Tag Archives: house

Rummage 2012: the thrill of the hunt

I have inherited this penchant called ‘thrifting.’ It boils down to this: I love finding something second hand for a good price–and not just that, but I also kind of enjoy having to search through a bunch of undesirable stuff to find it. Thrifting is the grown-up version of a treasure hunt!

Of course, I shall try to keep this penchant tame like a kitty-cat, to be used only when we need something. Because it could seriously get out of control if I let go of the reins. But so far, so good! This year, I not only pre-purged before the big sale, but I also went in with a list and searched very intentionally for the things I had determined I wanted/needed.

Monday evening, I headed up to Winnetka to join the ladies:

The always fabulous Mama Kitty . . .

. . . my cousin June, nurse extraordinaire and mother of two darn cute ones . . .

. . . her older sister, the assertive action-woman that is Eleanor (acting bashful here for whatever reason–but don’t let that fool you) . . .

. . . the fun-loving lawyer, landlord and roller derby queen Emily . . .

. . . my cousin-in-law and blonderrific mother of 3, Kristen . . .

. . . the high-energy English PhD, Aunt Jacquie . . .

. . . and Wild Woman! (otherwise known as Pat)

In a fur apron. Don’t ask questions.

We had 3 hotel rooms booked for the week, and I was able to take some time off from work and spend Monday and Tuesday night with the crew.

Monday evening, all day Tuesday, and all day Wednesday, we worked with the other volunteers at the community center to prepare for the massive sale day on Thursday, and enjoyed the privileges of shopping pre-sale accorded to volunteers who work at least 10 hours.

Each night after the work and hardcore shopping, we reconvened for dinner . . .

(looks like I was feeling very intense about those sweet potato fries)

. . . and then spent the evening (into the night) together in one of the hotel rooms going through our purchases, munching on chocolate, tossing around clothes for each other to try on . . .

. . . and organizing our finds.

Like this pillow!

And this tiny tea set, destined for little girls at play:

Or, to give you more perspective on the sheer amount of Rummage finds that 8 determined women can bring home in a day, all of this stuff, heh heh.

It was an exhausting blast.

The very first night, a red tank top was being tossed around. Kristen tried it on and dismissed it as a little too risqué, but I tried it on and loved it. I added it to my pile, not realizing that June (the finder of the top) hadn’t even had a chance to try it on (this is one of the risks of haphazard piles of clothes in a room with 8 women). Soon I realized that I would never live down the red shirt incident, and that June would hold this shirt over my head until we were on our dying beds. I tried to entice her to try it on and take it, but she preferred to hold onto the power of goading me about it forever (sigh).

My salvation came when I was blissfully going through some racks of shirts and found the exact same shirt. Exact same color. Exact same size. I promptly purchased it.

And peace reigneth on earth.

Amidst all the fun and work and busy running about, I proceeded to totally fail to take any pictures at the actual Rummage sale. I wanted to take tons of shots to show you how massive it is, how beyond the scope of anything I ever imagined, and give you an idea of how much work goes into pulling it off.

But then . . . I forgot. So you’ll just have to refer to last year’s post to see some shots of the space, and content yourselves with pictures of us in the hotel room with our massive haul.

June and Kristen found awesome stuff for their kids!

Eleanor fed her two obsessions: bowls . . .

. . . and cut crystal.

In fact, there was a desperate moment in which the hotel’s fire alarm started sounding its jangly tune, and Eleanor quickly debated which pieces of cut crystal simply had to be saved from the fire that was about to consume all our belongings.

Thankfully, the fire alarm stopped shortly after it started, the front desk confirmed that everything was a-okay, and the tough cut crystal decision never had to be made after all.

Next week (yes, I’m taking my sweet time), I’ll share my finds with you all! Get ready for a massive trip down Shopping Lane . . .

The big pre-Rummage + pre-John purge

I’ve been delaying a little on the tales of this year’s gigantic Rummage sale up in Winnetka, and the beautiful haul of stuff I brought back with me, but before diving in I have to talk about the purging that happened right beforehand.

The last time we officially purged our apartment was back in January, and it was time to have another go-’round for two reasons:

1) Rummage was coming up and I needed to practice the “out with the old” part before the “in with the new” hit us hard.

2) My brother-in-law John was about to move in with us for the summer, necessitating an emptying/reorganizing effort in the 2nd bedroom.

My mom always used to say that guests are a great excuse to get organized and to clean, and I concur. If John hadn’t come, who knows how long some of this stuff may have stuck around, generally loitering in a useless sort of fashion? But John came, and the stuff was put into its proper place: bags destined to be carried out the door!

There’s no feeling like walking old stuff out the door–it’s like winning a race.

Not that I’ve ever won a race . . . the whole ‘running’ thing never clicked for me. But it’s what I imagine winning a race might feel like.

Anyway! Our first mission was to clear out half of the closet I use. Remember when I color-coordinated it earlier this year? This is what it looked like:

The right hand half, destined for John’s use, housed a ton of my clothes and at least three guitars. Everything needed to find a new place. Time to make a big pile on the futon!

I love big piles on the futon. There’s no better way to feel instantly productive than to yank a lot of stuff off hangers and throw it about.

Over the course of an evening (make that two) I purged a good amount of clothing, and put into storage (i.e. large plastic boxes inna stack) anything that was too wintry and heavy for the warm season, and anything I didn’t think my pregnant self could fit into for much longer.

Of course, we had to create this clothing storage space by purging what was already in other boxes. We opened two of uncertain contents and found . . .

. . . a horse!

Goodbye, beautiful plastic horse that I loved for so many years.

My husband headed up this box-emptying effort, getting only slight distracted . . .

. . . by a tiny guitar.

That’s a keeper–it’s just the right size for my American Girl Doll. Who (and whose possessions) shall not be touched by The Purge. I have decreed it.

This purging amnesty also extended to the little box of American-Girl-doll-sized food that I made with my own two hands many, many years ago. Tiny pizza!

Tiny apple!

Tiny . . .

oh wait! It’s my old glasses from 2nd grade. Let’s see how they fit . . .

. . . just right!

They give a wonderful yellow tinge to the area around my eyes, which looks quite attractive, eh?

Not. Into the trash with ye!

Then there was an old jewelry box from Portugal that I used to think was the most beautiful thing in the world . . .

. . . but has been broken for ages. Time to go, sweet sweet jewelry box.

Next up was the project of housing of all our DVD’s in binders, to clear the shelf. My husband manned this effort solo. Great job, honeybunches!

And the purging of our TV! Into the alley, for some foraging person to find.

At this point, the closet looked more like this:

Slowly but surely, we were getting somewhere.

Then the bags were taken to the alley:

This was our first purging session. A second one happened a few weeks later, culminating in at least that much stuff going out the door again (though sadly, Haul #2 was not photographed by yours truly).

And by the end, John’s room looked like this:

And the closet, like this:

. . . with a closet organizer (a sneak peak of one of my Rummage finds).

Soon, tales of the “in with the new” part of things!

Well, let’s make that ‘soon-ish’ so that no one gets antsy waiting.