When Martha and I decided to sell our house and move to Wesley Willows we wondered what we were going to do with all the stuff we had accumulated over the years. We were moving from a 2500 square foot house plus a finished half basement to a 1700 square foot duplex. The house had four bedrooms and the new place two. Oh my gosh I forgot about the attic which had old baby furniture, sleds, snow tires, toys, trophies, and who knows what. Due to my inability to climb up there and get things out, my friend Leo came and did the climbing for me. It was all brought down and almost filled the garage.
I had a very well-equipped shop in the basement with a radial arm saw and a lot of power equipment. Martha had tons of dishes and knickknacks around the house. I had closets of sporting equipment. So we told the kids to come and take anything from the house, no questions asked. The result of this was Stacey took two pieces of crystal.
I began to calculate how much it was going to cost us to have the majority of it hauled away. Leo suggested we get a hold of Salvage by Sonya, and outfit that does estate sales. They took a week out of lives to inventory and price everything we wanted to get rid of. Then there was a day of sale, followed by a day of half off, followed by a day of haul it away. In the end we received a nice check for Sonya and the house was ready for sale.
A friend of mine asked how much Sonya charged. I replied 40%. He gasped and made some comment. I told him to try and duplicate their services having his own garage sale. After he thought about it, he called Sonya.
I was surprised that our 1940s Lionel electric train in the boxes, our Fiesta ware, and Wurlitzer piano brought so little, and my Samurai sword brought so much. Times have changed.
