Heather F

Sometimes people think an estate sale is about the furniture. Or the collectibles. Or the hundred little things tucked into drawers. But after walking through so many homes this year, the overwhelmed ones, the beautifully curated ones, the ones held together by memories, I’ve realized the real value isn’t the stuff at all. It’s the story you step into. It’s the life that unfolded in that space. Somewhere along the way, it’s changed the way I look at my own things, too. Case in point: I...

A love letter to the church cookbook, the women who wrote in the margins, and the stories that still rise like dough in every kitchen. I’ve always had a soft spot for those spiral-bound church cookbooks. You know, the kind with cloudy white plastic rings that never quite close, printed by the Lutheran Basement Women (what?) or the ladies of St. Paul’s Methodist to raise money for the roof fund. They’re always a little funky, a little smudgy. My grandma had a whole shelf of them, and over the...

It never fails. Many times, the very first thing people say when they call us is, “We don’t really have antiques… just normal stuff.” And I always smile, because truth be told — normal stuff sells! Sometimes even better than the “fancy” antiques. At our last estate, there was plenty of beautiful décor, but the real showstoppers were the things from the 1980s and ’90s. You know the look — Americana and primitive styles, heart-cut shelves, berry wreaths, country cloth dolls, and wall hangings...