Tetris

When I was in 8th grade, my family got a Nintendo - no need to mention that the gaming system had been on the market for about 8 years at that point. If I remember correctly, I only had three games, one of which was Tetris. It was never my favorite, as I much preferred Super Mario Brothers 3 (I can still hear the theme music...I might have geeked out and been addicted for a summer). My sister was really good at Tetris and she would always beat me. Some people just have that innate ability to put things together in a certain way, and sadly I am not one of them.

But if practice makes perfect, I may have to take out the Nintendo on a future trip home to test my skillz (I wonder if it still works?!). I find myself continually playing some version of Tetris with this antiquing business. Either I am trying to pack all my odd-sized purchases in my vehicle, store my inventory in the garage, or stack things in the booth to maximize the small space. I have gotten pretty good with the booth, and I am typically better about managing things for display rather than storage purposes. I have even improved a lot with arranging junk within my car (though I cannot hold a candle to the packing that my mom does), but my garage organization has a long way to go. Somehow I missed out on that storage organizing gene that my sister inherited from my mom!

 My mom's impressive packing for my trip back to TX from IL last summer.

 In addition to a bicycle, we brought back a cabinet, mailbox, screen, several suitcases, metal milk crate, an old typewriter in a case, a few locker baskets, old metal bread boxes, and a million other little smalls packed neatly inside of all those containers...plus her, me, and our luggage.  I even bought a few more things on our journey back and somehow it all fit.  

Since I was selling so much furniture from late fall through February, I really started to stock up on pieces that would be good for displaying and also are sell-able. I love selling my display pieces now because I am armed and ready with another...but then March started and the sale of bigger pieces slowed - to a screeching halt. And the garage got out of control. I would add a new piece by just putting it wherever there was open space. I bought a great cabinet from Craigslist a few weeks back, and I didn't think it would fit in the garage so Andrew and I put it in our entryway...I might just have to 'store' it there for a bit!

Back to the disorganized garage...I spent an afternoon this weekend just trying to make the garage walkable and create some sort of order/visibility for the inventory. I really wish I had 'before' pictures, but I didn't think of that.

So after looking at this pictures, it doesn't look all that 'organized,' but I can assure you that it is a major improvement from before! There is actually about a four foot wide path out of the garage - I call that progress.

I did add more to the inventory this weekend. I bought mainly smalls and two (smaller) cabinets.

The first cabinet is already in the booth. There hasn't been a lot of noticeable change in my displays due to slow sales this month, but here are some pictures from today:

May all the things you love fit neatly in your space!

Have a chic week,

Sarah