03 March 2012

Garage Sailing

When I was little I loved going to garage sales on the weekends and seeing what treasures I could find. We used to hold a garage sale about once every year or so with our neighbours which was a lot of fun. I'd get really excited about setting up my own table and selling my books and toys for 20c to $1 each. Some of the smaller bits and pieces I would wrap up and put in a lucky dip box. And of course I loved counting up all my loose coins and seeing how much I had made at the end of the day :)

Since the emergence of op shops, we haven't really been to many garage sales. When we do, they all seem to be selling either kid's or baby stuff and can be a little disappointing in comparison to what you can find in op shops now. Every now and then though we do strike a good one, like today (while on the way to the op shop haha). The owner was moving house and had held another four garage sales prior to this one. I really wish we had known earlier because he was a vintage collector and it was like garage sale gold! I can only imagine the great furniture and other items we could have picked up, but we were still lucky enough to come away with a few things :)


The first thing we spied was this sweet floral hat. There were a couple others but I really liked the colour and arrangement of the flowers and netting on this one. I would love to find an old hat stand to hang this and some colourful coats on. I also found this old story book with cute fairyland creatures on the front. It reminds me of the Shirley Barber books I used to read when I was little.


There were lots of little knickknacks to rummage through and we came up with some old keys, a small black and gold bag, an Avon cream perfume jar and atomiser, and an old set of paints from the 1950s. The owner gave us the wooden tray to hold everything in while we looked around and he ended up throwing it in for nothing which was nice.


I ummed and ahhed about this old biscuit tin but decided to take it in the end to use for keeping in the laundry to store clothes pegs (plus everything was cheap as chips but I shall get to that soon). I wish biscuits still came in cute tins like this :)


And of course, how could I resist these colourful drinking glasses? They'll go nicely with my growing collection (here and here).


Finally, my favourite find was this nifty wooden deer which is actually a salt and pepper shaker! The pepper goes in the head which comes apart from the neck (a little morbid perhaps!), and the salt goes in the body.

The best part is that all of these finds came to a grand total of $8. The owner mentioned that he may have another sale before moving at the end of the month, so we might pop back another weekend. Whatever he doesn't sell is going in a big skip out the front, which is a bit sad because there were lots of lovely old children's books, bags and kitchen knickknacks still left.

Have you been to any good garage sales lately, or maybe held your own? I would love to hear your stories :)

15 comments:

  1. Great finds and such a good deal too! I only go to ones that advertise vintage but even then half of those never have good stuff. I've been to an amazing sale this year, a house clearance of someone who never threw anything old away.

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    1. That would've been amazing! I think I will end up being one of those people :| haha

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  2. What great treasures you have found. I adore the salt & pepper shaker.I went to a deceased garage sale today & picked up a 1964 camera & an original retro vinyl pouffe. I do find garage sales are rarely worth the effort, but it's exciting when you unearth something special.

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    1. That sounds great, was it advertised as an estate or garage sale? I'd love to go to estate sales like they have overseas, but I can never seem to find out about any in Australia.

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  3. I love the retro glasses and the paint tin but the salt & pepper shaker - wow!!!

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  4. I used to go to garage sales with my parents when I was younger too, and I remember once my parents stopped at a house that had balloons attached to the front to see if it was a garage sale. I only just stopped them from wandering into this random house when I noticed some girls and their parents walking in carrying birthday presents. Note: balloons do NOT always equal garage sale.

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    1. Haha, well at least they didn't go inside and start rummaging through all the presents!

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  5. Oh my, I use to own a paint box like that one. Treasures

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    1. My Gran has a few old paint boxes too :) She brings them out at Easter when we do egg painting. I love the memories that old items like these bring up for people!

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  6. i love collecting glasses like these! except mine so often break on me.

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    1. The good thing about these is that they're so cheap so if the odd one breaks it's not so bad :)

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  7. Garage sales were my life as a kid! Nothing more fun than trawling through people's old stuff, haha! Looks like you got some amazing things there :)

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    1. I would have to agree with you there Nat, I love nosy-ing through other people's stuff haha

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  8. I like the deer also. Not that I'm allowed another salt and pepper shaker...

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