I have vivid dreams about estate sale land. In my dreams I am number one at a sale or I find secret hidden rooms full of vintage Christmas. I fantasize about going to an awesome estate sale and being the only one there. When I got the invitation to visit Aunt Tillie's crawl space I felt like one of my fantasies was coming true. I was giddy with anticipation to enter that panelled door.
The door is not super big. Perhaps 24x24. It is mid way up a wall and we used a step ladder to enter. This is what I saw when the door swung open. BOXES..A SEA OF BOXES!! I was hoping, hoping for Aunt Tillie's yet to be discovered vintage Christmas!
The crawl space was about 15 x 20 and packed all the way back floor to ceiling with boxes. The family had no idea what was in the boxes. I had to crawl on my knees for the most part. It was to short to hunch over walk (and I am short at 5 foot 2). The floor was covered in old roofing material. It was dusty but pretty bug free (I saw a couple of spiders but that was it). I started hauling the boxes out to my friend Mary Jo.
Some of the boxes were so big they just fit though the door and had to be shoved out.
I looked very official in my head lamp and grubby clothes. I was ready to dig.
It really was a very interesting experience. Aunt Tillie was a hoarder. You can read about the journey and the back story the family has gone through with cleaning out the house on the blog Hoarding Woes and You. I met Mary Jo (married to Aunt Tillie's nephew) last summer when they were doing Aunt Tillie garage sales. We have stayed in touch. Sharing the crawlspace clean-out with Mary Jo really gave me insight into how the mind of hoarder works. What was saved in this crawlspace was really mind boggling. For about two hours we hauled out boxes. Box after box after box.
Newspaper that things were wrapped in were dated in the late 1960s. In Aunt Tillie's mind three categories of items seemed to emerge as worthy of saving in this crawlspace.
#1 - Canning jars. I pulled out case after case of canning jars. I bet there are 45 boxes of canning jars. Many of them are the neat old ones. I did not see a blue one among them tho. These boxes all contain canning jars. There are another probably 15 boxes still in the crawl space that we did not pull out.
The boxes contain an assortment of sizes and styles.
Big quantities of lids and rings as well.
#2 - Plastic flowers often in original boxes. We found box after box of flowers..variety after variety. Sometimes Aunt Tillie had created arrangements and used wax for the base in a variety of containers. These arrangement were wrapped in old sheets. I bet I pulled 15 boxes of flowers out (at least) and probably 7 or 8 big arrangements.
A crazy amount of plastic flowers.
#3 - Avon. Box after box of old Avon. Lots of original boxes and contents, each wrapped in a plastic bag for storage. We probably found 6 or 7 boxes full of assorted Avon products.
We also found lots of oddball items. Like a box full of old cottage cheese and ice cream LIDS. (But hey, I snagged these..they have good graphics)
2 boxes full of old unused work gloves. Original tags still attached.
There were two boxes of old canned goods with their contents labeled near the front of the crawl space. There was also a box full of old cooking oil? I found two big empty jugs for water as well...perhaps supplies for some unforeseen disaster.
There was some other assorted stuff in the space. I DID find some vintage Christmas. I am saving that for Thursday's post..this post is long enough.
I emerged from the crawl space dirty and sore. 2 hours of hauling boxes out left me exhausted. We spent about another 5 hours sorting items and carrying them out of the house. I am glad I had this crawl space experience. I had a really, really good time laughing and talking with Mary Jo. It did not quite fulfil my fantasy, but it really was fun.
Dirty and a little rum-dummy from my vintage crawlspace adventure! Post of my finds coming tomorrow..and there is some good stuff!
