Estate Sale Tips – Where to Shop

Estate Sales can be the source of your best decorating items especially if you love the farmhouse or rustic look. For those who love Buffy’s decorating style, you know that she loves a good estate sale and has figured out how to find the best stuff.  Pretty much every awesome find in her home has come from an estate sale or thrift store. When we see her gorgeous finds we think she’s lucky and happens to be in the right place at the right time. But the truth is she’s spent years learning to shop estate sales and buy items that other people aren’t collecting (yet) at great prices, or buying items that are highly sought after but buys them at a steal.  This is a two-part article so be sure to read Estate Sales – How to Shop.

Know the difference between an estate sale and a garage sale

Garage Sales: Great if you have kids and are looking for children’s clothing, toys, etc. If you are looking to upcycle dated furniture you might find what you’re looking for. But chances of finding anything of value may not be worth your time.

Estate Sales:  Estate sales happen after someone passes away or as elderly people opt to downsize.  It’s a way for the family to liquidate whatever items are left from their loved one.  Often, you’ll find antiques, furniture, china, collectibles, clothing and quite often pieces of the family home (windows, mantels, banister, etc.) at estate sales. Great possibilities for home decorating.

Know where to find Estate Sales

Estatesales.net is the best advertiser of estate sales nationwide.  You can enter your zip code to get an email of where estate sales will be in your area or you can go to the site and click on your area each week.  Estatesales.net also has an app. You can choose TODAY, TOMORROW, and 7-DAYS.  This APP is great for when you’re traveling and just might want to hit a sale or two.

Craigslist.com has listings for “antiques” but also lists “estate sales”.  Be careful because some people will list as an estate sale but when you get there it’s really just a garage sale – a large-scale sale but still just a lot of junk. Not everyone has the budget to list with Estatesales.net or the local newspaper so they use Craigs. Finding Estate Sales on craigslist.com is easy but be sure to click where it says “NEWEST” at the top of the page so you get sales that are happening THIS weekend not ones that are over.

Local Paper: Be sure to look in the classified ads for local estate sales.

Driving Around:  Sometimes you’re out wandering around and happen to see an Estate Sale sign. Stop and see what they have.

As you choose your sales think about where they are located and shop the oldest neighborhoods first.  Often the family’s last name will be listed and if you know they are long-time residents of the area that’s where you want to go! Our hometown of Wenatchee is surrounded by hundreds of miles of fruit orchards and as the old-timers pass away their orchard homes become a wonderful source of decorating items.

Our niece Chelsie and her husband Mark recently purchased 58 old blue mason jars for $50!  (Yes, we are coveting them.)  They found the blue jars by scouring photos of items for sale at an estate sale about 25 miles from their home. Don’t assume what you want to buy is already gone.  Mark’s dad made the trip on the second day of the sale to get them. Paydirt!

Have a plan and know what you are looking for

Scour the ads by looking at the photos and description and make a list of items you are interested in.  If you are going to more than one sale on a given day you may need to prioritize the sales you plan to visit. Use your intuition regarding older neighborhoods not necessarily rich areas but older sections of your city. Be sure to write down the full address and the items you’re looking for. You can type the addresses into your GPS so you don’t get lost. (Not that we’ve ever gotten lost roaming the countryside …)  Apps like GoogleMaps can be programmed for multiple locations but you still need to put addresses in order of importance.

So now you know where to find great Estate Sales and how to prepare.  Part 2: Estate Sales – How to Shop will share tips on what to do once you are at the sale.  Click here to read more: Estate Sales – How to Shop