BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Budget Decor Off-season flea markets

If you are used to visiting outdoor flea markets and yard sales, that time of year is soon coming to a close in many areas because of cold weather.

What do you do to feed your flea market itch? Visit indoor markets? Antique shops? Craft fairs? Scour the newspaper for bargains?

Donna

We aren't fortunate to have cold weather markets or sales. I guess I just look forward to early summer and the garage sales!

I have a weakness for antiques, I love things like that however my house is stuffed to overflowing. Between what I inherited from my family AND what I have purchased, I am having to do a clear out.

Here in Florida its just the weather now that people WANT to have garage sales and such. Its starting too cool down enough so that getting up in my attic is actually posible now. Our neighborhood is organzing a HUGE one where people can come to our neighborhood and find several families who have a garage sale going on. I had been cleaning out to set things out for it, checking what things were selling on Ebay for to make sure I didn't sell something that was actually worth something for too cheap.

We have a nice little town called Mount Dora near us, they have some very nice antique malls when I need a fix, I go out there to soak up the atmosphere AND of course find something new and wonderful to bring home. Last time I was there I found these sterling silver charms that were flags, on the front the picture was done in enamel, I got one of Disneyland, one of Texas, one of Ireland, and I can't remember them all, I got 6. I have a collection of charms so they went really well AND they didn't take up much room like something bigger would.

A neighborhood garage sale sounds wonderful! Our town does a city wide one and you can stop at a convienience store for a map of the houses that are participating.

I have a charm bracelet I got when I was 15. My gramma would buy me new charms every year at Christmas. I still have it.

Hmmm...I'm wondering how long it would take me to get from VA to FL. Unloading an attic full of antiques! Wow!

I would love to buy every antique that I find, but just can't fit them, either. They'd end up in the basement where no one would appreciate them. But, I just love old furniture.

Donna

I don't have any old furniture to sell but I am selling alot of old porcelain and glass. I was taking some of it out of the attic just yesterday hoping that it would really sell for the garage sale and I wouldn't have to put it back up there.

Since I wrote last, I have been digging things out of where I put them away and my Dining room table is now FULL of dishes and glassware. I havne't even gotten all the boxes out of my attic yet.

I am SO hoping I get rid of most of it, I don't want to pack it all up again. The garage sale we are having is going to be both Saturday and Sunday.

Good luck with your sale Lisa, I hope that you can get rid of all your dishes and ect. This summer when we were cleaning out the basement and decided to do some major decluttering I did take some of my stuff to a local antique store (but she is more a lower end and has stuff like books and some arts and crafts supplies) and she let me trade for stuff. I thought it worked out great and I got rid of a bunch of stuff without having to throw it out.

Good luck with your yard sale, Lisa! I'm not sure you realize you are talking to a mosaic artist who lives for dishes? LOL I don't usually tell sellers (of dishes)that tho, bec it scares them away. Altho, I'm not sure why since they don't want them anymore. But, those that know and who have seen my creations realize they get more use in their new life as my mosaics then when they were stored away in boxes. Anyway...just said all that to say I'm still salivating over your yard sale! LOL

Connie - that trade idea sounds like a good one. Not everyone is willing to do that these days, but it is nice when it works out.

I'm hoping to clear out our basement this fall/early winter before it gets too cold, but after all the creepy bugs have gone into hibernation. My son came across a spider the size of the palm of his hand crawling across the living room sofa while he was watching t.v. My daughter and husband were in the room and saw it, too. They never told me until the next day. Shudder. I'm sure that thing crawled up from the basement. We live in the woods, so I know they are down there. As you can tell, I'm not a fan. Uh uh. Nope.

Donna

I think mosiacs are awesome. Everytime something gets broken I save the pieces because one of these days I want to make some mosiacs on stepping stones with tile mastik and grout.

I don't care what people do with it as long as they pay me honestly. Anything that I am sentimentaly attached to, I have kept. I have some kind of dishes displayed in just about every room. My Mom collected different kinds, in my office which is light pink and sage green, I have the dishes which have roses on them. The orienal things are in my living room. My blue and white Spode is in the Dining room. I actually have three china cabinets.

I am going to take pictures of it all and try to post them. I need to create a photobucket account and upload pictures.

Donna, we found a dead scorpion in our basement the other day. We have seen a few since we moved here, but luckily only one that was alive. I hope there aren't any more alive ones down there! The tarantulas are out here. You see them on the highway and I always try to avoid them. I would think creating something new with cast-off pieces would be wonderful. The dishes get a second life.

Lisa, we all chipped in and bought my mom a Spode tea set for Christmas last year. It has a huge tray that everything goes on. I do have a soft spot for white and blue. Hubby's mom gave me 2 platters that were his g-grandmothers. On is a flow blue oval and the other has a oriental design on it. I have both of them in my china cabinet.

Did you have your garage sale yet Lisa?

Connie - scorpions - ugh. Tarantulas - AAAAAAACK!

Lisa, I was also wondering how your yard sale went.

I want to make stepping stones, too. I think mosaics in a yard are so pretty.

I also love blue and white dishes. Also blue and yellow. I have about a dozen or so blue & yellow and blue and white Spode dishes that I'm thinking of using as a ceiling border in our foyer. I keep all my dining dishes displayed on open shelves so that I can enjoy their color. I collect 3 patterns, so have a mix of colors, but mostly blue and yellow and pink.

Donna

The entire neighborhood is having a yard sale, it will be on November 16 and 17 if memory serves.

They are going to put some ads in papers and make up the signs, having it be the entire neighborhood will bring MORE people in and I hope to get rid of most of my things.

I will let you know and maybe take some pictures of it to show as well.

I have my Spode in a china cabinet but I have other dishes that I hang on the wall, some of the dishes that look like Spode but are pink instead of the blue and white and some older things that I want to use for display only. I LOVE the idea of hanging plates and platters on the wall, it makes a nice change from flat boring pictures.

A whole neighborhood yard sale sounds like so much fun...too bad I am in Oklahoma!

I collect a green transferware pattern...something about Dickens. I can't remember right now. I had found a piece of broken tea cup in our garden area. Our garden area was where they used to burn the trash. I looked online for weeks until I figured out the pattern of that tea cup. I thought it would be neat to own something like what the original owners used.

I have a set of small plates, I think they are Currier and Ives and are 4 seasons. I had bought a wrought iron plate rack for 3 other plates I have (same size) and when I got it home the rack was too big for these plates! I really like the way they look in the plate rack. I guess I will just have to buy some plate hangers and hang the other four.

That whole neighborhood yard sale sounds great. There are lots of yard/garage sales going on in my neighborhood, still. I'm surprised as I don't remember them going into Nov in past years - too cold, usually.

Connie, I like your idea of having some dishes similar to the previous owners.


Donna

There were a few garage sales last weekend in the town 10 miles from us but it was really cold! I think it was in the 40s. We just went on by and didn't even think about stopping.

I am staggered by the way people were buying today. I sold $556 worth of stuff today, $200 was for a generator, the rest for just stuff I would have given to goodwill rather then keep in the house.

I sold CDs for $1.00 each
Books for .50 cents each
I had alot of milk glass which I sold most of, thank goodness.

I still have tomorrow and I imagine it might be even busier. I only slept about 3 hours last night so I am SO tired. I will let you know how it goes tomorrow.

Congratulations! Sounds like your sale was a sucess. Do you have much stuff left?

We did really well, I sold somewhere between $600-700 over both days. I do have some things left. I think I am going to list a couple bigger items in the penny saver and have another garage sale later on. I have a few things left in the attic I didn't get down but I got rid of a BUNCH of stuff.

Some guy came today and bought every CD I had left which was 27 of them. I have more CDs but they weren't in their cases so I was planning on putting them back and selling those as well. I burn CDs myself now, I can pack 5-6 albums on one CD so I don't really use the regular store bought CDs anymore.

I am finding that here the hard core garage sale people turn out on Friday, they showed up by 7am yesterday. Today was slow, they just sort of trickled in.

My Mother is a hoarder and I have those tendencies, to buy things I have NO use for. I am fighting it and when I get rid of stuff, I feel so relieved. Its a strain to deal with all that mess. Alot of what didn't sell is going into boxes in the attic and wait for the next garage sale. There were some things I put out just too see if it would sell, things I can still use so those are no big deal.

It was so funny, I had a set of mounted longhorns that I really didn't want to keep, they were sitting out and a woman driving a Mercedes SUV drove up and wanted to buy them, I was so glad to get rid of them.

Sounds like you did very well. What are your plans for all your money?

My daughter who is growing like a weed needed some new clothes so I spent some on that and the rest will probably be on Christmas presents. Maybe a little to catch up on bills.

I plan on doing another one, more then likely in December in the hopes of getting rid of the rest of the stuff.

Lisa, your yard sale sounds like it went very well. I don't have the patience for them myself. I'm more likely to give it away or trash it. I have fun visiting them, though. Not always a good thing! LOL

Speaking of hoarders, did anyone see the show on Oprah last week about the woman whose 3,000 sf house was filled with 75,000 tons of stuff. I felt bad for her. She is a shopaholic and had filled her house over 10 years with so much stuff they couldn't really function in it. They had to rip up all the carpeting and throw out all the upholstered furniture because of mold.

But, after the clean out, it was redecorated and looked so spacious and beautiful.

Just got me thinking how too much clutter can ruin our lives!

Donna

I feed my need with a voracious eBay habit...I have yet to find any good antique store around here...one I had wanted to check out, but got around to just closed up shop!

Back home in NH I had a regular round of places I went too. In Northwood NH they actually have what is refered to as the Antique Mile. and the whole stripp is virtually nothing but...including one that deals exclusively with books and another with farm/automotive.