A friend recently bought a new house and was wondering where to buy some furniture without breaking the bank. I mentioned estate sales or a flea market which she was not familiar with, so its worth a post.
In the Spring and Fall there are many estate and moving sales, which tend to be different from Tag or Garage Sales in their size. There are quite a few companies who run these sales and they usually start on a Friday and run through Saturday or sometimes Sunday. You can usually find these listings in your local town paper on Thursdays. These sales are not always cheap. I often roll my eyes at some of the prices they want for items but there are deals to be had and interesting items. If you want to be one of the first in, the ad for the sale will mention picking up numbers. Sometimes you can go pick up a number the night before or in the morning, often put in the mailbox. When the sale starts in the morning, they only allow a few people in at a time and shout out the numbers. Have your piece of paper with your number (and they change the paper color for each sale so nobody cheats) ready and get in early. Two estate sales companies with good sales (and I'm sure there are more, I've just gone to a lot of these sales in the area of Darien, New Canaan, Norwalk, Stamford, Wilton and Greenwich) is Within Reason and Good Riddance Girls. You can go to their websites and request to be put on their mailing list, so you know about all upcoming sales.
Good Riddance Girls: http://www.goodriddancegirls.com
Within Reason: http://withinreasonct.com
As for Flea Markets, there are two great ones not far from Fairfield County worth checking out. Elphant's Trunk and Stormville.
Elephant's Trunk is in New Milford and a 15 to 90 minute drive depending on where you live in Fairfield County. This place is so much fun and its every Sunday until the end of November. As its outdoors, it is weather dependent. Don't be surprised to see a TV show filming there such as HGTV's Flea Market Flip. You never know what you might find there, everything from mid century modern furniture to baseball cards to potted plants. There are a few food trucks on location and the donuts are a must - they are old fashion sugar donuts in a little bag and piping hot when served. The kids even like this place.
http://www.etflea.com/_/Home.html
Another good large flea market is "Stormville" in Stormville, NY. This flea market is huge but its just six times a year. The next event is in August. It is worth a trip, just to see it at least once.
http://www.stormvilleairportfleamarket.com
Another flea market (some call it an antique show) further away is in Brimfield, MA and draws a huge crowd. I've never been but hope to go one day. http://www.brimfieldshow.com This is a big one and people book hotel rooms for the event. If you go, Sturbridge Village is close by with some good colonial period fun for the kids. https://www.osv.org
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