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I hear complaints on a daily, sometimes on an hourly basis lately. Family, friends, clients, customers all seem to be complaining more. Is it because it’s so hot? Is it because it makes them feel more powerful to find some fault in someone or something else?
I grew up with the king of complainers, my father. He is the type of fellow who will ask you to do him a favor, you do the favor and he will always complain or criticize the way you did it, or how long it took you to do it.    Is it me, or do men complain more than women?

I remember asking my mother how she handled the constant complaining. She said, I listen for the nugget of truth, if there isn’t one then I try not to let it bother me. If there is a nugget of truth, I polish it up, keep it in my pocket.

So when I hear complaints from customers ( items are priced too high) and clients (items are priced too low), or when customers complain about my competitors. Or my sister complains or criticizes just about everything. Or my daughter complains about the world not revolving around her all the time. Or when I start to whine about something ridiculous. I think about my mother, who had NINE children, not complaining, but listening and trying to find the nugget of truth to polish up and put in her pocket.

You may be wondering why I have a picture of a 1954 Kaiser Darrin posted here on a blog about Estate Sales?

Well, I first must tell you that a very good friend of mine passed away today.  Stuart Hanson.   He became my friend because he attended a great many of our Estate sales, and because he had one of the biggest personalities I’ve ever known.

When Stuart came in the door the first thing he said was “What do you have that I can’t live without?” and the next thing was a joke.  It was usually at the expense of his wonderfully tolerant wife Vi.  and it was always hilarious.  We had several wonderful dinners in the last year with Stuart at the helm.   Although we were expecting this, as his health declined.  No one  wanted to believe it.  He lived an incredible life, full of adventures and deals galore!

and He collected cars.   He had an encyclopedic knowledge of anything with a motor.  He could tell you almost everything about vintage automobiles.  From the exhaust to the seat covers, if you had a question about an automobile, he knew the answer.   He owned or at least drove almost all cars made.  There was just one that eluded him.  Our standing joke was to tell him we just sold the 1954 Kaiser Darrin, for $250.  He would ask me the color,  I would tell him black and he would say it was OK because he was looking for a blue one.

I’m going to miss Stuart, but when I think of him, I smile, and that my friends is quite a legacy.

Here is the thing. I have never written a blog before so please bear with me. I thought it would be interesting to start one that revolves around the Estate Sale business I have owned for the past 7 years.
Like this, We have a customer sign a contract. It is a legal contract and we read and go over every paragraph concerning all issues. they sign the contract. Some how when we go to set up the sale, almost every time something occurs that breaches some part of that contract. Why? Why? Why? They remove items that we initially thought would be part of the sale. They stop by every day. They are there the day of the sale. They sit on the sofa (that needs to be sold by the way) crying about how their aunt bought the sofa in 1980 and loved it so. Even though Uncle Bert peed on it at least 4 times before being fitted with Depends. It was a designer sofa don’t you know and they paid $1,200.00 for it in 1980. So even though they have signed a contract stating that we would price all items at current market value, they have to tell everyone it is worth so much more than what we have priced it. And then they wonder why we couldn’t sell the sofa.