PENTICTON – It’s late April in the South Okanagan, a time that’s come to mean yard sale season in a couple of communities near Penticton.

Naramata is throwing its doors open this weekend for the eighth time in as many years as the community holds its annual yard sale.

As coordinator Craig Henderson puts it, “there are few communities where life is put on hold for half a day so that visitors can attend a sizeable yard sale.”

Whether it's a Naramata resident practising organizing consultant Marie Kondo’s KonMari method of maintaining belongings, (keeping only those things that ‘spark joy’) or those who are simply getting rid of stuff they don’t need anymore, Henderson says Naramata residents rally behind the day with as many as 60 individual residential sales and a number of community group-based sales taking place.

There is a book sale and clothing sale at the Naramata Elementary School, garden plant sales at 490 Ritchie Ave., a sale at Naramata Community Church and a collective sale for those who don’t wish to set up outside their homes at Real Things Pizza’s parking area.

“It’s certainly grown beyond my expectations,” says Henderson, who took on organization of the event a few years ago, when he changed the date to April and included a map locating the sales.

“It’s just become a festive time in the community,” he says, figuring at least a couple of thousand visitors make their way to Naramata on Saturday morning.

“To see the gridlock in the village is pretty crazy,” Henderson says, adding the sale is worth thousands of dollars in fund raising efforts to the community groups who participate.

“It’s taken on a life of its own, and people in the region plan their weekend by it,” he says.

This year’s big sale is taking place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 27.

Visitors can pick up a map along the roadside as you enter the community.

On the south side of Penticton, the Kaleden Volunteer Fire Department holds its regionally-renowned yard sale at the Kaleden firehall on Saturday, May 11.

The sale has run continuously since 1975 in the community, and attracts residents from Penticton and all of the South Okanagan and Similkameen.

Like Naramata, a number of Kaleden residents also choose the same Saturday to hold their private yard sales.

This year’s event begins at 8 a.m. on Saturday, May 11, running until noon.

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