Friday, March 2, 2012

Estate Sales ~ Answering Questions

A little before Buddy was born I had been taking more of your questions and I was just reminded that I still haven't answered all of them.

I would love to be able to attend an Amish estate sale but somehow I never find out about them until after the fact. Do you have any advice on how to get a notice of any estate sales?

The Amish are as a whole very sentimental. Often when someone dies their things are divided among the family. Any estate sales will be private with only family being invited. Occasionally a friend will be there to be the auctioneer or serve as moral support but they would never bid on or buy anything.

Any money raised on that day would then be used to pay any unpaid bills left by the deceased. The rest would be divided evenly among the deceased's children.

Part of the reason things bear so much sentimental value is because there wasn't an overload of things and living by the motto: Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without applied to almost everything. Like the toys we played with at our grandparents house were the same toys our parents used to play with and by the time all sixty grandchildren have grown up there are hundreds of happy memories attached to each item.

The same goes for all the furniture, dishes, books, and tools. No stranger could possibly appreciate those items like the family will and so things keep getting passed down and cherished until they are used up and worn out.

4 comments:

  1. It doesn't appear to be that way in southern Maryland. They often have sales there.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Happyone, I'm guessing they are either moving sales or benefit auctions. Not estate sales.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm just catching up with your last few posts ~ love the picture of your reception room from the wedding. If your reader is looking for an estate sale, I think you're right with the auction or moving sales. When we were at the auction for the schools in Bowling Green (MO) there were big things, but LOTS and lots of smaller, home-like things. And if you wanted a few cast iron skillets, they'd always throw extra things into the boxes, like little creamers, or plates or whatever. It was a good place to get a lot of things really reasonably.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I used to go with my Mother to estate sales. I go to the occasional yard sale now days and thrift shop. :-)

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for taking time to comment. I love hearing your thoughts.