather momentous task that she had orchestrated with so much grace for so many years.

 

The Mapleton Hill Rummage Sale had been one of my favorite things about living in this neighborhood since I first moved to Maxwell Ave in 2006, and so I decided to take on the task of keeping the sale alive! Starting in 2022 I began learning everything Kelly could teach me about encouraging neighbors to host sales, designing and updating the website, promoting the sale to the public via social media and paid advertisements, printing and posting yard signs around town, collecting funds from participants to help cover costs, emailing neighbors encouraging spring cleaning ideas and reminders, and creating the detailed public map and list of items for each sale, to help the public navigate on the big day!

 

Luckily, in 2023 fellow Maxwell neighbor Sandy Briggs generously decided to join me on the Rummage Sale organizing team, and she has been such a wonderful addition to the cause! I hadn’t met Sandy before, so now I’m connected with a wonderful neighbor just a block away, and we get to support one another in the surprising amount of work that goes into making the rummage sale thrive each year.

 

Sandy helped automate a lot of the neighbor registration process (brilliant!), organized volunteers, and is in charge of most of the participant communication - while I do most of the outreach and marketing to the public. She’s an absolute joy of a person and co-organizer and I am so grateful she stepped forward to take on the task in such a committed way. Collaboration just makes so much sense as a way to create beloved community events; together.

 

I love to remind people that there are so many creative ways to participate -- even if you don’t have many used items to offload you can still host a lemonade stand or bake sale, sell your homemade arts or crafts, peddle homemade jam or extra garden goods, etc. We’ve had such creative offerings in the past as front yard chair massage, hair tinsel application, a fundraiser for Ukraine with solely donated stuffed animals, local chokecherry jam, onsite clothes tailoring, book signings, and more.

 

Reach out to us if you have any creative ideas! We’d love to have you join us.

 

Our beloved community rummage sale is such a great way to meet neighbors and community members, keep used items out of the landfill, clear out your home, make a little extra cash, and remember how lovely it can be to interact with the good people of Boulder on a delightful summer day in our beautiful neighborhood. Thank you so much to all of you who have helped make the Mapleton Hill Rummage Sale what it is over all these years, and we look forward to celebrating community connection with you again when summer rolls back around. 

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