Tales of my junking adventures. Some are real doozies, like surprising – and being surprised by – the nekkid man coming out of the shower!
I was going through my parents’ photo boxes the other day and found pictures of my mother’s first yard sale, circa 1974 or ’75. She and a friend combined forces for one of the biggest, badest yard sales ever. They set the bar for all future yard sales. Continue reading Yard Sales 1930s and 1970s Style
So, when is the best time to have a yard sale? The answer is first thing in the spring, just as soon as the weather permits. Why? People are hungry and will buy just about anything you put out there. And here’s proof:
I actually bought these two things. A cheese box and a new, tin bucket, still with its UPC code sticker on the bottom. As I was walking to the car, I knew I’d succumbed to the I’m-Finally-At-A-Yard-Sale-Gotta-Get-Something Sickness. I knew, without a doubt, that both these things would go directly into my next yard sale. You see, at my last yard sale, I sold a better cheese box than that one because I knew I’d never get around to doing anything with it. I’d already done something with it when I’d tole painted it in the 1980’s. When I plunked down my dollar bill for this one, I was remembering reading someone’s blog post or Facebook update that they had bought a cheese box and were excited about it, so I should probably get this one. Regret came about 10 seconds later.
The bucket might not really be such a bad buy, but yeah. Not something I was dying to have. I could have happily lived my life without it.
But back to the subject of when to have a yard sale. It’s a little tricky. You don’t really want to be the only game in town that day. Lots of people might not want to get out for just one sale. On the flip side, if you’re one of 50, people might be spent out before they get to yours or think the next sale might be better. I’d say the best time is two or three weeks into pretty weather.
I’m still working through my dad’s stuff and my own accumulation of things and simply don’t need to go to any sales for awhile. Didn’t go to many last year. At all. And I’ll just say right up front, life almost isn’t worth living if you can’t get your junk fix! Shopping in my own storage units doesn’t do it for me. So hang it all! I’m going this year in spite of the boxes I still need to work through! Besides, the stash is actually dwindling to yard sale items.
So when a church sale was heavily advertised on Facebook, I made up my mind to be there when the doors opened. Yes, the gym was full of stuff. But I was disappointed. There was nothing there for me. Boo, hiss. This is all I bought:
A Classico pasta sauce jar and a little white bottle. I don’t remember what the white bottle was used for and have no idea what I’ll do with it, but the Classico mason jar was for another of these:
That painted mason jar was fun to do. This one is at the Pickle Patch in Sylacauga. If people will buy them, I’ll do a bunch, but if nobody wants them, I’ll chalk it up to another failed experiment in trying to sell things I’ve made.
On another note, we took this bookcase beauty to Angel’s in Opelika yesterday.
The shelves are painted with a custom mix of General Finish’s Milk Paint, Emerald, Patina and Snow White. Wish I could share the exact mixture, but Ricky mixed it up and didn’t make note of how much of what he used. We’ll probably never have the exact match again ourselves. I was annoyed that he didn’t make note of it all, then today, I was making my own combination of colors, thinking I was saying “equal parts this” and “twice that”, but when I was actually pouring up enough to paint with, the formula in my head wasn’t right. Not as easy to do as you’d think without carefully measuring and writing it all down!
Here’s a great way to identify and date a lot of the vintage items we run across at estate and garage sales. But you have to have a bit of luck first. And never pass up an old catalog!
I had such luck cleaning out my parents’ house. My mother kept quite a few old catalogs, mostly from the 1960s and 1970s. These were catalogs like Lillian Vernon, Drakes, Taylor Gifts, Carol Wright…
At an estate sale Tiffany and I conducted last year, this vase thingy was left over at the end. I thought it was intriguing and besides, it said it was made in France. So it came home with me.
It was so odd that it had four holes in the top. I could only think of it as being a vase for four long stem flowers. Obviously, I have no imagination.
So it sat around here and every time I would look at it, I’d wonder what it was and what I should do with it.
Then I started thumbing through one of the catalogs. Actually, a Family Circle pull-out of 366 New Gift Ideas By Mail. Unfortunately, there is no date, but I estimate it to be mid 1960s to 70s.
Right at the top of page four, there it was! Not a vase at all, but a decanter! Four decanters in one, to be exact.
Here’s the description:
From France, Decanter has four individual compartments to hold 4 different liquers! Hand crafted clear glass. Fitted polystyrene stoppers. Unique!
$4.99
Well, alrighty then. I wonder if those stoppers were in a drawer and I didn’t know what they went with? Anyway, now that I know what it is and that it’s incomplete, with the most important parts missing, I’m torn what to do with it.
