Before We Sell a Single Spoon
If you’ve never had an estate sale before, you’re probably imagining strangers wandering through your home asking, “How much for the lamp?” while you’re still trying to decide whether Aunt Margaret’s teapot is staying or going.
Relax. That’s not how we do it.
One of the biggest surprises for clients is that our first job isn’t pricing things. It’s understanding your story Every successful estate sale begins long before the doors open. It starts with a conversation.
In our most recent sale, we had a number of meetings, calls, and texts as the couple decided what they were taking to Portugal and what was going to be sold. It was an emotional journey after 20 years in one house for the both of them.
Which pieces are staying with the family?
What absolutely cannot disappear?
What was hidden in the back of a cupboard twenty years ago and forgotten ever since?
We’ll walk through the home together, identify what’s being sold, what’s staying, and what should be removed before we begin. Personal documents, medications, family photographs and sentimental keepsakes all need to find a safe home before we start transforming the property into a retail space. We usually keep some areas private for you to stuff your “must-keeps”
And you may be shocked what will sell and what won’t. People will buy used cleaning supplies but will often turn down grandma’s beautiful crystal bowl unless it’s by a super famous maker. I have seen people fighting over a garbage can and walk past a display cabinet that twenty years ago would have sold for thousands.
You don’t need to organize everything perfectly before we arrive. In fact, it’s better if you don’t. Honestly, if everyone did that we’d be out of a job.
Our role is to make sense of collections, create order from decades of living and develop a plan that allows buyers to easily find what they’re looking for.
Every home has its own personality.
Some are elegant.
Some are eclectic.
Some are… delightfully confusing.
And that’s exactly what makes estate sales fun.
Next week we’ll show you how a lived-in home becomes a shop people actually want to browse.