Trash or Treasure?

 

Don't throw anything away!

 

No, really! You've heard the old adage "One man's trash is another man's treasure"! This is never more true than in the estate sale business! Let your estate sale company worry about what is trash and what is not.

 

We've had many clients tell us that they "cleaned up a bit" before calling us. It's just like throwing away money! Real "trash" can be thrown out later. Don't take a chance - let the professionals decide what's trash and what is not.

 

People collect things for a variety of reasons - or sometimes they're just looking to replace an old favorite of their own or to make a repair by finding a missing piece. Remember - if it's REALLY trash, it can always be thrown away later. First, let's see how much "trash" we can turn into "cash"! Here's an incomplete list of a items that you may not realize DO have (sometimes considerable!) value:

• old postcards

• old greeting cards

• old letters

• old photos

• old magazines, catalogs, books, pamphlets, manuals

• clothing - new or old

• linens (including tablecloths, doilies, crochet work or needlepoint (even unfinished!), towels, sheets, bedding, etc)

• household supplies (half-used cleaners, half-used shampoos, bleach, open laundry detergents, leftover paint, you get the idea)

• household items (matchbooks, pillows, swizzle sticks, pocket knives, kitchen knives & flatware, pots & pans, candlesticks, salt & pepper shakers, sewing items, old fabric, yarn (new or old), patterns (new & old), thread, etc)

• old desk accoutrements (staplers, penknives, pens, pencils, stationery, stamps)

• record albums, 8-track tapes, and players for both

• Old food packaging (cereal boxes, cans, milk bottles, Hershey's cocoa, etc)

• old appliances - working or not

• old ledgers, bills, documents, old trophies

• old tools, planters, patio furniture, broken old furniture, dolls, toys, you name it!

 

Something to keep in mind -- estate sale professionals have seen it all before. Please do not worry about the house being "a mess". Experience has taught us to look past that and see the value in even the smallest, overlooked items. Estate sales are the ultimate recycling project -- those well-loved and oft-used items in your home will go on to provide someone else with use and/or beauty for many years to come.

 

We've found over the years that, although a house full of antiques and fine art is NICE, in most homes it's the cumulative value of hundreds of small items that make up much of the estate - those 50c to $10 sales really add up! Heck - we've even sold balls of rubber bands that the homeowner had accumulated over many years! Almost everything has some value to someone out there.

 

And one last story to help you understand WHY you should not throw anything away - at an estate sale conducted in 2006, we were able to "rescue" approx four large black trash bags full of stuff that the family had deemed "trash" and had sitting on the back porch ready to toss in the trash bin. In these bags were hundreds of old photos, postcards, letters, greeting cards, newspapers, stamps, historical papers and even the very first program from Disneyland's opening day. We estimated the total sold value of that "trash" to be approx $3400. Don't make the same mistake, DON'T THROW ANYTHING AWAY!

 

So sayeth Kristine, estate sale company founder

 

Above All Estate Sale Company