estate sale extraordinaire

It usually takes Jeff and me about 15-30 to go through an estate sale, depending on the amount of good stuff available. My favorite area is usually the kitchen; I generally head straight there upon arrival, while Jeff prefers to hit the basement and/or garage.

This past Wednesday we headed to a sale in the southeast part of town. Sales that start on Wednesday are usually pretty busy first thing after they open since there aren't many sales on Wednesdays.  That's why we decided to wait until 10 to go since it started at 9. I just didn't want to stand in line even if it meant missing something good.

So, we got there at 10 and walked right in. There were quite a few people there but it was a good size place so there weren't a ton of people in any one room.  As it turns out, that was a good thing since the place was PACKED with a little bit of everything including a LOT of glass. The company coordinating the sale had set up tables in the dining and living room areas and they were full of glass.  That was in addition to the regular furniture in the place, all of which were covered with glass items.  I literally didn't know where to start. Ultimately I decided to hit the kitchen and come back to the glass in the other rooms.  Well, the kitchen was also full of glass in addition to regular kitchen items. It was even in the dishwasher, pantry and laundry room!

From there, I headed to the garage since it was right off the kitchen.  Well, it was full of glass too! There were cabinets full of it and more tables had been set up to hold even more. Most of it was depression glass as well as other pressed and cut glass. As I was finishing up in the garage, Jeff found me. He had been in the basement and informed me that it, too, was full of glass.  I went back in and finally perused everything in the living and dining rooms as well as a downstairs bedroom.  Glass, glass, and more glass along with old books and ephemera.

I finally went upstairs to three bedrooms, two of which were full of, you guessed it, glass.  The other was only jewelry and it was full.  The bathrooms had glass items. There was also a ton of vintage clothes and shoes, of which I know nothing about and so stay away from.

I made my way down to the basement to see for myself all of the glass that Jeff had mentioned.  It was in every room of the basement, in cupboards and on shelves and on every other surface available.  There was a spare refrigerator down there as well.  I opened it expecting there to be glass, but, surprise, it was full of candles! And it was running.  Guess that's one way to keep your candles from melting in the summer.

I went back upstairs and found Jeff.  We compared found items and reviewed everything in our hold pile. Generally, we grab whatever speaks to us as long as it's not too expensive and then regroup to discuss whether to pop for more pricey stuff.  We had found lots of goodies that didn't break the bank, so the discussion quickly went to what glass to buy. We could've spent $1000 and probably not bought all the glass in that place. Ultimately, we decided that we would take what we had and focus on posting it and all the other stuff we hadn't posted yet on Etsy.  And then we'd go back on Saturday to see what we could snag at 50% off, since that was the last day planned for the sale.

While we were there, we learned that the couple who lived there had gone to assisted living. They are in their 90s and probably lived in that house since it was built in 1948. I guess you don't move that much when you have that much glass to pack and haul! I wonder if they had kids and, if so, what it was like being a toddler in that house!

By the time we packed the stuff in the car and drove away, it was a few minutes after noon.  We had been there for two hours and I still feel like we missed seeing some good stuff because there was just so much to look at. Can't wait to go back tomorrow to see what's left.