Lisa and I were hired to do an estate sale. Little did we know when we signed the contract that it would end up being 3 sales. This house is 3 floors, it's huge like 3500 or more square feet. All of those square feet, for the most part, were filled with cool things.
I will never forget Lisa's face as we sat in one of the rooms looking around...."how are we going to do this?" We NEEDED a plan. There was too much on each level to let everyone wander around without things "missing." It happens....
We started with a sale of items on main living area only. We sold like 80% of that. Then we boxed that stuff up, took out to the garage and had a $5 box sale. We did that so we could have a clean slate to move stuff down and upstairs to main level. Then we did sale 2. We had the $5 boxes, new items and FREE items. We are having a reduced sale to clean up the main level again. We sold like 70% of that. Did I mention she had hundreds of dolls? The 3rd sale will be like a Pop Up Boutique. We plan to move clearance items to 2 rooms. We saved the jewelry, clothes, pottery, art and some glassware for the last one. Whew.....I don't say all of this to get comments for pats on the back, I just wanted to explain this part of the post......
"Was she a hoarder?" I heard this multiple times during these sales. "Maybe, she was." I said, "who am I to judge, I have buildings full of 'treasures' too." "How can 1 person acquire this much stuff?" I said, "she must have had fun!" ahahahah. One thing is for sure - this is the point of this post - I don't think we will EVER find another house like this! As in, old...old...cool things. We went through (100's) of boxes of holiday things. Of course we bought some of them for ourselves....but, thing is...I can't even share because some customers may get jelly....for real...hey, I dug in all that, that was my reward. We pay the same price we would have put them out for, sometimes more!
I've been in the antique, picking, selling world my whole life. I am afraid this may be it, there just isn't many houses like this one left. The ones with old boxes with cool old things, wrapped in decade old paper. The only way, would be, if it was for another antique dealer type estate. Hoarder homes, I KNOW for a fact would have way more rodent damage to the items than this did. We hardly found any of that. Most families don't want to deal with any of this so they toss it all. I'm so happy we were involved. The last dumpster the family filled was ALL garbage, I know we sorted it ALL and made sure of it.
While working on this sale, I had a dream about a white fluffy squirrel. I looked up the meaning and it was something like this: it's a sign to continue persevering with your goals and dreams and if you do you will be rewarded in a form of success. Be sure not to overload yourself. (ahahah). Almost everyday since that dream, that we worked over there, I found a squirrel. A squirrel...I mean come on....squirrel....
So, here I am, persevering.....getting ready for sale 3.
This is why I haven't posted like normal on my blog, I've been doing this. Here are only a few pictures of what we sold so far.
Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin.
At both sales, I saw so many people who knew her. “She was my grandma,” or “She was my mom.” Hoarding? It honestly never crossed my mind to be honest. I said the very first things that popped in my mind…I said she must have been fun, what great memories you must have had visiting, and then I would ask what their favorite memory they have about some of the items.
ReplyDeleteI had such a fantastic time at the sale, listening to fragments of stories from people that knew her. It was a rare treat and one I am sure I will not forget
Oh thanks, I know the family appreciated all the talking with the customers. It's a part of the "letting go" process. See you at the next one! Thanks!
DeleteOk I am a little Jelly I could not go I can't imagine the cool holiday stuff! eeek I collect Christmas and a bit of Easter..
ReplyDeleteCathy
She had every holiday. Not all vintage, but some was. She like the motion and moving type decor, blow molds....lots of them!
DeleteWOW this was some sale! I have a cousin who really is a hoarder of collections. She had a small house that was filled to the brim. She bought a house twice as big as her old one and in one years time, that one is now filled to the brim. Even the bathroom. There is just enough room to walk through to each room. I was wondering why you had stopped blogging, but now I know. Believe me you had good reason to not blog with all of that work you had to do getting those sales organized. I helped with one estate sale for a friend and I remember all of the hours we had put in. Lots of work. Kudos for you for doing it! Janice
ReplyDeleteThanks, I knew you would "get it" - I failed to mention we did other sales too this summer....like 4....since August....so, there's that too. This one was my all time favorite to do!
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