Albers!

Nancy and I traveled to the fine village of Albers, IL early this morning. These good people were ready and waiting with extremely good organization of their treasures, as you can see below. Notice the impeccable cleanliness of the garage:




Now, if your garage is like 99% of the garages we come across yardsaling, there are certain items in there that are not for sale. Many times today we were thwarted in our attempts to buy some cool item like an antique chair or cabinet, only to be told emphatically it was NFS. Here is a display of how to proclaim NFS without having to repeat yourself 100 times in one morning:


Here is the village of Albers, replete with various farming equipment. And when I say "farming equipment", I don't mean some mansy-pansy caterpillar used once to haul tree limbs away. No, sir, I mean manly, heavy-duty combine-type equipment, used to till actual farms, that pollute heady amounts of carbon dioxide in the air: these are tractors, people.

When you yardsale in a farming community, you run across farm-related items, the most basic and ovious, of course, being food. I wasn't in the mood for raw potatoes at 7am, but you have to admire the farminess of these people:

As it has been posted widely before, I am insultingly cheap. Nancy doesn't like to bargain like I do; in fact, she often pays more than asking price to 1. make up for my miserliness, and 2. she thinks people undervalue their merchandise, and 3. she has a generous and kind nature. Here she is, captured on camera, during the rare act of her wheeling and dealing on a candalier:

Readers, it was a tiring, fun day. We also went to the cities of Lebanon and O'Fallon after Albers. However, as any good yardsaler knows, the good stuff is taken by 8am, so by the time we got to the other places, we couldn't spare much enthusiasm for what was left.

I forget what sales are next week; today was so overwhelming with sale after sale of city-wide treasure-hunting, that I dare not look towards next week until I have completely recovered from this one, which may take a few days.

moving heavy furniture while giggling

This is Shawn or Sean or Sian. He so graciously agreed to pose with this very interesting battle weapon. I am still unsure about this spiky club-like instrument of pain, but Shawn or Sean or Sian assured me it wasn't real. I was inclined to believe him, because, hey, he had the beat-down stick and I had my camera. Not much good if it comes to hand-to-hand, if you know what I mean. He is very nice, and I am not just writing that because I am scared.





Sara and I saled today. We went to this very sweet little sale run by two elderly ladies. I don't know if it was sweet elderly lady 1 or sweet elderly lady 2 who crocheted this darling little ducky soap holder, but I mean, seriously. As Sara so accurately put it, "You can really see the love put into this." I have blogged about this before, but if you have time to put warm and fuzzy covers over items that don't need covers, well, that is just ducky for you. (Ha!)

Here is Sara, on the third attempt to get this photo. I have, in addition to terrible navigational skills, terrible photography skills. Evidentally I can not hold the camera still or press the "take picture now button" with any finesse. Sara was so patient with my horribly lacking skills.

We found these excellent metal tins filled with Yu-Gi-Oh cards for our boys. I am saving them for mine for Christmas, so Dominic is sworn to secrecy that he received his today.

The above photos were all taken today. The below photos were taken earlier this week. Here's the story (because you just know there is a story): Our friends the Isoms remodel homes. The buy them, renovate them, and sell them. They bought this wonderful home on our street and invited Nancy and I to go through and take anything we would like. Our mutual friend Mark restores furniture. Nancy asked Mark if he would restore this beautiful old cabinet for the school auction in March. He said yes, so Nancy and I once again pulled out the fancy moving moves and schlepped down the boulevard with heavy objects.

Here is Nancy with her furniture dolly. Really, why have we not thought of dollies before?

Here is another cabinet that we attempted to move to my house. Apparently it was not very sturdy.

Here is that same cabinet, 3 minutes before.

Here is Nancy attempting to control the giggling while I was wrestling with the miraculously collapsing cabinet.

Here is the top part of the cabinet. Really, this is the good one.

So Nancy and I were thinking of starting a moving company, because a)we are professionally incompetent, b) we have no insurance or liability of any type, c) we would keep whatever interesting junk we were asked to move, and d) we tend to stop traffic along our street. Also we would only be willing to move things up and down the boulevard using wagons or dollies, usually while pushing a baby in a baby stroller. What do you think? Is this a great business concept or what?

In any case, the dilapidated cabinet is safely ensconsed in Mark's cavernous garage, awaiting his magical woodoworking skills, and if you are a SHS parent reading this, remember: Bid high on this glorious object. Only you know the true story of strife, tribulation, mountains of dust and unhealthy airborn-particles inhaled into previously-healthy lungs that went into the salvaging and resoration of this piece. And laughing. Lots and lots of laughing.

Next week, readers, is the Webster Groves neighborhood sale. I.Can.Not.Wait. Seriously. It is bound to be delightful. And then, then, THEN, the mother of all yard sales, the Olympics of the true yard salers......the Tri-city sale. Yes. You will recall a year ago we blogged about this special event. Caffeine was soaring through my veins like never before, the van o'dreams was put through the trenches and came out victorious, and we scored some serious junk. October 2nd, folks. Be ready.

Too many kids, too much Aunt Jamima

They sucked the life out of me today.

I don't know if it was the incessant begging for QT, the squabbling over Nerf weaponry, or the half dozen plastic whistles, but somewhere around 8 AM I knew I was in trouble.

I yardsaled today with the 6th grade regulars: Donny-Devin-Bobby, plus JoJo and Oscar. They were as sweet and silly as usual. It wasn't their fault that I was crabby. It was all me. My head was not in the right place or something. I just couldn't appreciate their childish essence. Bottom line: I took a nice long nap this afternoon.

This was out first sale of the day. It made me squeal with delight so I photographed it for future study:

Let's analyze the scene:

• It is obviously early morning because the shadows are long.
• The sale has plenty of merchandise sprawled across the lawn.
• At first glance, my eye is drawn to the white chair...
• Then what looks like a book shelf...
• Some clothes,
• Toys,
• And a mysterious wicker circle!!

And the squealing begins!

Upon closer inspection, the sale was just as good as I had first thought. I bought a basket-full of items both practical and decorative. But, as usual, the best blog photos are of the stuff I did not buy. Like this wickedly frightening clown doll:

God. Just looking at that thing makes me want to go to church tomorrow.

The second stop on our bnd.com itinerary was a sale at 5400 North Belt West. It sounded like an industrial address to me so I approached with suspicion. Sure enough, this sale was held in the parking lot of a local oil company. The relationship between Vogt Oil Co. and yardsales? Even oil moguls have to clean out their basements! We met the Vogt clan, hawking wares in their parking lot. Brilliant use of real estate, Ladies!

Another unconventional yardsaling venue was this weird place on a service road called "Service Rd." in Swansea.

They rented out tables to individual sellers. Was it a benefit of some sort? I don't know. They had a decent bake sale, thank God.

The merchandise was wildly varied: used DVDs, WW2 artifacts, new-in-box jewelry, housewares, and the usual assortment of mom jeans. I snapped a photo of these "choice rabbit pelts" just before their owner asked if I was from PETA. (I think we've met this guy before!)

I was taken aback by this extensive collection of Aunt Jamima kitchen accessories.

Seriously.

What is the current PC view on Aunt Jamima and her bald husband the butler? Forget PC... these are just stupid looking. I think I can confidently make a blanket statement, right here on the YSA blog, that no self-respecting home owner should ever outfit her kitchen with so much of one kitschy motif. This Aunt Jamima offender is almost as bad as the crazy watermelon lady we met at one sale who had thousands of dollars worth of watermelon paraphernalia for sale. Apparently she had redecorated her house and watermelons were out. The lingering question: with what did she replace all those watermelons? I suspect it was black and white cows.

Of course, the Swansea Improvement Center (whatever it is) had owls for sale. Always there are the owls. They haunt me.

Thanks for reading. Tune in next week for the end-of-summer Labor Day Lollapalooza! Let's hope for sun and a child-free shopping experience.

Nancy

old ladies being stingy (by Laura)

Readers, I feel I must explain my title. No, I am not mean-spirited or youth-elitist. I don't belong to some secret society that ascribes to weird notions such as mandatory suicide after a certain age. For some reason, at two different yard sales today in this tiny town I temporarily call home, we encountered proprieteresses of the extremely cheap kind. And for some reason, these frail, aged ladies were eager to glean every drop of coin out of their weary salers. I found an old twin sheet at one and asked the owner what she wanted. She replied "a dollar". $1? For a well-used sheet?
Anyway, here are some excellent clothes my mom found at an upscale sale in the Ogles neighborhood (the most confusing, circuitous neighborhood ever). It was run by a husband and wife team, who were no-nonsense. I offered $6 for a large amount of brand name clothes and books and the husband said, "We'll take it." He was in a moving-merchandise kind of mood.



Here we have an excellently retro clock found at the previously expounded-upon stingy old lady sale. They wanted $3; I talked them down to $2.



Also at the old peoples' sale I purchased this retractable clothesline now proudly sinking under the extreme weight of one cotton dress (purchased at the upscale Ogles sale). I was very excited about this purchase, as I have had my eye on one on Amazon, but of course it it way too pricey for me at 10 dollars plus shipping. I don't think I thought clearly about the holding-up factor of wet clothes.

Here is a sideways picture of a Where's Waldo puzzle, which I thought for sure would be the find of the day for my boys. Shows how much I know. No one touched it till hours after I brought it home.

(And if you are an old lady reading this, I love you. I really, really do.)

Back on the Beat

Do you hear that sound? It is the sound of silence filling my house on a school day.

Ahhhh.

Without smelly, summer-breaking children hanging on my sweaty limbs I was able to yardsale this morning with adults! Saralee, our most faithful reader, and Angie, Laura's mom (a YSA veteran having joined us every time she comes into town from her home in Florida) joined me for a brief jaunt through Belleville.

The best sale of the day was on S. Park. It was so good we almost attended twice, approaching from two different directions. My favorite purchase was this hand made ceramic pot, modeled below by the artist herself.

Saralee was puzzled by my enthusiastic squealing today. She couldn't discern why some sales make me yelp with excitement while others simply evoke a gasp. After much discussion, we were unable to identify the components of a sale that make me squeal with delight. Is it presentation? Quantity? The presence of old furniture? There is no formula, Sara. Some sales just call out, making me screech to a halt, while others whimper as I coast on by.

Angie was distracted today. She couldn't appreciate the sales properly because Laura texted and called her every three minutes. I swear. Her phone just kept beeping and ringing.

Text: Did U go 2 ardmore?

Angie: She wants to know if we went to Ardmore!

Text: Go 2 7900 Main St.

Angie: She says we should go to 7900 Main Street!

Text: Find NEthing good?

Angie: She wants to know if we found anything good!

We had to ask Angie to ask Laura why she was yardsaling in absentia instead of attending to her "rigorous nursing program" at SLU. To this Laura answered, "Tell thm 2 mind thr own bizness!"

The adventure was brief but included laughter, erratic driving, and QT. And really, that's all we need, right?

Tune in tomorrow... Devin returns!

Nancy

Housewifery Part 2

Our loyal reader, Sara, sent me the list below. Sara has a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM) friend, Susan, whose husband asked "What do you do all day?" Rather than fly off the handle, Susan began compiling a list of everything that needs to be done in their household. She surveyed the kids and the husband so the list would be as comprehensive as possible. The result is the following SAHM job description. I think these duties apply to most middle class American families. Some are done by the working spouse, some by helpful children, but most fall on the home-making spouse. (I have deleted Susan's category called "Paid Work" and edited the "Volunteer Projects" to make the list more general.)

Finances – checking credit card receipts to bills, checking EOBs to medical bills, paying bills, making deposits at the bank, balancing the checkbooks, filing, making sure fun $ is paid out

Laundry – collecting, washing, drying, folding, putting away, minor mending, cycling in/out clothes of different sizes and/or seasons, ironing, hanging up

Dishes – washing dishes, drying dishes (mostly passive), washing pots & pans, putting away

Cooking – preparing lunch & feeding it to the kids, cleaning up after it, preparing dinner, setting the table, putting away leftovers, rinsing out dishes, clearing the table and the highchair.

Lawn Care – mowing the grass, edging the yard, pulling weeds, trimming the bushes/branches, taking yard waste to street on Mondays, mulching leaves/shoveling snow when appropriate, taking care of the garden

Shopping – keeping the refrigerator and pantry stocked with food, planning ahead for meals, purchasing and putting away household necessities (toiletries, cleaning supplies, lightbulbs, etc.), purchasing additional clothing when necessary, staying stocked with diapers/wipes

Cleaning – dusting, vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, scrubbing (toilet/bath/sinks/counters), changing sheets & making beds, picking up toys & books, re-organizing, detail cleaning, taking out trash (to garage & to street), emptying recycling bins

Auto Maintenance – fueling up, arranging oil changes & other maintenance, washing exterior, cleaning & vacuuming interior

Child Care – playing, teaching, refereeing, disciplining, comforting, reading to, putting down for naps, exercising, feeding snacks to, changing diapers, bathing, dressing, arranging playdates, taking to doctor/dentist/immunization appts, patching up boo-boos, cutting hair, trimming finger/toenails

Correspondence/Gifts – postcards, birth announcements, phone call follow-ups (business & pleasure), sending out photos or news to family when necessary, taking phone messages and passing them on, ensuring we have gifts for necessary occasions (bdays, xmas, baby, weddings, etc.)

Coordinating – keeping both adults (and sometimes the kids, too) aware of current schedule for the day/week, figuring out transportation for all parties involved, arranging babysitters where needed

Holiday Extras – additional baking, decorating, correspondence, events

Extra Personal Projects – Family Calendar, Family Photos, Family Dinners/Birthday Dinners, Recording Projects

Volunteer Projects – Church, School, Neighborhood

Here are the two conclusions I made after reading Susan's uncannily thorough accounting of the responsibilities of my life:

1. My life is sort of a drag.

2. Yardsaling makes it more fun.

Thank you, Sara and Susan, for your insight.

The Hierarchy of Shopping

American commerce has come a long way since the days of pilgrims and indians trading pelts for maize. Thanks to Alexander Hamilton, who did something good in the 1700s which I don't actually remember, we have a standard US currency for effectively trading goods and services.

In modern America we spend this currency in a variety of ways. Different laws and social mores apply to each different trade scenario. Each has its own lingo and social status. Economists call it commerce. I call it shopping.

1. Houses and Cars - The purchase of freakishly expensive things like houses and cars blows my mind. It's not even like spending money. It's more like selling your soul. All I know is that I wake up every morning under this roof and every month I pay the bank a hefty sum. I have a faint hope that someday I will wake up under this roof and find that I own it outright. We call the hunt for these items "House Shopping" and "Car Shopping" so I felt compelled to include them at the top of the shopping hierarchy.
2. Home Parties/Direct Sales - I put this above Full Price Retail because, while similar, the Home Party shopping scenario involves it's own language and a degree of pressure not found in the standard retail environment. In the Home Party scenario, there is a "Hostess" who invites all her friends to a "Party" at her home. When they arrive they are wined and dined and exposed to a line of merchandise, some of which is displayed while the rest is promoted in a glossy catalog (sometimes called the "Catty".) The hostess may say repeatedly that there is no pressure to buy anything, but all the guests know that the hostess will "Earn" free merchandise based on their purchases and therefore can't help feeling obligated to make the party a robust shopping enterprise. Guests shop, pay full retail plus "Shipping & Handling", and try to eat and drink enough to make it feel like a genuine party. This system is sustained by the belief that someday each guest will take a turn as the hostess and reap the material rewards of the event.
3. Full Price Retail - This is basic shopping. You go to the store, select an item, pay the sticker price plus sales tax, and go on your way.
4. Retail Sales - While in the retail store you may find and purchase something with a reduced price. Savvy shoppers will seek out these items, sometimes buying in bulk to maximize saving while spending. This is referred to as "Spaving".
5. Antique Shops - These offer used merchandise in limited quantities. Most of this merchandise is also old, sometimes very old. In the US, very old merchandise is sometimes highly desirable. Slick antique marketers use the term "Vintage" to imply both old and cool. Other value-adding words are "Authentic" and "Original".
6. Flea Markets - Flea markets are the ugly sisters of antique shops. While they might offer some vintage, authentic, and original pieces, they also sell a lot of stuff that is just old and used. Or maybe new. They're really all over the place. I like flea markets. And usually they have food vendors selling funnel cakes and hot dogs. This is a nice added service.
7. Thrift Stores - Goodwill is the most obvious example of the thrift store model, but every town has a fair number of smaller thrift stores, their titles indicating the charities they benefit. My town is home to The Shelter Shop, Community Kindness, The Mission Store, Salvation Army, St. Francis's, Tapestry of Community Offerings, and others. Thrift stores rely on donated merchandise and donated time. They have regular business hours and overhead expenses like electricity and rent. They attempt to display their wares like retail stores but often have only decapitated mannequins and wobbly racks. They all have a certain smell - not a good one - that must come from the donated items which have previously been stored in damp basements. I have found that a thorough washing will remove this smell.
8. Garage Sales - Also called yardsales, rummage sales, stoop sales, and tag sales, depending on your part of the country. As you know, because you are a loyal reader of the YSA blog, these sales are isolated events held on private property. They are advertised in local newspapers and by cardboard signs posted on prominent street corners. They vary in quality. A "Good" sale will have a large selection of merchandise, low prices, an enthusiastic proprietess, and a cute kid selling brownies. A "Bad" sale will have only a few items, a grumpy seller, and a mean dog. This is, of course, our favorite form of shopping because it includes research, planning, map reading, precision driving, rummaging, negotiating, hauling, and sometimes wrestling.
9. Garbage Picking - Sometimes called "Dumpster Diving", this is currency-free shopping. The rules for garbage picking are loose, but it is generally accepted that anything dirty-looking placed within 3 feet of the curb is free for the taking. Some people feel more confident asking permission from the home owner before loading the desired garbage into their car but this is not required.
10. Look in Your Basement for Something you Forgot you Already Owned - This is self-explanatory. This form of shopping if both free and easy. It requires very little effort and no gasoline. You likely have a whole bunch of stuff in your basement that you forgot you had. Go rummage through your own storage area and see if you can rekindle any long lost feelings of desire for the stuff you once felt compelled to purchase. If it doesn't stir your inner shopper, throw it in your car and haul it to Goodwill. I'll check it out later.

That's commerce in a nutshell, Readers. Shop on!

Nancy