Hoarder

Is there a Hoarding Anonymous? Should I be attending HA meetings before it gets too bad? I brought home 29 dresses this week from three different sources. 29 may sound like a small number but just look here at this garbage bag of 19 dresses filling my whole window of my Mini Cooper. 

Tulle is basically taking over my life, making it hard to walk in my office. It’s kind of emerging from the closets like a beast that may eat me up. As long as I sell to balance out the buying, it will all be ok in the end I can only hope?

I have never encountered hoarding till I came here to Oregon. One of my first picking house calls was of a woman who was very ill and needed to sell her vintage clothing to pay bills. I went into her basement to see what she had. Basements here in Oregon are not like I’ve ever seen when I lived in California. They basically make it a 3-4 room extension to the house space wise. This woman had a room dedicated to shoes! The racks were like that of a store, many tiers high and wide. She really loved Doc Martins and creepers of the 90’s. She had at least 50. Four long racks held all her vintage clothing she intended to save for a vintage clothing store one day. She had a huge rack of coats and three racks of dresses. She had at least 20 bins also in the back of that room filled with lord only knows. She didn’t let me pic through them. Another 10 bins had postcards which I could see through clear plastic bins. I picked an arm load of 10 pieces thinking I might not be able to stomach the price of them all. I think I gave her $50. I was pretty giddy though to see all I could get for $50. The bombshell 1950’s Jantzen I got from her was worth that and more alone! 

The second basement hoard I saw was when I went to pickup a vintage dress form from another etsy seller. This woman had the opportunity to buy out an estate as well has collect for years. Her basement looked like it at least 10-20 circular racks packed to their limits with clothes with very little walking space around them. This basement was a little like a dream though because you could see beauty in every piece sticking out. Tulle, crepe, printed rayon, feed sack cottons just calling your name. Some people would love to have one or two, she has hundreds! It looked like pirate treasure to me, the girly version at least. Being connected with more etsy sellers, I know this isn’t actually a rarity, the basement hoard. 

So with 29 dresses coming into my life, I have very mixed feelings. I’m truly excited that I found such treasures but I also fear something taking over my life more than things I value more such as my house and family. I fear greed. I fear always having desperation to buy, buy, buy. I also an anxious about all the work that I need to put into this. As a stay at home mommy, I really would like to contribute to my family income. This is the best way I can find to do so while still being there at home for my son during the day. Sometimes though I end up ruining dresses and feel so upset that I’ve wasted money (oh and have I mentioned I have a mother who has made me feel guilty about everything I so in life, could that have something to do with it?) With the fabulous support of my loving husband and also new found vintage clothing friends, I’m told just to embrase it! 

So, that is where I am at now. Tomorrow I have a 7 foot clothing rack going into my finished basement laundry room. I need to take out “stuff” and put it in the garage to make room. I’ve already filled one side of my husbands walk in closet as well as my office closet. This is only eight months of collecting in the etsy business. What will the state of things be in another year, or ten years?! BUT Who else is going to mend every seam on that pink 1940’s crepe number with tiers of ruffles. Who will reinforce every bead on that forgotten 1920’s beaded dress that no one has worn in 80 years? Who else will rescue that 1950’s day dress that looks garbage bound if it doesn’t get a soak in Oxi-Clean to give it a whole new life again? 

So please you guys, save me from my basement becoming a fire trap and buy my clothes! ;) 

2 notes
Sunday, February 19th, 2012
  1. vintageself posted this