Maybe it isn't where Randy Willette had expected to be earlier in life.

Collecting things, that is - people's excess, their junk, their discarded memories - and sustaining himself by selling it all off in yard sales.

But times are tough, as has become the mantra of the unemployed masses, and after a year without work the 40-year Kootenai County resident will do what he has to do to make it.

The former construction worker is simply surviving, he said, trying to help others in the process. And, as always, trusting that God will provide.

"It's not about getting rich or hoarding or taking it all for myself. It's just about meeting my needs," said Willette, who lives in Coeur d'Alene. "God is meeting my needs through other people, a little at a time."

The idea came to him, he said, when he was praying in his garage.

His dogged job hunting had turned up nothing, every business talking of cutbacks and layoffs. His unemployment payments ran out, while the stream of bills continued.

Knowing he could migrate to North Dakota and a wealth of oil field jobs, Willette was reluctant to leave Kootenai County, his home since he was 5 years old.

"I love Idaho. This is God's country," Willette said. "It's so beautiful, and the people in this area are second to none."

He threw up his questions to the heavens. And it occurred to him, he said, that he could always sell stuff.

"Everybody loves a yard sale," Willette said.

He placed an ad in the Press classifieds asking for items for resale, with a brief explanation he was out of work. "Every little bit will help," the ad read.

North Idaho hasn't let him down.

Willette has been approached by individuals from Pinehurst to Bonners Ferry, he said. They've brought him beds, furniture, clothes, a "whole house" worth of used items.

"The response has been phenomenal," Willette said. "That's what Coeur d'Alene is all about. People are God-giving, God-fearing people, and want to help out where they can."

Folks offer whatever they have to spare, he said. A pastor and his wife dropped by with 250 square feet of laminate flooring.

A kindly man in his 70s handed over some older valuables.

"He just said, 'Take it, if you can do something with it,'" Willette said.

Willette, who said he only has himself to support, doesn't sell items every day, which the city doesn't allow in a residential zone. But what he has found buyers for, he said, has helped him squeeze by and stay in his home of 15 years.

"If we want to stay here, we have to be creative," he reasoned.

That makes sense to Mark Haberman, community engagement coordinator for the Community Action Partnership in Coeur d'Alene.

A number of low-income participants in CAP programs report selling their own items to get by, Haberman said.

"It wouldn't surprise me to know that someone is taking that a step further, who may have sold most of what they can sell, and are saying, 'Can you give me something I can sell,'" he said.

Haberman dubs it "positive creativity," which he has seen among those with extremely limited options.

"People who have struggled in the short term or longer term, a number of them are extremely good problem solvers," he said. "Maybe in ways that you or I would be challenged with."

It's a lesson Willette learned early on from his family. When his parents and siblings first came to Idaho from St. Paul, Minn., he said, they lived in tents on the Rathdrum Prairie until they could afford a home in Coeur d'Alene.

"You learn to appreciate what you have, just the simple things in life," Willette said. "It teaches you humility, gratitude for the kindness that people give. And we learned to give that back."

Willette passes on many items he is given, like a collection of suits and ties he donated to The Altar Church. When someone gave him $50, he passed it on to another individual in hard times.

Willette also donated items to a sale to benefit local schools.

"It's by giving that we receive," he said. "By being faithful and listening to what God has to say."

Folks who want to drop off items to Willette can call him at 659-2551.

He enjoys what he's doing, he said, especially working with people. He wants to make his own way, and hopes to open a resale store, if he can procure a store space.

"If there's a building God will eventually put me in, that's the desire that I have," he said.

That, and to keep surviving.

Which he'll continue to do, he said, thanks to the help of his neighbors.

"I want it to be known I'm really thankful for those who have reached out and been a part of my life," Willette said. "I'm very grateful for that."