Increasing amounts of data are being collected about our homes, our shopping habits and our spending. The research is confirming this instinctive observation: we own too much stuff. Study after study emphatically concludes that American families are overwhelmed by clutter and are generally stressed out about it. Did you know that the U.S. has 3.1 percent of the world’s children, but consumes 40 percent of the world’s toys? Or, as a team of UCLA anthropologists reported, women who are bothered by household clutter showed increased levels of the stress hormone cortisol while men were unaffected? If you are feeling the weight and burden of clutter, if you are tired of cleaning and organizing the children’s toy rooms, and if your garage is used as a storage room, Reston Community Centers’s (RCC) annual Children’s Fall Flea Market may be the solution to all these vexing problems.
Before the holidays arrive, clear space in your home while teaching your children a valuable lesson on entrepreneurship and environmentalism. Actively engaging your child in the process of reducing, recycling and even “upcycling” their own possessions will help them make more eco-friendly choices later in life. Sign them up to be a junior merchant at our annual Fall Flea Market, held at RCC Hunters Woods on Saturday, October 14, from 9am to noon, to sell items like gently used toys, books, games, videos, and other children-friendly household items and collectibles. The Flea Market is held in RCC’s Community Room. Junior merchants can register for a single 6-foot table and a chair for $10 or share a 9-foot table with two chairs for $15. Spaces for non-Reston participants are $15 and $23 respectively. Register for the flea market online by visiting the Reston Community Center website at www.restoncommunitycenter.com and click on myRCC.
Community members are invited to grab a cup of coffee and a pastry during RCC’s Community Coffee and spend time with friends and neighbors while supporting our junior merchants. What better way to spend a fall Saturday morning than bargain hunting while helping our community youth earn some extra cash. Reduce, reuse, recycle—at RCC!
For more information, contact Debbie Heron, RCC’s Youth Director by email at Debbie.heron@fairfaxcounty.gov or call 703-390-6163.
