Sunday, June 21, 2009

Goodies at the Garage Sale

I've never been much into garage sales. I've been to a few, and I always feel weird walking up to someones house and looking at their stuff. Most of it was junk anyway, and then I feel like I have wasted my time.

My sister and I have had 3 garage sales. One at her old house in Dearborn, one in Concord, and one in Kalamazoo. They are a lot of work. Especially since I've had to haul my stuff to a different location each time. I like the sale day though, because it feels like I have my own store. I love to watch the different people that show up and see what they choose to buy. The most recent one we had in Kalamazoo, it rained for most of the morning and we only had the sale for 1 day. I only made $130.00 dollars and I had a van full of stuff to bring home.
Some other houses in my sisters neighborhood had some sales, and when it was slow, I wandered over to them. I scored this mirror for $7.00 bucks!
I've always loved painting old furniture, so when I found this dresser in my dad's office, I hauled it home and went to work.
And here it is after.


So, I got this idea, that this summer I would find some cheap furniture at garage sales, paint it and sell it. I need a hobby and I need some money. I can work on the furniture in the garage while the kids play, or at night after they are in bed.

This past weekend, my mom and I headed to Grass Lake for the community garage sale to find some furniture. I've only been to Grass Lake one other time, so we didn't know exactly where to go. We drove around stopping at the ones we saw. I didn't find much furniture which was a bummer, but I did find some other goodies. Like this:


It's a castle and tunnel from Ikea, that I scored for $10.00. I also got a Richard Scarry book for .75 cents, two soccer goal nets for .50 cents, and this cute plate for .50 cents.

It's all luck in what you find, and you have to be fast. There were a ton of people looking for treasures to buy. I was trying to decide if I should buy this beautiful antique trunk that was only $20.00 and before I had a chance to buy it, it was gone. They only bad part about garage sales are you come home with more stuff. I spent the last couple weeks going through my junk and getting rid of stuff, only to haul more back in. But it is so cheap, you can't pass it up, and you never know what you are going to find! That is the best part. And when I go to sell this stuff again, I won't care that I only sold it for a quarter, because I only paid fifty cents anyway!

What are some garage sale goodies you have found?

3 comments:

Nicole said...

I LOVE garage sales too! Anytime you need a garage sale buddy, call me up!!

Your dresser looks amazing. I love repainting furniture also. I have quite a bit of antique furniture in our house that I've "updated" by painting (typically, black) and adding new hardware. Now that I think of it... I think every room in our house has some piece of repainted antique furniture LOL!

Great idea to snatch them up cheap and ugly, repaint and resell! Recently I refinished the top of our antique dining room table and it looks AMAZING. Granted, its just the top (its a Duncan Phyfe, so there are intricate details on the legs... too much for me to attempt to sand and refinish), but just having the top all resurfaced, shiny and new makes it look like a million bucks!!

Chrystal said...

You did such a great job on the dresser!

The Knoll Family said...

The dresser looks awesome. What type of paint did you use? Did you strip the old paint or paint over it? I have an old desk I want to paint this summer, so your advice will help a lot!