Our local Guide Dog for the Blind puppy club had a garage sale this weekend. It is just amazing how much STUFF there is in this world. I think it just migrates from one home to another.
I worked an early morning shift. It never let up! People arrived at a constant rate. Most left with their arms full. A lot of elderly people, a lot of immigrant families.
Two weekends ago, we cleaned out my parents’ storage unit. The excess went to that garage sale. It was a little sad–to see objects that reminded me of childhood–sold off to strangers. And yet, it’s better to let these things be used than to sit in a dark (and a little creepy) Public Storage unit.
Makes you realize, though, how important it is to use things so your kids will have memories attached to them. My folks weren’t good at that. They inherited much from their parents’ homes and stuffed it all in the back of their garage. A lot of valuable antiques, objects with interesting backgrounds, and many things we had NO idea what the heck it was.
Do you know what this is?
It’s an old leather water bucket. Apparently, people would keep them filled with water to douse out a fire. I happened to notice the “Harlow” family crest on it and grabbed it from the pile. My grandmother was Marion Harlow Gibson (then Woods). For you history buffs…the Fort Harlow House in Plymouth, Massachusetts is the oldest house in America.
How about this?
This is a cranberry scooper. My dad was raised on Cape Cod and scooped many a cranberry from a bog. Now, we use it to hold magazines.
But! I digress.
Garage sales are fascinating evidence of how trends come and go. I saw a yogurt maker, similar to the one my sister used to nearly poison me (her cooking skills have always been a bit…erratic.) 
There was a LOT of silver…nobody wants to polish anymore. Colorful fondue pots. Tons of old ashtrays.
Made me want to come home and purge my garage and cupboards and closets!
After I cleaned out my parents’ house of all of its stuff – and people who grew up in the depression were frugal packrats extraordinaires! – it made me want to come home and bulldoze my house!
And it was amazing how much stuff my mom managed to accumulate in her little assisted living apartment. Things that were so important to her, but it was mostly just meaningless stuff left behind.
He who has the most stuff. . .still leaves it all!
I smiled when I read your comment about how much your mom managed to accumulate in her little apt…so true! My sister and I go over to my mom’s once a month just to try and keep some level of order in it (code for toss!). My brother calls it “The Home Invasion.”