Posted 3 years ago
IronLace
(878 items)
This is the other side of collecting.
I took these photos on the sly today at a local antiques & collectables establishment. It opened in late 2018 just after I moved to the area, & has been in progress of closing down for several months. The "front of house" area is huge & shambolic to put it politely. All throughout the closing down period, new & different stock still continues to appear.
For some reason, a large bookcase had been moved, affording me a hitherto unknown glimpse into the wild, untamed world of random stuff on the other side of the wall. It's sort of like the peeking into the subconscious mind, or the id of an antiques shop, if you will.
Worth a rummage I would say !
Yes, I'm sure...who knows what might turn up... The actual shop consists of two equally vast spaces (the building was a former gymnasium) crammed floor to ceiling with just about anything you could think of...truly mind - boggling. Having moved my own collection in 2018, which took me several months to pack securely, I have zero envy for the folks who have to deal with this hot mess!
wow ! that will keep them busy a long time. I did see a nice painting :-)
IronLace, >8-0
The stuff of which nightmares are made. It reminds me that I have work to do.
Holy cow!! I wouldn't even know where to begin, if given the opportunity to search thru!!!!
Wow but it doesn’t look like the other side
it looks like the underside
But I sure would like to go through everything
get a shot before diving in ...lol ... have fun ...my wife would try to talk me into something like this ..I would look at her and say matches...and walk away.. all kidding aside ya just never know where your next gem will poke its head out from...later,.. be safe
WOW, IronLace. Shades of way-too-familiar in these pics, as half of my office, most of my dining room, and my entire spare bedroom and basement look SCARILY SIMILAR to that...except that I don't have as much floor space so my piles are higher... <giggle> That last little bit of my bioblurb above says it all...I live amidst my own personal 'flea market'... <LOL>
For the record, 'cleanout house #1' looked an awful lot like that too when we first attacked it last year...'cleanout house #2 is still 'in process' but was (is) similarly stacked up too. I actually had space for an extra chair or two for guests in my own little house, then... <lol>
Many thanks, manikin! Yes, they've got many hours, days, weeks, months ahead to clear this out, a truly horrific undertaking...
Yes, quite a few interesting paintings about in this lot. Loads of unusual artworks in the main part of the store as well, among pretty much anything else you could imagine!
keramikos...I sincerely apologise for any inadvertent guilt trips I may have provoked!
Part of my move in 2018 involved a huge amount of stuff my partner had stored in my garage since 2013. It was pretty intense, let me tell you...decades worth of paintings, furniture, etc...plus existing stuff in the garage from my late father & late mother's step - father. We cleared as much as we could after I sold the property, but I think there was still some random crap in there for the new owners to enjoy, LOL...
Pretty overwhelming, isn't it Scott? But as the saying goes, if you have to eat an elephant, just do it one bite at a time...
Vinyl, I quite agree. It's a Freudian thicket of repressed memories given form. I'll bet it's even grown since yesterday. But who knows what hidden gems may lurk within the horror...the proprietors have been setting up a new shop in the next town up the road since last year (it's still not open despite looking stocked to the gills when I peer in the front windows...I've had inside information there was a problem with a leaking roof but I think it's more to do with a the existential inertia induced by a creeping mass of stuff).
Theonlyone..it's all a matter of perspective. It incited a similar sense of horror in me too, but just like the proverbial train wreck, I could not look away...
AnythingObscure - it's been really interesting how these pics have struck a chord with folks for a variety of reasons...& seeing your recent post, you're much more orderly than this scene!
In a property my partner once owned, the front room ended up as a wall - in "storage" area filled floor to ceiling with stuff, with only a narrow passage so you could walk through to the rest of the house. Thankfully we did not live there but whenever I was in that house, a cloud of gloom settled over my head. Then, it was decided to sell the house in 2013, so most of the contents were moved out to my garage (YAY...NOT!). Actually, the sale plan was stalled for another two years...& when it finally did sell in 2015, the remaindered items also ended up in my garage, where they lingered for three more years causing me more anxiety. But it's all sorted now...most of it's under our new house where it shall forever reside, fingers crossed...:-)
Horror vacui ...
Hilarious. I had an antique shop for 18 years and my garage often looked like this. Now, the garage is still full - you'd be hard pressed to get a bicycle in it - but it is a bit neater.
Looks like heaven from here ?????????
IronLace, No worries. :-)
If a sight like that makes me feel guilty, it's probably a healthy response.
Most of my home stays picked up, but there's one room that holds everything that doesn't seem to have a place somewhere else.
It's in fairly desperate need of purging and organization. I'd enlist the aid of my cat, but she lacks opposable thumbs (actually, I can't imagine the horror if she did have them; she's too formidable as it is).
Golgatha...I quite agree...the proprietors clearly have issues of some sort...but, don't we all in our own ways, LOL...
Glad you could see the funny side of this & I'm pleased to hear that your garage is now neater!
Leavittoseaver...it's all a matter of perspective, isn't it? Like many things, one person's hell is another's heaven. For me, I choose to sit on the fence & see the one within the other...
keramikos, I think most of us have a room like that...we have a very small one, a sort of home office/guest room/storeroom. Thankfully it's mostly under control...but under the house it's a bit more intense but at least we don't have to look at it.
And I do agree that cats with opposable thumbs would present a most daunting, though admittedly amusing, prospect...but sadly I don't think they'd be interested in doing housework...
I was at this shop the other day with my son. He found some old magazines buried and decided to take 10 (of many 100s).
The owner wanted $4 each. Son put them back.
I was amazed, because those mags will be dumped when they move, I know it.
Wow at first I thought somehow, someone had photographed my garage. Lol. Love the post.