Behind the scenes at a rummage sale

Yesterday I learned exactly what it’s like to be the person who sorts through all the donated items collected at a thrift store when I helped organize a massive rummage sale for a local charity.

I know! Sounds like a thrifter’s dream job, right? I envisioned myself unwrapping box after box of long-forgotten-yet-still-perfectly-intact vintage Christmas ornaments or maybe opening tissue-filled storage bins with carefully preserved and perfectly clean vintage linens...

I was assigned clothing. 

Mountains and mountains of clothing.

 In plastic bags and boxes and shopping bags and just plain WOW.  There was and still is a lot of clothing. I made a dent in it – sorting the sellable from the (insert any gross reason why here) unsellable. Dodging dried bugs and random non-clothing ‘surprises’ tucked inside along with the occasional bag of someone’s garbage (oops)  that I hope was accidentally mixed in with the donations since it was all in trash bags.

And there were so many donations of one shoe, one sock or one glove.

these pretty dishes were donated to the sale

I did eventually make it over to the non-clothing side of the building to preview the  treasures that might be waiting and there were quite a few. 

My friend who is in charge of the rummage sale gifted this to me as a thank you. She knows what I like.  :-)



by the sale date of June 3, this warehouse will be packed!

I’ll post the details about shopping at this rummage sale in an upcoming post on my other blog, Vintage Market Guide. If you’re from the Portland, OR area and plan to drive to Farm Chicks, you’ll probably drive right through my town and may want to stop and check out this rummage sale on the first weekend of June. 

Great deals happening on single shoes and gloves.