We live in a neighborhood where the majority of our neighbors are 80+ years. Honestly, I’m not certain how we were allowed into the community as it seems more like a ’55+ neighborhood’. There are many things that we notice that validate this point: very slow driving in our neighborhood (slow as in– my child could beat them to the end of the corner on her bicycle with two off-centered training wheels), and all our old little neighbors walking their pomeranians, dachshunds, etc. Why is it that all old people have small lap dogs?
It feels like we see an estate sign sale every other weekend. Literally, we’ve had two neighbors die and two subsequent estate sales in the past 5 weeks. My husband jokes that by the time we move out, if we went to every estate sale in our neighborhood, we’d have collected enough to furnish an entire home.
That really freaks me out; the whole estate sale/a.k.a. ‘dead people’s stuff’, it really gives me the heebie jeebies.
The sign that sat in front of our house Saturday morning.
My mother-in-law is a huge estate sale fan. She constantly asks us things our home is in need of— just in case she sees something we might be looking for.
My thought has always been: Estate sales creep me the hell out!
Think about it- It is dead peoples stuff that you are buying.
On Saturday, my husband, Justin, informed me that we couldn’t back the car out of the driveway because there were so many cars parked in our neighborhood for an estate sale happening two doors down.
Justin: Let’s go over and check it out!
Me: SCREW THAT. You know my feelings on dead peoples stuff. It creeps me out.
Justin: You never know, maybe they have some Le Creuset cooking dishes!
He knows Le Creuset is my favorite and furthermore, knew that was the best thing to say to get me to go. Le Creuset is EFFIN’ EXPENSIVE!
Me: Fine. I will LOOK… That’s it.
So, off we were…on our way to the dead persons house to rummage through their treasures. We walked in and saw so many amazing things. Beautiful china collections, U.S. Navy engraved silver platters, so much Navy memorabilia, it made me sad. I told Justin I wanted to leave….then I saw the jewelry counter….
…..and something caught my eye…
…..a beautiful gold Seiko watch! The little old lady must have had freakishly tiny wrists (like me) because the watch fit. My cheap tendencies/love for a good deal and my hard core feelings on estate sales fought each other back and forth in my head.
I gave the watch back to the lady manning the jewelry counter while I pondered and made my way into the deceased little old lady’s closet. Justin and our daughter, ‘Barb Marley’, stayed behind looking at the jewelry. Naturally, my six-year-old had no reservations about sifting through a deceased person’s belongings, particularly, jewelry. Shocker!
I entered the closet and delicately sifted through this woman’s clothing. She must have been very tiny. I suppose most people are pretty small before they pass away.
My Grannie is 96 years-of-age and weighs approximately 94lbs. I wonder why you shrink with age…? Too bad that doesn’t happen in your 30’s/40’s. I wouldn’t mind shrinking from time to time…especially after the holiday season.
Everything was ‘Petite’ or size 2. And then I found it…..a beautiful, tweed-like, Christian Dior blazer. It was amazing. I took it out of the closet and looked it over. I could still smell the ‘little old lady smell’ on the jacket and that made me sad again. However, I put that aside. I continued to remind myself that this is life, the circle of life—-what people do when they die—have companies come in and sell their stuff.
Four Generations
My heart sunk but I tried the jacket on. You could tell she had taken great care of her belongings. It fit like a glove and I immediately pictured all the great outfits I could coordinate with it while my body was quickly filling with guilt thinking of all the memories she had probably created while wearing that blazer.
((Just then, my husband pops in with our daughter in tow…))
Justin: AHA!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! You like that jacket, don’t you?!?!
Me: Ugh, YES. AND THIS DRESS TOO!!!
Justin: You must now be fine with the whole ‘buying dead people’s stuff’ concept as I see you are WEARING the little old lady’s jacket!!?
Me: I know. I am a hypocrite. IT’S CHRISTIAN DIOR!! AND ONLY $8.00!
Justin: Then buy it!!!
Me: I don’t know if I can do it..…It really goes against my..…..Do you have cash?!
Justin: You’re ridiculous. You can find a way to spend money ANYWHERE. Even when it goes against you ‘beliefs’ or whatever the hell you were just about to say. Yes, I have cash, but these types of things accept credit cards, too.
Me: What?! This feels so wrong…..but this jacket is really bad ass.
Justin: Looks great, buy it, let’s go.
Me: Smell it—smells like old people….
Justin: No! You are so weird, Ashley! LETS GO. Get the jacket, get the dress, go back and get the watch—Our child now has a new piece of jewelry apparently, too—get your hypocrite ass moving and lets go.
So here I am. Writing to inform you all that:
A) I am a hypocrite.
#HYPOCRITE
B.) I am now the proud new owner of an awesome vintage Christian Dior tweed blazer, a cute green dress, and an adorable little old lady watch…
Feel free to stop following my blog…seeing me and my new hypocrite ways. I’ll probably be an executive board member of Monsanto by tomorrow morning…chowing down on a bag of MSG laced Doritos. Ugh.
Don’t Forget- A Click is a Vote for Me!
I LOVE Estate Sales and you have some great finds there! Earlier this year we purchase an Ethan Allen hutch and dining room set with 6 padded chairs and 2 leaves for $500! You just can’t beat that. All I know is its new to me!
haha I like your thought process. I buy crap off Craigslist ALL the time. Who knows where the hell that shit has been. I don’t know why I’m so weirded out by estate sales. Clearly, I got over my fears. LOL
We live in a suburb that is almost all new homes and young families so estate sales just don’t happen often. I never gave it a second thought until I read your post and kind of wished I could peruse one. But, I’m not even close to a size 2 and I have man-wrists so I wouldn’t have found anything at that sale anyway. 🙂
hahahah oh Mackenzie. You never fail to make my laugh until I pee a little. I’m jealous of your neighborhood. Haydan has NO ONE to play with because everyone is on their way out… I wish we lived in a neighborhood like yours, one that she could ride her bike with friends rather than trying to beat the old ppl driving their lincoln buicks down the street on her bike lol
Blog Bestie, Estate sales are where it’s AT! Old people have money to buy the awesome shit we want but could never afford. And I can guarantee this little old lady would be really happy to know a young woman who will love her stuff as much (or more) as her has it rather than it landing at the Goodwill. If I were standing at a crossroads and saw two signs, one for a yard sale and one for an estate sale, I’d be going to the estate sale Every-Single-Time! Glad you finally lost your cherry on that one. 😉
lost my cherry. LOL. best. comment. ever. hahaha
I have the same feelings about estate sales being creepy and really sad… But that nice lady that passed had great taste!:)
No joke, right?! AWESOME BLAZER! I still cannot believe what excellent condition it was in!
OMG, I am dying…oops, wrong phrase I guess??? That was hysterical. I can totally relate though! I think what freaks me out is that if I go to a “garage” or “yard” sale I mentally think it’s better…but when it’s an estate sale…ew, but you can find some awesome things there and I love recreating someone else’s fictitious history in my mind. You look super cute sporting all your new finds!
hahahaha ‘OMG, I AM DYING …oops wrong phrase..’ LOLLLLLL. These comments are making me laugh SO hard. hahaha
Love the clothes. I went to an estate sale last week. I got a ladder. You win. I’m sure old lady would be pleased to see you rocking her stuff. You can’t take it with you.
ah, touche my friend, touche! A ladder is a good find though. Ladders are expensive!!! But still, you’re right, I win. Blazer beats Ladder like Paper beats Rock.
Haha too damn funny. I love the honesty in this post. I feel the same way you do but honestly if you want really great things at really affordable prices then that is the way to go. I have never been to an estate sale but I know people who have and the stuff they have bought has been worth way more then they paid for it. They not only got a great deal out of the items they bought but made a boat load of money from reselling it.
Just know that she would be smiling down on you for the care and compassion that you have and now have for taking care of the items she once loved herself.
Yes! Thank-you! I will feel her good graces when I wear that blazer…that or she will haunt me because she doesn’t think I look as good in it. LOL jkkkk
I loved your comments about the sales which I love to go to. But not hoping for someone to pass to go to one. I am sorry to have to tell you this but I guess being older I do not enjoy the language you use, makes you sound not intelligent to have to use those words. Why is it these days people have to use these off color words to get peoples attention. Sorry !
First off, I am not certain if you were implying that I am hoping for people to pass in my neighborhood so I can frequent more estate sales….(???)… because that is certainly not something I am ‘hoping’ for. People dying makes me sad and so does people blocking my driveway all weekend with their cars making it impossible to leave my own home. Second, thank-you for stopping by and for giving me your honest feedback. I apologize that you think that my language makes me sound ‘not intelligent’. I can assure you that I am, in fact, intelligent and that there are least one, maybe two people willing to attest to this. (Probably my mom and dad). In all seriousness, I believe in being 100% authentic on my page. I may not be everyones cup of tea and I hear you, ‘off color words’ CAN and DO get a lot of peoples attention. It is quite strange. However, know that what you would get in person (a kind, loving, giving, and very potty mouthed individual) is also what you get online. Maybe my tender side isn’t coming through via my blog? Not to worry, there are a plethora of blogs out there where there are no foul language, however, I’d still imagine they use it in real life—they probably just edit it out of their posts. (The dialogue you read on my Estate Sale post was identical to what happened in real life…and I like to ‘keep it real’, if you feel me) Have a great week!
I see an estate sale in my future because of you! “Ya did good girl. Ya did good.” =)
Hey!
I’ve just popped across from Wake Up Wednesday! I love this post….I went to my first estate sale at an antique mall a couple of weeks ago! I was a little unsure like you but ended up buying quite a lot of little bits, including 2 vintage 2-piece outfits which I am determined to re-fashion into something wearable…they were $1!!
Check my blog out at http://threadsandbobbins.com/2014/10/08/ooooh-an-estate-sale/
Here’s to the next one 😀
Good for you! An antique mall? That sounds very neat! Oh my gosh–I cannot believe you scored them for a dollar! I am impressed! Thank-you for popping over— I will definitely check out your blog 🙂
I love estate sales they rock and they do have affordable stuff I picked up a lovely needle point framed picture of cats for a quarter will keep shopping them have a great weekend visiting from freedom fridays
Awesome, Lorraine! There are some pretty awesome finds at estate sales. Thank-you for stopping by!!
Hello cute lady! Awesome post. Pinned. We couldn’t think of anyone better to party with. We hope to see you tomorrow at 7 pm.
Happy Sunday! Lou Lou Girls
Thank-you!!
Estate sales are a great place to pick up items. The people haven’t always have died they may have moved in with other relatives, a smaller house or assisted living. When you buy stuff you are helping them out. To me it is like a bigger garage sale. I’m sure she would be happy to know someone is enjoying her stuff as much as she did………..
Great point, Karen! Sadly, this person in particular did pass on 🙁 A neighbor of mine confirmed it to me and then seemed mildly surprised when I told her I attended the estate sale. She said she couldn’t bring herself to go. I understood. That is a great way to look at it though! Helping the family out. Thanks for stopping by 🙂
I’m with you! Totally creepy stuff, dead people’s belongings. I will admit, I’m a big shopper of the Gundy (good will), I either I’m getting dead people’s stuff, or shit no one wanted. Either way, I’d rather not fucking know!!!
hahahah! Gundy–I’ve not heard that one before. I think I like the not knowing to. The whole being in her home really freaked me the fuck out. Made me feel sad sifting through her very well taken care of belonging.. 🙁