Our estate sale ended today, Sunday July 27, 2025 and started on Friday, July 25, 2025. It surpassed my expectations in sales, yet it was grueling and bittersweet! Here’s why!

My Dilemma

When we got back from Panama in late May, I made three trips to Colorado for my brother’s birthday, to see my nephew and his two daughters from California and to spend the Fourth of July with my niece and her four children and three grandchildren from Texas, California and North Carolina. While I was out gallivanting around, Lin packed and packed and packed—he was three weeks ahead of me.

So, when I got home on July 8, I faced a marathon of packing my things I wanted to keep to put in storage, identifying things to sell and things to give-away. We scheduled our estate sale for July 25-27, so I thought I had about three weeks to do all this. Not enough time at all! And then it got cut short!

The Week Prior to the Estate Sale

I thought I had a dedicated time of three weeks to do this work, but Eric Bender, the owner of Cambridge Partners Estate Sales, asked if he could come and start setting up on Thursday, July 17.

So the estate sales crew started setting up and continued for the week before the sale. I understand now why they did that—we had a lot of STUFF! So they came religiously for a week and set up while I continued to pack for storage and sort stuff to go into the estate sale!

I ended up putting off going through my part of the walk-in closet until Wednesday, two days before the sale! Maybe because it seemed to be the most emotionally charged part for me—I don’t know, but I finished late Thursday evening!

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly of Packing Up 72 Years of Life

The Good

For Christmas 2008, I bought Mom a Mother’s Christian journal to fill out. She filled it out and gave it back to me Christmas 2009. Buried in the bottom drawer of the end table next to my side of the bed, I hadn’t read it in fourteen years—since I’ve been married to Lin.

After finding it last week, I ended my day in bed reading Mom’s words—heartfelt words about meeting Dad, having my brother and me, her childhood and more! I laughed; I wept. What a family treasure! I want to share it with my family.

The Bad

To segue from the good above, the bad is—I hadn’t gone through my drawers in fourteen years. I just kept stacking additions to the drawer on top of the treasures below. Not a wise decision! To defend myself, I got busy with our fun-filled lives of dancing and traveling and didn’t make time to sift through down to the bottom.

So, my advice and my future goal: go through all drawers more often—maybe every five years!

The Ugly

We live in the east mountains in the forest and have minimal issues with mice. Last year, because of my recovering from the dog attack, I didn’t wear all my Christmas sweaters, turtlenecks and leggings. When I started through those drawers last week, I found my favorite Christmas sweater had been chewed on by mice and a couple other pieces. Then at the bottom of one drawer, I found three dead baby mice—OMG! Not good!

Being raised in the country, I have dealt with mice my whole life, but this really upset me—my favorite Christmas sweater!!

The Actual Estate Sale

When Friday morning hit, I felt anxious—would we sell anything? What would happen? However, this wasn’t our first estate sale. When Lin and I got married in 2011, we had duplicates of so many things because of two households, so we held one in my townhouse in Albuquerque and did really well on it.

So, each morning for the last three days, we left before the customers arrived. We camped out at the Starbucks in Edgewood from about 8:30 – 3:00 PM with our laptops, iPads and books. The staff has been so friendly and supportive of us hanging out there.

At the end of each sales’ day, we returned home to see some of our things had magically disappeared. Each day, Eric gave us a full-scale report, telling us about what sold and any anecdotes about the day. Then later in the evening, he texted a dollar amount of sales for the day. So far, Friday has been the best day. Right now we’re waiting for the 3:00 PM deadline to go home and see what’s left—hopefully very little!

Here’s two videos of before the sale and how they staged the house.

First downstairs and out in the garage.

Upstairs!

Here’s pictures of what the house looked like this morning on the third day. Notice how Eric taped off any areas the customers are not allowed to go into—very helpful for us.

The Emotional Side

Yes, I’m an emotional person. Life excites me, but sometimes it destroys me, so I know that about myself. Lin says I’m a packrat! No, I hold onto things—that’s my downfall. In the preparation for our move and the estate sale, I threw away first drafts of my books, memorabilia and other stuff. I kept meaningful pieces from my family and my heritage, but I didn’t shed one tear! That’s shocking to me! In recovery, we talk about detachment, and I felt that happening repeatedly. In fact, Lin has been shocked at what I let go!

The Estate Sales Company to Use

I cannot recommend Eric Bender from Cambridge Partners Estate Sales highly enough! Eric and his crew understood totally the emotional stress Lin and I were under and lovingly dealt with us as they set up and we packed. We laughed together. They asked us questions and were willing to take suggestions. Eric’s company has a faithful following, and they even came up to Tijeras. What a delight he is! If you’re in the Albuquerque area and need an estate sales expert, call Eric at 404-405-4447.

Finally,

I have no children, so I’ve repeatedly quipped to Lin and friends that us doing this hard work now has saved my nephew and two nieces a lot of hard work later when I die! Yes, I still have a storage shed full in Tijeras, but not a house full!

It was cleansing. Letting go of things I haven’t used in years! Downsizing!

Have you ever done an estate sale? Have you downsized? How did you deal with the emotions?

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