My experience buying a storage unit at auction

For any of you who watch Storage Wars, I am sure you thought about buying a storage unit at auction. I know I have. I've seen almost every episode. YUUUPPPP I have. I am a fan of treasures, and I like watching them dig through the stuff.

My family has been planning a yard sale for the end of October and I thought now is as good of time as any to try it out. The yard sale will give me an outlet to offload the small stuff in the unit as well as some of the big ones.

Since I live in Arizona and it is hot even in October, I didn't want to go standing around trying to bid on lockers. I did some searching around for online auctions. I found storagetreasures.com, storagebattles.com and lockerfox.com. After looking through all the lockers for auctions, I found the one I wanted.

It had a few days left on it so I put a bid in for half my max to test out the other bidders. Finally during the last 20 seconds of the auction, I put in my max and won the locker for $10 less than max bid. YAY!!

So now that I won, what happens next? I had to go to the storage facility and pay the winning bid in cash, plus a $100 refundable cleaning deposit. The facility manager took me to my locker and opened it up. There it was a 10x10 unit of treasure!

It took 3 truck loads and a trailer full to empty it all out. You have 48 hours to empty the unit after a win. Some facilities are gracious and give you extra time. The facility I bought from said I could have a couple extra days but I didn't want to inconvenience them.

So the fun part and the worst part is sorting. It took me 5 days to sort, clean and price everything for the yard sale. It was exhausting.

I didn't find anything in my unit that was going to make me rich or any particular item that would recoup the cost of the unit. I did find an espresso machine that was $300 when it was new. That is going to take a particular buyer to sell to. I found a $500 piece of personal use medical equipment but again, particular buyer but more than likely will end up donating to a place that helps those who can't afford this type of machine. I also found a 1987 dining table and chairs. In amazing shape really but the market for that is slim to none. There was also a rear projection TV that I made $50 on within a day.

Thankfully we are having the yard sale because those little things add up to big money. My brother came by a couple times and bought stuff. Between my brother and the sale of the TV I have made half my money back.

Yard Sale time has rolled around and it took days of prep to get ready. I had 20 tables worth of items, including my personal stuff. Exhausting work but it is the experience that has made this worth it. When I was tagging all these items I wrote them down. This adds a lot of time to the process but I like to have an idea of how much I have at sticker price. Once I have that total I cut it in half and that is my goal for the sale. So with my goal set it was time to sell.

Day 1 of the yard sale was a Friday. Friday's usually bring a lot of dealers but I didn't see many this time. It did get crazy busy. There was three of us working the sale and that almost wasn't enough. There was a point where we had a line of people waiting to pay. I sold about half of my stuff from 7:00am-2:00pm. Once the day was over I totaled up my earning which I tracked separate from my other items and made 2.5 times my original investment in the locker. Which is pretty awesome when you think about it. I didn't meet my goal on day 1 but there is always day 2.

Day 2 was slower but still productive. We had a good turn out. The best part is the neighbors come by to chat. Yard sales are a great way to get to know your neighbors. I was ready to shut down by 1:00pm the heat was getting to me but people continued to show up  until 2:30. I didn't make as much on day 2 but sold about half of what was left. I still have enough stuff left to open up for our community sale in 2 weeks. Once the day was done, I totaled up my money and made 3.7 times my original investment.

Now that it is done, would I do it again? Yes. In fact I am already looking for another unit. 

Oh Gnomeo, Gnomeo!

Gnomes! Who doesn't love gnomes? My cousin loves gnomes so much they are literally her home decor. For those of us who put our gnomes in a yard, weather will eventually take it's toll. The sun will fade the paint and then you have a sad gnome.

Fear not my friends for sun faded gnomes are just another reason to be crafty! Replacing gnomes can be expensive but you know what isn't? Paint! Especially if you get lucky like I did and buy close to 100 bottles of acrylic craft paint at a garage sale for just a few bucks. Nothing beats cheap craft supplies.

So all you need to do is give the gnome a good bath with soap and water. Once it is dry you simply paint it. You can match the previous colors or you can go a totally different direction. The sun has given you a blank canvas! Tip: Have paint brushes of various sizes handy. You can buy a bag of mixed sized brushes from your craft store for a couple of bucks. I always buy 2 bags at a time.

The most important step is the clear coat. Find one with UV protection so your hard work lasts longer!

Here are a few pictures of my gnome family.

Cable Reel into Coffee Table

I recently acquired a large cable spool. I love making things from these spools because there are so many options. If you search pinterest you will find hundreds of other craft people who made some amazing things from them.

So I took one end of the spool and made a coffee table out of it.

There was a clear coat on the spool which I had to strip and then sand off. That really was the hardest part of the process. Then I used my orbital sander on the top - 80-120-220 - the usual process. I used the mouse sander for the sides. I also used my dremel to sand any little notches in the wood and inside the holes to make sure little fingers are safe.

After that I just had fun with paint. I used acrylic craft paint that I picked up from a garage sale. Just a side note, if you see craft paint at a yard sale - buy them. You can get an amazing deal. I ended up getting 75 little bottles of acrylic paint inside a nice tote for $8. The tote alone would cost $8+ new so winner winner chicken dinner.

Anyways, back to the paint. I diluted the painted with some water so it spread a little easier. Once it was fully dry I slapped two coats of polycrylic on top.

For the legs I used black conduit pipe and attached with flanges. I gave them a coat of copper spray paint. Since the conduit was black it made a nice dark copper.

Now I have a beautiful, unique coffee table for less than $30. Actually, free because I sold the other side of the spool $30.

Porch Bench Makeover

I have always wanted an outdoor bench for my porch. I've been looking for awhile and new benches are expensive and not what I want. I wanted mine to be unique.

Then it happened, the antique mall was having a HUGE sale. 90% of the vendors were on site to wheel and deal. I had my sights set on a bench and I wasn't leaving without it. It was old but not antique and it needed to be refinished. After some back and forth with the friendliest vendor I've met, she was mine.

Most of her finish was worn off, the iron was dirty but thankfully not rusty. She was a good 5 years past due for a refinish.

I carefully disassembled her piece by piece, numbering the slats as they came off. I washed the iron with mild soap and a wire brush. I sanded the wood in my usual way, 80, 120, 220.

The wood was painted with Valspar spray paint in Nautical. I did a light coat, enough to give color but not too much from blocking the next step. Stain over paint. I love this technique. I simply used an ebony stain, wiped it on then wiped it off. It gives the wood an aged look.

For the iron I used Krylon Industrial Tough Coat in Osha White. I had to buy this at the auto paint store. I recommend a strong paint for metals for longer lasting finish. Especially since this is outdoors.

Once the paint was completely dry I used an industrial clear coat on the iron and a weather proofing clear coat on the wood.

Finally with help from my husband she was reassembled.

She turned out beautiful. What a transformation!

Coming Soon....

I have been on a bit of a hiatus from working on projects. Have no fear I have several in the works now. Currently I have a pair of end tables, a single end table, a porch bench and a DIY coffee table on my plate. If all goes well my bench should be done by tomorrow night. Stay tuned....

The Little Rocking Chair That Could

So this is a very delayed post. Last Christmas I was looking for something special to give to my baby cousin. I babysit him two days a week and every day he is here he sits in a little rocking chair. This rocking chair was actually mine when I was a child and he loved it so much.

To buy them new and unfinished was a bit expensive and I wanted something that I could really put my efforts into. Ask and you shall receive. I found two little rocking chairs on Craigslist! They had been painted and repainted and chipped off and just sad looking. I ended up taking them home for $15 total.

I only took pictures of one chair but they were both in the same condition.

Such a sad little rocking chair. Don't worry little fella I will fix you up.

These chairs required a lot of sanding trying to get off all tat old paint. Unfortunately the red paint seemed to be embedded in the wood. I did my best but it wasn't going away. Primer Time!

Once I had it covered in primer. I spray painted it. I started with the bottom first and worked my way to top. This required a lot of paint and wait due to the many angles that needed paint. Once all the paint was dry I put a protective coating on it.

Good as new! I gave one chair to my baby cousin and the other to my baby nephew. Every month my sister in law posts a picture of her son in this chair with a little button saying how old he is and it warms my heart.

Bench Love

I love benches. I haven't had many opportunities to create or refinish one until I came across this adorable country style bench.

I know a lot of people will say the hearts are outdated but I think they are darling.

I followed my usual prep work on this bench, sand, sand and more sanding. Then I simply stained the bench with rust-oleum weathered gray.

Viola! I even made the pillow from scrap material.