‘There’s got to be an easier way’: Edmontonians launch live map of garage sales

The website Yard Quest is aiming to make it easier for you to find deals this summer. CTV News Edmonton's Nahreman Issa reports.

A new way to garage sale has come online in Edmonton.

YardQuest, created by avid garage salers Matthew Peace and Connor Braun, went live in April. The website allows sellers to add their events to a local map and buyers to browse listings that are currently happening.

“Their addresses are hidden until the sale happens. Once your sale begins, anyone can find it on a localized map, whether it’s close or far…. After your sale is done, it’s not like other platforms where you’d have to go and delete your post; it just automatically deletes it. We don’t save information,” Peace explained.

Listings can be made for free without an account.

Sellers can also create a brief description for their event, but the point is increasing accessibility.

“We’ve been talking about it for a couple years now, the frustration behind trying to find yard sales and garage sales when you’re out (and) about in the neighbourhood,” Braun told CTV News Edmonton. “We love thrifting and going out to local sales during the summer, so we’re just thinking there’s got to be an easier way.”

The last weekend in May, YardQuest counted 200 listed garage sales and almost 400 visitors.

Users can also post markets and community yard sale events, like Saturday’s in Terwillegar, whose community league produces a hyperlocal garage saleing map.

Like Yardquest, Terwillegar residents can submit their address and yard sale for the map, which visitors can either download or pick up a printed copy of at the event.

“People are very excited. People really like it. We get a lot more people. The advertising is done for the whole community. If you’re on the map, you’re not going to get missed, likely,” explained Terwillegar Community League spokesperson Heather Maitmer.

Although they’ve gone about it in different ways, YardQuest’s creators and the Terwillegar community say they reap the same benefits, from the environmental to the social, like community building.

“The easier it is to find the garage sales, the easier it is for the sellers to get more traffic and the more good products that people have that they’re not using stay out of local landfills,” Peace said.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nahreman Issa and Miriam Valdes-Carletti