Best of luck to you today with the sale. I know that feeling, having once helped my MIL clean out *some* of her junk-filled basement. I find it much easier to do this with other people's stuff. You don't have an emotional investment in the items.

Come back and tell us how it went. There are always some characters who visit yard sales.

I have spent weeks and weeks cleaning out my master closet. It literally made me depressed, in part because of all the family photos and memorabilia to be dealt with.

One rule I made for myself was that once something was on the toss or give away pile, there was no removing it.

Anyway, you have my sympathy. My mom's huge house is stuffed from attic to basement with stuff. I wish it were all junk so I could just get a dumpster, but she has many fine things that no one in the family wants. The thought of sorting it out and dealing with it makes me ill. She is still very much alive at age 96 and I wish we could start cleaning out now, but she sees value in stuff that we do not, which makes it very complicated.

Oh well-- thinking of you. Good luck. Stick to your guns about getting rid of the leftovers.

Good luck Goldie!!! I will be doing this at my grandmother's house in the future. However, my cousin used a gal for my aunt's estate sale and I plan to go that route. This lady comes in and helps price and set up. She was very knowledgeable in pricing and her price to us was to give her first dibs on what she wanted. Fine with me - I just want it sold! LOL We also have several items from my mom (she had a couple of antique booths at local antique malls) stored at my grandmother's house that we will sell and my BIL has some items from when he sold his mom's estate.

Take care of YOU and I know you will be glad when it is all over.

tina

My husband and his mother are in the process of cleaning out her house. She has been in it for over 50 years and it is filled with junk - my definition. She, of course thinks that it is all very valuable and that everyone should ooh and aah over it.

They know that if I get involved most of it will be going to the dump and they are trying to head me off at the pass. Fine with me.

I have suggested that they take photos of the stuff that she wants to keep because of the memories attached but for which she won't have the room after she moves.

It's the memories that count and once you figure that out the purging of stuff becomes easier.

I feel for you. I had to deal with my grandparents' houses. After doing a sale for the first one, I went with an estate sale team for the second one. It was worth the 33% of proceeds the team took as a fee. I would have paid them even more.

(((Goldie))). I hope the estate sale went well. After spending 5 days packing up and cleaning out my parents winter home in Florida this past Spring, I can definitely sympathize with you. Although we didn't sell any of it . . . just threw away, gave away and divided the rest into a big moving truck to be delivered to their two other homes or to the rest of our sibs~ it was a nightmare! Too much "stuff" that should have been gotten rid of years before!

The thought of having to price and sell it all, as you've had to do makes me shudder! I think your edict that nothing unsold comes back to your home was so smart!

Hope you can reward yourself with at least a mini vacation to rest up after all of this. You've earned it many times over!
Lynn.

We made a little over $1,800. selling 'stuff'. I gave lots of things away and I'm so glad this is over. I began to think her dining set and buffet were never going to sell but they finally did. Her ladder back chairs, buffet and ding table are so out of favor or people don't have room. I was happy to sell it at the end of the day for $250. We all agreed it was a shame but I'm glad it's gone!! My DS moved to Georgia and said it would be popular back there.

Monday will be thrift store day. I'm over it. Lots of characters, for sure. The people who thought they could park on my lawn had a quick reality check. The angry buyers didn't get a deal but if I liked them, I'd send them out with lots of extras.

One woman was caressing crystal wine goblets. I knew she loved them just watching her. I asked her to make me an offer. She quietly replied "I don't have any money."

I told her she could have the entire set. She said "I couldn't accept them." I explained they had been a gift to me so it seemed right that they would remain a gift. I insisted she take them. What joy it is to observe joy. Way better than getting money.

Gold, you made my cry with your generosity. Thank you for being you. You truly make the world a better place.

Your kind and generous heart makes you shine from the inside out, Goldie.

Good for you not feeling like you had to keep any of it!! We had a similar sale a few years ago when my in laws both died suddenly. She had a lot of things. Too many for us to want/need. We decided early on to LET IT GO. The entire sale went to their memorial fund at their church. The small town was so grateful we had the stuff priced to SELL. My Brother in law took a few boxes of things he insisted were worth too much to sell at a garage sale. He was going to e-bay them. They are still in the bottom of his closet. Someday his children will be giving it away!!

We had the brother in law thing too. When he arrived to help with the sale, he started loading up his car with anything that had a price tag of $15. So frustrating because he had already chosen what he wanted from the Estate. This was about his hoarding. He also bought our junk.

He thought our prices were way too low. I told him I was pricing things to move them, not to get rich. We spent days washing everything and when he would grab stuff, it made me feel like we had worked ourselves to the bone for nothing.

'Mom' didn't use dish soap in the end. Her blender took hours of soaking and scrubbing. Everything I put out involved far more labor than value but I couldn't stand to set things on my tables that I wouldn't use myself. Her citrus juicer literally had reconstituted lemon cells after a good soaking. It was not a great situation.

My BIL claimed Mom's living room set but it has been in my bedroom since March. I told him, "Everything is going on the lawn. What doesn't sell doesn't come back in. If you want to put a sold sign on it, fine, but it needs to be gone by the time the estate sale is over." That worked.

Now to get his stuff out of the attic of our business... He yelled at me this morning before calling to apologize.