The Charlestown Treasure Sale happens quarterly, resulting in thousands of dollars for the Charlestown Benevolent Care Fund, the Film and Book Library, and other resident organizations. It is one of my favorite events looking for treasures among “stuff” from other residents.
The furniture comes from the cleanout of apartments. Family members take what they want after a resident dies and leaves the rest. Many times it means the entire contents of the apartment. The resident volunteers called ”Treasure Hinters” pack up and move the items to sorting rooms until the sale.
Sorting room volunteers sort, price, and pack items. Every quarter the furniture and boxes are moved to the Conference Center and Chesapeake locations. That is a two-day job.
The Chesapeake card room, library and lobby becomes the furniture store. The Conference Center becomes the 3-day ”Goodwill” of departments. Over 300 volunteers in blue t-shirts unpack the boxes, load up the tables with merchandise, and keep the tables stocked with the extra boxes under the sale tables.
Thursday is for residents and employees only. The public is invited on Friday and Saturday. Bargain day on Saturday means everything is half-price. Any clothing that can be stuffed in a brown grocery sack goes for $5. As one volunteer said, “you can get a lot of clothes in a sack if you roll them.”
It’s possible to outfit an apartment with furniture, lamps, pictures, dishes, linens, books, electronics, CDs, DVDs, and clothes. My favorite table is called Treasure Island. This is the spot for miscellaneous stuff which includes office supplies, greeting cards, all the small detritus found in our drawers, closets, and shelves.
My last find was in a baggie filled with cheap ballpoint pens for $1 with cheap ballpoint pens. Inside were two Parker 51 fountain pens. One is dated 1949. After a soak in a fountain pen cleaner, they write beautifully.
We have purchased furniture, a Keurig coffee maker, a set of dishes, Belleek dishes, and a DVD player over the years. Our rule of thumb is if we buy something at the Treasure Sale we need to give something to the Sale. That is easy to do as our neighbor down the hall does pickups for our building.
When I decided to get rid of our extra cost storage room, most of the contents went to the Treasure Sale. After a cleanout of our closets, I was able to store the luggage and Christmas decorations in the apartment.