the carriage house sale rides again.

Published on by Quandie

Ever since I retired two years ago (well, technically two and a half, time flies!) I’ve been thinking about resuming the occasional sale that I used to hold here in my carriage house with my friend Sue.

We held sales here for years.  We started on a very small scale in the late 90’s, in fact it was really more of a garage sale in the very early days.  We kept at it until 2016.

But it really became too much for me to have a full time day job, plus the furniture painting (I was doing a lot more of that then) and blog writing, plus the sale twice a year (some years we even held three sales!).

In addition, my workshop is in the carriage house in the summer, so having a sale meant completely gutting my workshop and setting up the sale, and then once it was done, returning everything to working order in the workshop.

Not only was it a lot of work, but it also meant that my workshop was out of commission for 4 weeks or so for set up and take down (since I really only had time on weekends and evenings to work on it) …  twice per year.  And I can really only use my workshop from May through September, so that really cut into my workshop time.

The sale had also grown over the years.  By the end, we had the carriage house full, plus lots of stuff outside.

We had a couple of tents, but most of the stuff was out in the open which got a little dicey if the weather wasn’t good.

Like the time the tornado sirens went off just as we opened up!

We experimented with a few extra partners over the years, and with adding things like a bake sale.

The baked goods were fun, but I think I was their best customer!

We added perennials divided from our own gardens a few times too, with mixed results.

Back in 2016 I was doing a lot of furniture, and it was selling really well on Craigslist.  In contrast, furniture never did terribly well at my occasional sales.  So I decided to give up the Carriage House Sale.

I continued selling my furniture online, and I started selling my smalls at a shop on consignment.

But these days I’m not doing so much furniture, and although selling through a shop has worked out really well for me in the past, it has limitations.  Somehow over the past few years I’ve accumulated a fair amount of stuff that just wasn’t the right fit for the shop.

That led me to think that maybe I should resume my own occasional sale.

I’m a little bit nervous about it, it has been 8 years since my last last after all.  What if I’ve forgotten how to do it?

I reached out to my friend Sue, and she jumped on board.  She’s also retired now and has more time for hosting a sale.  I have to admit, I was relieved when she said yes because she always had great stuff!

Plus we have a very similar aesthetic.

So, the Carriage House Sale rides again.  We’re tentatively planning on having the sale on June 21 and 22 (or thereabouts), so you locals should mark your calendar!

Luckily I have a couple of months yet to pull together my ‘inventory’, and I’m sure you’ll see lots of projects here on the blog that will be earmarked for the sale (although, as always, if any of you locals are ever interested in a particular item when I post about it you are welcome to reach out ahead of the sale, just email me at qisforquandie@gmail.com).

26 thoughts on “the carriage house sale rides again.”

      1. A better plan….Quandie vintage tour ‘24!!!! Cause I live in Houston where it takes days just to get out of Texas!

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      2. LOL, it does take days to get out of Texas! Our family did a road trip from Florida to California once and I thought Texas would never end 🙂

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  5. Wish I was closer! I’ve done pop-ups with 17 vendors until Covid hit – I need to start that up again too! So much fun, but tons of work too. 

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  9. I’m so excited for y’all! I only wish I was closer! Who knows one of your sales I might make it! Good luck!
    smiles, alice

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  12. I started going to your carriage sales back when you just start ♡

    Best sales ever, I’M SO EXCITED

    p.s. honestly if you need a hand

    give me a shout

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