What I brought home from the World's Longest Yard Sale

My husband and I have been going to yard sales, auctions and estate sales for years and years. I'm guessing that close to 50% of what you see in my house has been acquired at such sales, especially decorative items. Yard sales are where I buy toys and clothes for my grandson. All great ways to save money on perfectly good "gently used" items at pennies on the dollar of original cost. On the other hand, I have a basement storage area packed with boxes of items that I bought at yard sales, auctions and estate sales -- buying them for "the deal" and not necessarily because they were items I truly loved or needed. Yard sales definitely contribute to the "clutter factor" around here. I approached our two-day trip along the Route 127 World's Longest Yard Sale with a new mindset. I went with a list! My list was 1) a vintage step stool for my quilt room, 2) a service for 6-8 of everyday dishes for the kitchen, 3)an antique bedroom suite for the master bedroom, 4) a treadle sewing machine and 5)anything quilt-related, not including fabric. I brought $100 cash with me and did not want to spend more than that unless I found a bedroom suite. We literally stopped at 200+ yard sales yesterday. I have to say, I was disappointed in the quality of the items we saw with a few exceptions. One man's junk is another man's junk in most of the sales we visited. So much of what we looked at was dirty, torn and broken! I did, however, have a few "finds": Two new iron-on transfer books (I do hand embroidery) and a pair of new dress shoes for Brayden. Total spent: $5.00. What else did I bring home? An eye infection! Despite using the anti-bacterial dry hand wash every time we got back in the car, somewhere along the line my hands came in contact with something they shouldn't have, then touched my eye. I'm prone to eye infections and luckily have medicine on hand. I did love travelling the side roads of Kentucky -- I'd forgotten what a truly beautiful state it is and I loved many of the small towns we drove through. The people were exceptionally friendly and for the most part, drivers were patient and considerate in backed-up traffic. We decided not to spend a third day at the sale, so we're home today with me catching up on laundry, ironing and Olympics-watching. I think while watching the Olympics I'll choose one of my new iron-on transfer patterns and work on embroidering some new pillowcases for the guest room. In the past, Jeff and I would have come home with the car loaded to the roof (and quite possibly some items actually ON the roof!), our bank accounts empty, and the family room full of boxes we needed to go through and sort. Instead, we enjoyed our trip together, came home with a few useful items, and I'm making a trip back to the bank to deposit the funds we didn't spend! Frugal yard-sale'ing -- who knew?!?