My daughter grows incredibly quickly. At age four, she wears size seven clothing. I recently went through her closets and culled outgrown items, taking 12 bags to the Salvation Army and one of unworn designer clothes to K.C. Kids Hoboken.

The annual Hoboken Citywide Yard Sale came at an opportune time to fill all that closet space. I loaded up our double stroller with my younger child and a big garbage bag. With the ongoing bedbug epidemic, you can never be too careful when it comes to purchasing pre-owned clothes. My plan was to quarantine my yard sale finds in the garbage bag and put it all into the washing machine as soon as I got home.

I struck gold at my first stop on the yard sale tour. A family at First and Madison had two boys ages four and seven, and had just had a massive decluttering session. The best yard sales combine items from multiple sellers; this one also had baby gear including a $2 BabyBjorn carrier.

My son occupied himself with the toy section while I sorted through brand-new clothes and jewelry. We took a pass on the clothes since they were three sizes larger than my son's current wardrobe but came away with toddler ice skates, a toy tank, four iridescent bead bracelets, and a Star Wars tracing set. The total tab came to $9; a great start to the day.

The next stop on our tour was K.C. Kids Hoboken, which was hosting $2-$5 tables. They were closed until midway through the yard sale due to a medical emergency, so we headed to the motherlode; Church Square Park.

I thought there would be tons of tables at the park but was surprised to find only three, all stocked by retail vendors. It makes sense when you consider that people had to pay a $25 registration fee to sell there. After scoring an epic find of an incredibly rare $25 Little Mermaid DVD and perusing the $1 books in front of the library, we headed toward the densest cluster of yard sales; Park Avenue.

Halfway up Park Avenue, we picked up our greatest find of the day; new friends. A group of families had banded together to sell their combined clutter, and my son fell into an impromptu playdate with their toddlers. The owner invited my family to share their barbecue and backyard sandbox, and we discovered we have a lot in common.

Four hours later, we returned home full of delicious Korean barbecue, laden with fresh toddler clothes and friendship crane mobiles that the other mom crafted on the spot for my two kids. Experiences like this always remind me of why I love living in Hoboken. We are planning to stay close to home this Memorial Day weekend; who knows what new and delightful encounters we will find in our rambles around town?

To read more about what makes Kathy Zucker tick, check out her blog at http://momcondoliving.com/ and follow her at http://twitter.com/kathyzucker