Secondhand Scores #3

When I was a kid my parents went to garage sales all the time.  I admit I was totally embarrassed by it.  I never really bothered going regularly until after I had my son.  I realized I could get clothes and toys and things for him for pennies on the dollar and that is when my love for secondhand was born.

Garage sales are my favorite but I also go to flea markets, thrift stores and auctions.  I am always on the hunt for furniture to paint, stuff for myself, my house, my kids and unique items that I could put to future use.  I love the thrill of finding something that was once very expensive for as little money as possible.

In this series, I will share my scores to show you how much you could get for your hard earned money.  Some days I hit jackpots, some days I get nothing, but I always have fun.

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The first garage sales of the season were this weekend. I had a list of only three sales and the first two were a bust.  The third sale I scored a few supplies.

A pile of rags and towels for $2 (I use them as scrap cloths), the wire shelf and lazy susans for $.75 total and a bunch of calendar tea towels for $2.  I regret getting those towels, but at the time I thought I could possibly make them into pillows.  They have years going back to the 60's.  We'll see...

On the way back to my car they had a few boxes marked free. NEVER pass up the free boxes.  I got all this:

While I was at that sale, they told me about another one the next town over that I had to go to.  They said it was a hoarder sale and they were practically giving stuff away. I have been to all sorts of garage sales, but never a hoarder sale.

Was I in for a shock.  It was two attached houses and both were filled to the brim.  It started on the porch of the first house and I almost couldn't handle the visual overload of stuff.  There were piles on the front porch, living room, kitchen and three bedrooms upstairs.  Around back to the other house had another kitchen, living room and two more bedrooms--FILLED.  

These pictures really don't even show the amount of stuff upon stuff.  Every room was filled to the brim, you could barely walk around.  I had to literally dig to find anything.  I found a bunch of small pieces I wanted to be able to paint and sell.  I offered $2 per item and they took it!  I got four tables, a bench and a small dresser for $12.  After I took forever cleaning them out and dragging them to my car and packing them in, I opened my wallet to pay and came up short.  How embarrassing!  I had $9 and some change.  The guy didn't care, he took the $9, but I kept digging out change and found another $2 to give.  

That is my $11 haul!  I actually went back later in the day (after stopping at the bank) with my kids because my son has been wanting a covered wood box and was willing to dig through the stuff to find it.  

This was my second haul.  My son wound up finding three covered wooden boxes, I found a brand new stencil brush, four brand new directors chairs covers, another small table and a stack of plastic dishes to use for the summer.  I got it all for $4!!

I have to be honest, I would normally have to take hours, maybe a few days and go to at least fifteen sales to get this amount of goodies.  But that hoarder house was probably 50 garage sales worth of stuff and I am sure that is why I did so well.

Linking to:
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