The 'Berryhill' Sale

I entered an estate sale with a couple of friends of mine who actually make a living hosting estate sales.  We had decided we would go junking on Fridays; estate sales, garage sales and junk stores just to entertain ourselves, but today we get first hand before the estate sale.  So we enter this estate sale with anticipation, but, once we got in, we saw the enormous amount of stuff this family had.  Walls and walls full of things, loot stacked to the brim on everything in sight, junk leaned up in stacks against the walls, beds overloaded with piles of... stuff.  Nooks and crannies had items in it - there were years of collections stuffed EVERY where!

Most estate sales are very organized, well priced and it's easy to access all the items.  It was obvious to my friends and I that this person was a hoarder and even though everything had been sorted, cleaned and priced, there was entirely too much to be able to display it nicely in this very small home.  

Each room we strolled through got deeper and deeper. Customers were having 'cheek talks' to get around each other.  At one point, I looked at my friend and thanked her for not taking and having THIS sale.  We laughed about that sale for the next month or two. 

On one Friday, I picked her up and she was unusually quiet.  She kept looking sheepishly at me, until she finally said, "I need to take you to Berryhill".  Come to find out, 'Berryhill' was the sale she had accepted the day before.  So she took me to Berryhill.  

Let me back up a bit;  she has been in business for 40 years doing estate sales and she was my mom's best friend.  Since I am near her, she asked if I would be interested helping out.  As my energy allows (it mostly doesn't), I go to her newest estate sale and help (?) organize for it for the upcoming sale. 

I was not prepared.  Her daughter was not prepared.  Browsing through the top floor, it was a piece of cake.  They (we?) could easily whip it out in no time. 

Ha!  Then we went downstairs...

It is actually pretty fun going through other people's loot, however, this latest - "the Berryhill sale" - was overwhelming!  It is quite a (hoarders) challenge.  


Here is what we were faced with going in:

Two floors, two outdoor patios and one barn chock full of STUFF.  

Yes, she had taken the job.  As I said, I try to help, but until I get to Bethesda and find out what I need to know, I have not forced myself beyond what I feel like doing.  Until then, I go when I feel like it, whip through one itsy, bitsy pile or corner and pray I never hoard things like this woman has done.

I cannot even get IN to take pictures in most of the rooms!

Yes, the lady who has this house is still alive.  She is 92. I figure she has been hording for 72 of those years in this very house.  Yes, she still comes in to see what we have uncovered.  And yes she still takes some to her new home - which is a problem since the ones HOSTING the sale have uncovered mounds of stuff, cleaned it, cleaned the room, set it all up to look wonderful for the sale - and then the owner comes in and takes this - and that - and that - and this... yet WE have done all the work, so the money earning items she has taken takes away from the percentage the estate sale seller could earn.

Thankfully her daughter brings most of it back.

And we laugh about it being my fault my friend accepted this sale, because I started it that fateful day by saying, "Thank you for not taking this sale!"  I challenged her and -

She did.  

Only worse.

'We' hope to have the sale ready by May 1st.

I think it may be a pipe dream.

It will definitely be a challenge.

Challenge accepted.  

And blamed on me.  Lol...