A Preview of What's to Come

For the past week I've been helping my mother and her business partner set up an estate sale. That's what my mother does for her mad money--she contracts to sell the contents of a house when the owners have passed away or are downsizing by moving to a smaller home or to a nursing home. It usually involves a great deal of cleaning up other peoples' messes to set out and arrange the belongings left after family and friends have taken what they want from a household. Sometimes the homes are really nasty and sometimes they are fairly clean, like this one (okay, except for the pile of #2 someone left on a paper towel in the bathtub). To me, it seems like too many hours of work for the percentage of the profits they get from the sale, but my mom is every hopeful of finding that great antique buried under a pile of stuff in a closet that will bring in tons of money. That doesn't happen very often.

This house has a basement, breezeway, living room, kitchen, 2 bedrooms,garage and an attic, so there were four of us moving around the rooms assisting folks while one manned the check out desk. It's tiring work and I admire my mom and Dottie for doing it, because I wouldn't last too long, since I would get upset if the family snatched things out of the house once it had been priced, thereby taking money out of their pockets for the percentage of money that item would sell for. Yes, there are contracts, but they can't really be enforced, so many times Mom and Dottie will have spent hours cleaning items, looking up prices in value guides and online, setting it out to its best advantage, tagging it, etc. only to find it gone the next day after the family has been through the house. There are a lot of horror stories there.

But today was "preview" day, when the local antique dealers get a sneak peak and chance to buy stuff ahead of everyone with the understanding that they pay the sticker price--no discounts. The dealers love that, because they know what it there is priced so they can still make a profit and they descend like locusts as soon as the doors are opened. You have to stand back or get knocked down!

My mother and Dottie always get a lot of compliments because of the way items are washed and set out to display them in their best light. I hope this sale will be a good one. Thursday we go back for the "real" opening day, from 9AM to 5PM. Not looking forward to that, but they can use all the hands they can get. Denny will be playing golf--too much craziness for him!


Lots of washing of dishes and glasses to make them shine.


Mom and Dottie bring in their own folding tables and covers to display the items to their best advantage.


The toys went quickly today--lots of boys' stuff from the 50s, which means it was stuff that was very familiar to me! I had my own set of Hopalong Cassidy cap guns in a holster, similar to the ones on the table.