You're right. Tables and tables full of those vases. I also get tired of seeing so much 'antique'? glassware with high prices. I live in Russellville and also went to the 64 sale , but thought it was mostly junk with prices jacked up too much in anticipation of the crowd. I had much more fun and success going to the regular household yardsales this weekend. By the way, glad to meet a fellow Arkansan.

Coffee mugs . UGH ! -- and old mismatched drinking glasses
(usually stolen from a bar with the bar name on it )LOL
Sales around here are so predictable. You can tell what they are selling just by the neighborhood they're in !

Yep, know what you mean about the coffee mugs! Friend of mine and I discuss all the time that there OUGHT to be something to do with all those stupid things.

Hi, avajocollett!!! We went as far as Russellville yesterday, then ate and took the "scenic route" home. Nice to meet you, girl! LOL

SIL was telling me about someone in his family who had so many mugs. So, at their garage sale, they sold coffee at 50¢ a cup, but they had to take the mug home!

Last time I received flowers I took the vase to a local florist just to get rid of it, and the florist was delighted!

Yes, those vases are everywhere...too big to really use often around the house. And coffee mugs...too many of those too. And tired Christmas decos, broken out-of-date electronics. I've just about given up on garage sales.

Great idea about the 50-cent cup of coffee. Gives the buyer a cupa joe and a story to go with it.

Have none of you seen the totems? Yep!- you guessed it--made from those flower vases...
Go to garden junk and look under at the posts with the word totem in the post!

Yes, I've seen them and that IS a good use for them. It's just that they're reproducing faster than we could make ANYTHING out of them! LOL

My friends and I went on the "127 World's Longest Yard Sale" a couple of weeks ago and it was full of tables of glass vases and coffee cups. It was terrible. The funny things was that people were asking $1.00-$3.00 for the mugs when they usually sell around here (Cincinnati) for .25! There were also a ton of cane bottom chairs with no seats. Of course, they were all "antique" and expensive. Clothes were another big item. People were just piling them up on hay wagons in their front yards. No folding, no dividing by size, just piling them to the sky. We seriously didn't buy anything and we went from Cincinnati to Danville Kentucky. But then again, the sales around here haven't been as wonderful as they were last year.

Your stories brought back a memory for me.

Years ago my son was dating a young lady who was very energetic and high maintenance. She was always shopping and adding little decorative touches to his house. He is very Pottery Barn bordering on Japanese minimalist, she more like "Let's live in the storeroom of Walmart."

They were together at Christmas and I don't have to tell you what a spending and craft orgy she went on to decorate every square inch of the house. But he seemed happy with the relationship and that's all that mattered to me.

Her mother invited us for a holiday dinner and suddenly this young lady's tolerance for total saturation decor became crystal clear. As we shimmied sideways from the door to the living room couch, I caught sight of the kitchen.

Wall to wall, ceiling to floor shelving full of COFFEE CUPS. She proudly announced they were all from garage sales and vacations.

So, I have met the only one out there interested in those million coffee cups you see displayed on garage sale tables. And she's always looking for more.

Socks12345, you were lucky the florist even took your vase. Around here, they're so afraid it might harbor bacteria, or something, that they don't take vases back. The saving grace is that if you take your vase and buy flowers, they're happy to make a sale and don't worry about whether or not your flowers die from germs!

Actually I'm looking for those white or clear bud vases for Church - we use them to give a rose for new babies, or for a death. However, the supply around here has dried up for some reason. Maybe someone has suddenly discovered a "craft" to make from them. What do you think?

I am retired....floral designer....at our shop if you brought in vases we would give you a hand bouqt. of flowers....we washed them in bleach and then put them in dish washer. I always enjoyed all the different vases that came in....some of them were old. All shops should take them back and reuse....also baskets can be reused. Nora

I agree, Nora. I've taken in some pretty STRANGE things before to have them put flowers in. They usually either laugh or are amazed and just do it for me! LOL

In the spring before my parents 50th anniversary I bought white "milkglass" bud vases at garage sales for 10 to 15 cents each. By the time of the party I had enough for every female guest to take them home, filled with flowers of course. One of my Aunts said it made her feel like the guest of honor. I got so lucky on the flowers too. I "thought" my car made a funny noise and pulled off the main road so I could listen better. I came upon a tent in a yard. OH boy a garage dale. No it was a florist who had lost her lease and had to bring all of his stock home for the week-end before the new location was avaliable. She GAVE me 5 doz. carnations, babys breath and leather leaf for all of my vases. I added bows that I made and gold hearts i painted with my parents names and wedding date. Funny thing is no one could find anything wrong with the car and it never made that noise again.
As for the coffee mugs..........I think they would make a great edging lined up around a garden. Just not at 50 cents to a dollar each. If I find them for 5 cents I will start that project (I think) DH will not appreciate it as much as I will.

Has anyone else noticed that the nicer, newer, the house is, the less interesting stuff they have? Oh, you can find baby clothes, toys and computer stuff...but not much of interest to me. I love to go to the little old houses from the 1940's or
'50's. Now, those ladies have some interesting junk. I guess that is because it is the type of stuff I grew up with, and so I lean towards that in my collecting

Marilyn, you are right. I usally don't go to housing developements. They seem to have all the baby stuff, longberger baskets, and other home party stuff, and computer stuff. I like to find old stuff also.

Yep, I go to sales directly related to the addresses here in town. Certain subdivisions are where the younger people live and unless I'm looking for stuff for the grandkids - I don't go. Now the west part of town? Yeah, I'll check THEM out! LOL

I agree. The older stuff is better. I sometimes go to the less desireable parts of town because they sell stuff I can fix up. I can use the kid clothes, but the town garage sales get shopped so much here, that everything is usually picked over by the time I get there.

I KNEW desirable didn't look right! Sheesh! Went back and read my post and thought, "Good grief!" LOL

Sorry, Adella, thought I was correcting MY spelling and I was correcting YOURS! My bad!

It's late - I really need to call it a day! LOL

YaYa..Teachers just automatically do that kind of thing don't they? I am not offended.

If I went back and corrected everything I wrote, I'd never get anything finished. I figure it's conversational English and leave it at that.

It is, and you're right, Adella. I'm harder on myself than I am anybody else, thank goodness! LOL

i live in a older part of town and all the dealers shop in my neighborhood. i wish there was a rule that you could only shop within a 3 mile radius of your address, fat chance. i don't like newer neighborhood sales, alot of baby clothes, toys, country decor junk, and cheesy quality items. i am seeing alot of perfume/bath/personal item gift baskets for sale. i guess people get them but don't use them. alot of baskets, stuffed animals and small appliances.

LOL Yep, me, too. It's funny - a friend of mine and I will go and we'll laugh to each other about how stuff goes in cycles ie: "Well, today must be the Crockpot Day", etc.

My son used to go to the Boys and Girls club, and one year, the art teacher asked us for old mugs. Of course, she got all she could stand, and she had the kids decoupage them and decorate them for Christmas, then filled them with cheap Christmas Candy, wrapped them in plastic wrap with a bow, and VOILA! A christmas gift for your teacher! They even had the teacher's names on them in gold or silver paint.

My son gave his to his art teacher, and she was thrilled! She says she still uses it at Christmas every year, and has never forgotten my son.

A friend of mine has a pretty mug that someone gave her when her baby was born. The outside is covered with pink gingham, and it was filled with little stuff like a measuring spoon for medicine, a little ear syringe, an eardropper, and feeding spoons. On the outside of the cup is written "For coffee on those long, sleepless nights".

Ever gotten a vase with a plastic grid on top? It's used to separate the stems and spread the flowers out over the mouth of the vase. I found that these plastic grids fit over the tops of coffee cans, too. If I put a small custard cup on the bottom of a coffee can and a plastic grid on the top, I get a great way to store paint brushes for crafts.

It's about the only use I have for vases that come from the florist. I do like being able to protect paint brushes this way since they are expensive to keep replacing. (Bristle end up)

I also use a lot of white China bristle brushes, they are thin but about 1 inch across and I used to spend a lot of time cleaning, washing and drying them but now I stuff the handle into the x in the cover of hand wipes (like Wet Ones) and pour turpentine or alcohol into the base to store the brushes until I get the project finished. (Bristle end down in the solvent)

The turpentine is just for stains and varnishes that are cleaned in turpentine and the alcohol is just for those paints and shellac that are cleaned in alcohol but this "storage with self cleaning" saves me a lot of time.

Josie

I wanted to make a bottle tree but could not fine
bottles suteable but I kept seeing the bud vases,
so why not I already had some of them/ I painted some with my glass paint and soon as the bad weather is over
I will make a bud tree.
Yardnut

There was alot of pure "junk" old clothes,Broken Stuff,Chipped up glass,mugs,Florists' Vases Ect. I don't get why some people just cant trash stuff and the so called 'antiques' were VERY over priced. Case and point I saw the very same cookie Jar on 64 yardsale for 50 Bucks! I got the very same one on ebay for 5 bucks. lol

I have to agree with everything that has been said here.

Rach

I recall being tipped over by the selling of Mrs. Butterworth's empty syrup bottles for about $1 each. Am I missing something here??? I suppose in "time", they might have a collectible value - but not just yet.

I saw a really cut table made of those vases. They were stacked in a pile in the middle, right side up and bottom side up, in a sort of block, and the tops were plexiglas poured over broken vase bits. It was really pretty. They were selling for $60 apiece, and they were selling! The guy said he had been collecting these vases from yard sales for a nickel to a dime apiece for years. The blue ones were selling for $75.

He also had lamps with bases made of the large clear vases filled with smashed colored glass from the other colors, selling for $30 apiece.

OOPS! Meant "cute" table, not "cut"

In the spring when my lilacs bloom I have a sudden abundance of blooms. One year I decided to cut several boquets and bring them to a hospice in my city. It took nearly every vase I had aquired since moving to my home. I asked the nuns that ran the hospice if I could come back and get the vases in a week or two (felt kind of weird asking). But in the next few weeks my peonies bloomed. If you have peonies you know they throw off dozens of blooms at the same time and I have nine mature peony plants. So once again I brought them to the hospice.

My uncle died at the hospice during the winter months. Of course we brought him flowers but they were store bought. When my flowers bloomed in spring I thought of the people down there that would never leave their rooms again and how they might like some flowers that they may have grown up with. This year almost all of my perinnals were taken out by a hail storm but I plan on bring local blooms to the hospice again next year. I hope this gives some of you ideas, especially if you have too many unused vases and blooms that come all at once!

Coffee mugs! Lots of them around for sure. I made a couple of these for candles, plants, or butterfly feeders, whatever.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

Walkers

It used to be airless popcorn machines, then cappachino machines, always minor exercise equipment like the Thighmaster and Abdominizer. My guess is that these were unwanted gifts - I see them at almost every yard sale.

Lately it's been bread machines with no accessories and no manual! LOL

cute idea w/the bird feeders and plates:) How do u glue them togetther so they can w/stand heat and cold outside and not come apart?