I’ve recently been trying to get more organized. My storage space in particular was very chaotic and I’ve put a lot of work into getting that cleared up. I realized during a yard sale a couple weeks ago that a lot of what was in there wasn’t worth trying to sell – it was just making my best items harder to see. So, I’ve been a purging a lot of my more mediocre stuff, putting the rest in “free” boxes on the curb that others can then hunt through. Most ends up getting taken, and the things that don’t probably weren’t worth saving. I have a lot less clutter now, and most of what remains is very yard sale-able.
Otherwise, I had a couple blog posts worth of stuff in storage just sitting around waiting to get photographed. It all came from a run in Rosemont I did a few months ago, some of which I discussed in a recent post. I came across this pile later on that day. It was pretty unpleasant to look through because everything stunk badly of cigarette smoke. I found some good stuff regardless, most of which is easy enough to clean. A lot of what you see here will end up in a free box though, as not all of it is worth the time it will take me to remove that nasty smell.
I saved a few larger tchotchkes, including a weird vintage mug (marked “©MK” on the bottom), a brass duck, and a ceramic elephant with a multicoloured glaze. This person was really into elephants, and you can see below.
I mostly saved smaller items, four of which were in the shape of elephants. Two were keychains, one was a small brass figurine, and another was a brooch. The brooch (just left of the spoons) is actually quite nice. It’s marked D’Orlan on the back, which is a Canadian costume jewellery company that produced some very nice pieces. Similar brooches are selling for between 30-60$ on eBay, and mine is in very good shape aside from the fact that it’s missing the rhinestone eye. I otherwise saved a couple Las Vegas casino chips, two silver plated spoons, two pocketknives and a Duran Duran pin.
I also saved a silver ring that looks to feature an amber (or perhaps faux amber) crown …
… and a metal crucifix.
I consider this to be a classic Montreal find. Inside this grimy bullion cube container was …
… a collection of old bridge tokens. It seems like a lot of people collected these as I’ve come across them several times now, sometimes in large quantities. They were used between 1962-1990 to pay the toll at the Jacques-Cartier and Champlain bridges. They’re not worth much, but again make for good yard sale material.
