Etsy Shop and so much more!

A quick little update on my new Etsy shop….

I opened an Etsy shop over a couple of weeks ago and have sold three separate items. First let me thank Amy for being my first customer! The other two have been strangers who found me via Facebook Marketplace. My plan with the Etsy shop is to put all proceeds towards the cabin renovation.

So why am I suddenly selling vintage items on both Etsy and Facebook? My parents are downsizing and with that not only comes a lot of cleaning out, but also a treasure trove of vintage items from both my parents and grandparents. There is way too much. My family is what I call neat hoarders. They’ve always had a neat and clean home but they had several rooms full of packed away items. A lot came from my Grandparents home in Kentucky. It took my mother about three years to clean out that house so considering we have done this in three months is good. My grandparents lived through the Depression and they were keepers of everything. My father’s need to keep items can be attributed to his family’s escape from Hungary on foot in 1957. They left with one suitcase each.

Hopefully I can be considered a neat hoarder too, but right now my house looks like the messy, insane, hoarder kind. I did something I said I would never do which was take over my college son’s room and use it as a makeshift office. He comes home for Spring Break so I’m hoping he won’t notice the boxes and bags in the corner of his room.

Leaving one’s home of nearly 48 years comes with a lot of emotion. It has taken the past 2 1/2 months of me working with them side by side going through items and deciding what needs to be thrown away, given away and now sold. My brother was right to suggest a dumpster and we actually filled up two as we’ve been cleaning out. But we have also found treasures, both of monetary value and more importantly of sentimental value.

If there is a lesson to be learned from this experience, do not wait until the last moment to go through items in your house. I’ve been off of work since January to take care of some personal things but this move has snowballed into a nearly full time job. Recently, I have been spending nearly five days a week with my parents which has created it own set of memories. There has been some yelling, lots of head shaking, but also a lot of laughs. We have had a few helpers along the way and have gotten to know Ruben Guevara who renovated the new condo. Here is the finished product. Ruben even came by my house to purchase something I had on FB and once I realized who it was I just gave it to him. Our realtor Carl Stein recommended some people to help with the move including Santos the Contractor/Handyman who helped on fixing up the house before we list it. And of course my parent’s neighbor, John, who helped us with a few things around the house.

I have to give a shoutout to Amanda in my community. When I first asked for boxes on our neighborhood Facebook page she came through and told me she could get more. And she did. Twice! A neighbor who I know only through collecting boxes. This last batch was just dropped off at 8:30 at night. I am so appreciative because they are great boxes but also gave me and mom a laugh. I asked Amanda where she worked since the boxes were labeled, “Hand and Foot”, “Total Knee” and “Vaginal”. She let me know that while it was from the hospital they were operating room packs rather than the human body parts were were envisioning.

Here’s to a new chapter. Now I hope we can survive move day.