It sounds like a credit card commercial — spray paint $2, sandpaper $2, hundreds of perfectly good rubber gloves also $2, helping the Bermuda National Trust — priceless.

All these items, plus everything from dollhouses, baby clothes, books, furniture and more can purchased for a few dollars at the annual BNT Jumble Sale on this week at the Botanical Gardens.

In the hardware section of the Jumble Sale, Bermuda National Trust volunteer Marielyce Watner isn't completely sure what all the hardware doohickeys and gismos do. But most of them are in their original boxes complete with original price tags that say "$138" or "$127".

"It's all $2," said Ms Watner. "We wouldn't want to be stuck with any of this stuff."

For some enterprising fellow with knowledge of doodads and doohickies, this place could be a steal.

Another volunteer, Dace Ground took The Royal Gazette on a jumble sale tour shortly before it began yesterday morning.

We walked past Christmas ornaments, clothes, toys, books upon books, some interesting and not so interesting paintings.

She stopped to finger a set of clamshell lights resting across a slightly dated fax machine.

"We have an electrics team that tests all of our electrical donations," said Mrs. Ground.

Over the clam shell light set plug was a sticker with the words "working". So if clam shell lights are your hearts desire, come on down!

Because of the hard work of a team of dedicated volunteers, the jumble sale isn't really as jumbled as one would expect.

The hundreds of books donated have been methodically alphabetized and arranged into a hard back section and a paper back section.

All the baby clothes are washed and arranged by size.

Some of the children's clothing has never been worn and still has the original sale tag on it.

"It's a giant recycling bin," said Mrs. Ground. "That's what we love about it."

Larry Weston and his wife Bess come all the way from Toronto, Canada every year to help at the Jumble Sale.

"We come down every year and we always spend a week helping the Bermuda National Trust," said Mr. Weston. "Bermuda is our favourite island. My wife worked here for many years.

"We read The Royal Gazette every morning on the web. We have to know what is going on in Bermuda."

Mr. Weston carves birds as a hobby and has carved and donated several of Bermuda's indigenous birds to the Bermuda Audubon Society.

"I am working on the Cahow at the moment," said Mr. Weston. "If you put mine next to the real thing, you'd be waiting to see which one moved."

Mr. Weston was overseeing the Jumble Sale books.

"We have an amazing selection of books," said Mr. Weston. "We have thousands of books for children alone."

While a lot of what is donated to the Bermuda National Trust probably isn't worth much more than $2, sometimes valuable items do turn up.

"We tell our supporters to bring in all their jumble and give us one good thing that we can auction," said former Bermuda National Trust president Hugh Davidson.

One year someone anonymously donated an antique wedding dress. The dress was restored and later put on display at the Bermuda National Trust's Verdmont Museum in Smiths' Parish.

Mr. Davidson said this year some of the most interesting objects to turn up were from Haiti.

"I have never seen Haitian made objects in the sale before," said Mr. Davidson. "But people donated several pieces of furniture from Haiti. I think the pieces are about 50-years-old."

He said after they are auctioned off the Bermuda National Trust may donate half of the proceeds to the Bermuda Red Cross to help victims of the recent earthquake in Haiti.

Highlights of the auction are usually Bermuda related pieces such as Bermuda cedar furniture.

"We specialise in Bermudiana," said Mr. Davidson. "This year we have two Alfred Birdsey oil painting that are really rare.

"We have Bermuda books out of print that people really go for. We have some books that sell for $400 or $500 a copy if people can find them."

This year we will be auctioning a copy of Henry Wilkinson's 'Bermuda from Sail to Steam: The History of the Island from 1784 to 1901.'

Mr. Davidson said these books are hard to come by and would probably be highly sought after by collectors.

Money raised from the jumble sale and auction goes towards maintaining the Bermuda National Trust and its many museums and projects.

"This is fundraising to help the Bermuda National Trust pay the bills and keep the doors open," said Mr. Davidson. "Funds generated go towards the Trust's preservation work including enhancement of the museums, educational programmes, archaeological research, historic buildings and open space maintenance."

The jumble sale and auction takes place at the Botanical Gardens in Paget from February15 to 20.

The jumble sale continues today from 8.30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and the auction is tomorrow starting at 10 a.m. Advance bids on auction items are accepted.

For more information telephone the Bermuda National Trust at 236-6483 or email palmetto@bnt.bm