Making Good Progress on Sifting House

I spent the last three days working at my grandmother's house sifting through stuff as we try and get it cleared out for Jeff and I to move in. It's been sort of fun as it's a bit like Christmas, except all the presents you're opening aren't for you. (My Aunt has taken most everything worth taking; the rest has gone in the estate sale piles.) Unfortunately I forgot the camera today, or I could have taken pictures of some very interesting stuff. =)

This week I learned my Grandmother didn't need anything and when she got gifts she typically would put the gift card in the box with the gift and then simply placed the gift in one of the spare bedrooms. And there they are, still there. There are gifts that go back to something like the 50s and certainly most of them from the last couple decades. I wish I had brought the camera. There were towels, probably from the 70s, in hideous fluorescent colors and prints. There were quite a few dress accessories and kitchen gadgets from the 50s. And very much glassware. Oh, and brand new kitchen pots that supposedly matched her set, still in the box.

Oh how I wish I could find some home decor collectors so these items won't end up at the thrift shop or in the landfill. I salvaged a few of the super-cool-50s stuff, not because I wanted them, but because it was simply worth the effort to find someone who is into that style and would appreciate the items. Looks like I need to go looking for some folks who feel about 50s ranchers in the same way I feel about 20s bungalows. =)

I find it a little sad that so many people bought Grandmother gifts and she didn't get around to using them. I guess coming from the depression era, she was waiting for the items she already owned to wear out before replacing them with the gifts. Very practical from the standpoint of using up stuff before throwing it away, but perhaps it would have been better if she started using the new item and donated the old item, or simply donated the new item. There was a lot of stuff in those bedrooms that nobody will use now because they are simply not used anymore or are hopelessly out of style.

Anyway, we have nearly cleared out the two small bedrooms; the master bedroom is still full. We've been staging stuff in the kitchen and living room and getting ready for the estate sale.

Now that we've got the two small rooms mostly cleared, Jeff and I are planning to go out on Sunday and start pulling up the carpets and removing the tack strips and nails, etc. We're going to go with the hardwood floors in the rooms that have them. And I think I even found someone who is going to take the two-tone green shag carpet from the front bedroom. It's still in pretty good condition, but definitely not in style.

We're also going to start hauling over bookcases so we can set up the books for the estate sale. Though it is unlikely many books will sell, Jeff and I still need bookcases over there so it's not really much extra work to bring them earlier.