Last week I worked an estate sale that Becky and Lisa were "producing." It took them weeks and weeks just to unpack boxes that were in the garage.  Stacked to the ceiling.  The owner (in her 70's) had inherited all of her mother-in-laws stuff from the WW2 era.  Stuff up the wazoo.  After the garage was unpacked, it took even more weeks to deal with what was inside the house.  And more weeks to set up tables and decide what to put where--with no hope of getting all of it in the house.

I've been to a lot of estate sales through the years, but I've never seen anything like this.  After it was all set up, they couldn't even get it all on display.  Not enough room.  So every day more and more was brought inside from outside storage to fill the spaces that were emptied--when someone bought something.  You name it, this lady had it--dating back to the 20's.  One of them was a seamstress and if a sewing gadget existed, she had five or six of them.  She quilted, crocheted and knitted as well.

I was assigned a bedroom, with fabric stacked to the ceiling and sewing notions on shelves stacked to the light fixtures.  There were dolls as well, on shelves.  Fifty or sixty perfect untouched dolls in original condition.  It was a mad house.  Four or five times there were so many people in the room that you couldn't turn around.  Quilters bought cotton fabric by the bushel--well, by the stack.  And at the end of the first day, I was able to restock the shelves with fabric we hadn't been able to find a place for.  And the second day was just as busy.  Becky orchestrated, Lisa ran the cash register.

Which brings me to this:  We accumulate.  Stuff we will never use, don't need, don't have room for and many times can't afford.  I'm guilty as charged.  I love the glass Dresden dolls and boxes from before WW2 that were made in Germany.  I used to look in the windows of the Five and Dime store when I was a little girl and wish I had one.  But I couldn't afford the 25 cent price tag.  I didn't know anyone who could--except for one of the girls in my class.  She had a bunch of them.  Her dad was a banker.  The rest of us were poor.  What can you do with a Dresden glass doll anyway?  And your children won't want them--they don't know what a Five and Dime is and don't remember WW2.

Jesus told us, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust corrupts, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust corrupts, and where thieves do not break through nor steal." Matthew 6: 19-20