Sunday, April 18, 2010

Minus fifteen dollars

My no-spending week (for the record I lasted eight days) ended the moment I heard the words ESTATE SALE. At first I had no intention of going, I don't need anything, and I wanted to keep this experiment going for as long as I could. But my curiosity got the better of me and I ended up going to not one but two estate sales and on the way to the second sale there happened to be a couple of garage sales in the same neighbourhood so I thought it wouldn't hurt to have a quick look-see.
This is what I would have liked to take home to add to my collection but the large ceramic containers were priced at $100 each.
My splurge for the day was this harvest basket from New Brunswick made by a Mi'kmaq. It was priced at $25 but all I had was $15 and they accepted my offer but they told me to take it and run before the owner realized what I had paid for it.
At the second estate sale, I almost regretted buying the basket. Everything in the house had to go. Some of the kitchen drawers were still full of all sorts of gagdets, utensils, and there was even a junk drawer. The closets were bursting with clothes; underwear, socks, and belts all neatly organized in the dresser drawers. The basement had piles of boxes of craft supplies, christmas ornaments, and tools. The beds were all nicely made up with duvets and blankets, the dining room hutch was filled with china and pottery, and the sheet music was all set up on the organ as if someone had just finished playing.
I have been to quite a few estate sales but they have never bothered me as this one did. I think it was the leather belt that did it. In the master bedroom I found a wonderfully tooled leather belt with a silver buckle depicting a cowboy on a horse. I thought it would be perfect for my cowboy but as I turned it over in my hands, I saw that the owners name had been written on the back of the belt. I quickly rolled it back up and put it back in its place with all the other belts.
I quickly left, it wasn't fun anymore even though all around me people were walking out with armloads of stuff and talking about what a great deal they had just gotten.
Are we, with all our buying and accumulating, just preparing for a huge estate sale?
As of tomorrow, I am back on the no-spending routine.

1 comment:

mermaid gallery said...

I think the whole world is now on a non spending trend. We all have so much stuff. It's overwhelming...but some stuff I just love to have ....it's time to be more discriminating....old stuff freaks me out sometimes too!