Rummage Sale Finds

On Friday we hit up my favorite semi-annual sale, the Far Hills Rummage Sale. We've been going for years and I feel like we've struck gold every time we go. A few years ago I wrote up a list of Rummage Sale Tips and Tricks, which basically goes like this: come Friday, arrive early, bring cash, bring bags, wear boots, have breakfast, have a plan, don't bring kids, don't haggle, bring a friend. This year I have to admit I broke 2 of my own rules: kids and wellies. I stupidly wore flip flops 2 days after the 10th rainiest day the New York City area has ever seen. My feet have never been muddier. Mike and I also brought Oliver so we didn't have to hire a sitter, which was a challenge even though he's a really good kid. They don't allow strollers in the tents so Mike wore him in the backpack carrier and after 3 tents they spent the rest of the event at the playground. I don't recommend bringing kids.

Our focus was once again on kid's toys because over the past couple of years we've found so many amazing deals and I hate paying full price for toddler plastic. We hit up the toy tent first, then went to kid's clothes, books and furniture. We brought $100 cash (as a limit!) and this is what we found...

To start, we found a bunch of new fun outdoor toys for Oliver. A toddler-sized basketball hoop, a toy grill, and some toy tools that are just like ours. Oliver is obsessed with our gas powered blower so we got him his own and it makes noise - he hasn't stopped playing with it since Friday. We also got him toy versions of our shovels because he always wants to use ours. (Also the reason everything is wet in the pictures is because we had to hose mud off everything when we got home.)

Our best find was actually in the furniture tent, this wooden toy fridge for $16. A wooden fridge was on our long-term wish list and something we were considering making after seeing how expensive they are to buy (hundreds of dollars!). I'll share more on why tomorrow, but this is just wonderful. Someone obviously made it with a lot of love. It's well built and in perfect condition - the doors close magnetically and there are shelves  and baskets inside. Hidden inside the freezer was a huge box of plastic play food too.

The rest of the kid stuff includes 2 sets of foam floor puzzle tiles (one to enlarge our playroom one and one for the basement), a very cool dump truck, an animal sounds bus (Oliver is obsessed with animal sounds right now), kitchen set pots and pans, blue kitchen set dishes, a small hippity hop ball (that Oliver chose himself and refused to let go of for 2 hours at the sale) and a Moby wrap in perfect condition that was $2. I love my Moby wrap and I don't really need another one, but for that price I'll take it and give it to a friend.

I also got Oliver a big stack of books...

... And a pretty great pile of clothes (everything was $2 each and 5 of those items are from Gymboree!).

I also found these two items in furniture, a side small table and a wooden step stool. Step stools are very necessary in homes with independent toddlers! I'm not sure if I'm going to paint or stain it, I'm still deciding. The table top needs refinishing and is a bit ornate for my taste, but it was the perfect size for our needs. A few years ago at the Rummage Sale I found a fabulous marble-topped table I loved for our living room. But then Oliver needed a teeny-tiny table in his room for his humidifier, so the table went upstairs. But now I have a replacement table for Oliver's room so I can have my marble table back!

All in all, it was a great sale and we got a lot of awesome deals. At the time it felt a little rough - the grounds were very muddy and slippery, the crowds were huge and fiercely competitive, the lines were really long for even the most obscure tents, my toddler was a tad grumpy waiting in line in the hot sun (even with a hat and the sunshade on his stroller). It was all worth it though!

See our other Far Hills Rummage Sale finds:
October 2010 | May 2011 | October 2011 | October 2012 | May 2013 | October 2013