First of all, let me thank my dear friend Julie for not only coming and helping all weekend, but also bringing delicious treats with her for our customers.
Needless to say, it was our very first Estate Sale and we would not have been able to do it without everyone’s help: from advice on prices to how to advertise, I had many people chipping in with ideas. We had prepared ourselves mentally, but last night we were so exhausted, we just crashed.
These are the most important lessons I learned this week:
When having an Estate Sale, you have to advertise, advertise, advertise. My neighbor Bonnie suggested the newspaper. I looked at her in disbelief and asked: are people really still receiving newspapers? Turns out they do… we had a ton of people that came because of it!
You can not put a price based on sentimental value or what you bought your stuff for. The main objective is to get rid of everything. We had to go around taking down price stickers for most of our stuff twice!
People are mostly great. We met and talked to so many people! It was so refreshing. I don’t know if it was the pandemic and being isolated for so long, that now that people have gotten their vaccine, they just wanted to hang out and talk! We loved every minute of it.
If you are the one staging everything without the help of a company (like we did), you will be sore for a few days!
Don’t wait until you are about to move away before talking to your neighbors!!! Turns out we have amazing neighbors, and now we feel awful that we only got to meet them as we are leaving. Make the effort to meet people in your community. Don’t miss out.
Have a plan B, C and D for your leftovers. We still have a ton of clothes, shoes, art and big furniture. We’ll probably have to organize a donation party of some kind for people to come and haul our stuff out.
Talk to family and friends, someone always needs a new mattress or a desk!
Like my friend Pamela said: “You have to be willing to let go” (this is tied to #2)… think about your future ahead. So, that being said, don’t get insulted if an old man offers you $1 for all your hilarious Halloween costumes you accumulated throughout the years and had so much fun with even if you only wore them once :-)
Anyways, the overall experience was exhausting, but we had fun. I wish we were already on the road… can’t wait!
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