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Health Care – What’s at stake!

Friday, September 22nd, 2017

Lessons learned at an estate sale:

It is time to take this health care debate beyond the claim that the Republicans are pushing this health care bill because it is actually a tax cut and was promised to their wealthier constituents.  Or to Trump’s involvement with the claim that he is interested only because he wants to take down everything Obama has ever done.

Put that aside and let’s take a look at what really is at stake.

The Health Industry in America is one of the biggest rip-offs around.  It is the quickest way to level the economic playing field and to force the middle-class American public to continue pushing that ball uphill to the place where the rich get richer and the poor just have a harder battle to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads.

That is a big claim, so let me give you an example of what happens today with health care where it is currently in these United States.

As many of you know,  we manage estate sales.  In the process, we interact with people who are in a change space – their lives are transitioning from one lifestyle to another.  That can be a good or a bad change space.

What about the ones in a bad place?????

How does that happen.

We just did an estate sale for a family where the mother died after a several year bout with Alzheimers.  The family did not institutionalize her, she stayed in her home and the family took turns taking care of her with the help of health care workers.  Every once in a while, but not often there was the trip to the hospital and once a short stay in a nursing home.

Because she lived longer than expected and the insurance ran out to underwrite some of the costs for the health care workers – the family had to sign their mother’s home over to the state to pay for her health care.  The family was forced to sell the home so the lien could be satisfied.  The state collected on the lien they placed on the home when the mother died.  It was not a large, very expensive home, but it is where this woman raised her children.

She was a woman who worked to maintain her home – who paid her mortgage – who thought she was leaving her children a small nest egg to help them through their old age and possible illnesses as they age.  None of that happened because of the cost of health care and the inadequacy of the current state of our health insurance.  She worked hard her entire life and at her death she left the state richer – not her children –  by the confiscation of her home with its mortgage paid in full.  Her health insurance ran out because she lived well into her 90’s.

I thought of those people who died in their 50’s having used very little of their health insurance benefits.  What happened to the reason for insurance – which is to average out those two people so things work out in the end.  Under our current system the state benefitted from both people – the one who died young left the state well off from having died, after having paid into health benefits without use and from the older woman who died after a very long life and a miserable disease to lose her home and its contents and everything else she had to the state.

Apparently, theis does work out, but not for John Q. Public.

The rabidness of the wealthier class and the strong push to get a health care bill passed which doesn’t cover a third of the population looks to me like pure greed.  I couldn’t quite put my finger on why, I just know the look and feel of greed.

This is simply another way to control. oppress, keep poor a society whose people will need to work hard just to keep their heads above water – with endless benefits to the wealthy..

After the experience of that estate sale, I understood more fully what is at stake when we talk about universal health care.  Or even trying to get rid of the little relief people received from the limited coverage of the Affordable Health Care Act.  I didn’t understand when all of that lobbying for the ADA was going on why the strong fight and what was at stake that made so many try so desperately  to make sure the Obama bill failed.

What was tragic about that sale – it is not the only one nor is it one of just a few – nor did it happen because of some unusual circumstances – it is a common occurrence under our present health care system.  And that sale was one of the more civilized way we strip people of their life’s work.  Many are losing everything through bankruptcy because of illnesses and bills that have to be paid to maintain a sick relative or yourself. Those instances are not as civilized as the estate sale.  To work with a family facing bankruptcy and still not able to provide the kind of health care their family member needs is beyond tragic.

I lived through Hillary Clinton’s attempt at dealing with health care when she was First Lady.  She said a lot – most of which was called lying. And she and her husband were shot down as harshly as possible over any and everything.  I wondered then what was at stake – it was clearly huge.

After her effort failed we all got to see why she felt so strongly about health care.  She was not lying.  She was right on target when she predicted that our health care premiums were going to start sky rocketing – and sure enough, monthly health care bills for many of us doubled and tripled very quickly after that.  It there became crystal clear what was so urgent about getting better health care for everyone.

Sometimes, all we need is a little actual experience to understand the dynamics and what is beneath the surface when something like this health care argument is going on.

You, wealthy American, may be fine and what you are doing may seem to be to your financial benefit.   Let me give you a word of caution. Your children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren are going to grow up in the society you create.  While this benefits you, it just might give them a horrid life that they will owe to your greed, selfishness and inability to see beyond your own gold-plated nose.

And joining the frey is Bernie Sanders.  The man who put out all kind of horrible images and names for Hillary Clinton.  Some say he laid the ground work and fertilized the land so Trump could reap a great crop.  Whether his actions were intentional or not, the end result was the same.

And so it continues.

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

 

 

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Posted in An Estate Sale, Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Blog, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Health | Comments Off on Health Care – What’s at stake!

A New World Order

Tuesday, April 21st, 2015

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2015

We first heard of a “New World Order” when George Bush was president and let those words slip.  We want to pick up those words and expand and change what that means – just a little.

We live and see others prosper as we recapture the past and move into the future world order.  Some of us see the past as that place full of light and goodness.  Others see this new technology creating that place full of light and goodness.  We think they are both wrong and totally destroying what they are trying to achieve and capture.  How does that happen?  How did and do they get it so wrong?

We have to go back to the old world understanding that we don’t own anything on this earth.  We contribute those ways of thinking to the ‘primitives’.  Those groups of people who didn’t understand and were very ‘unintelligent’ in their ways of thinking.  Their basic belief was that we don’t and can’t own anything in this world.  All of that changed.  But did it really or only in new constructs we chose to use to define who we are and how we live!

When we enter this world we do so with nothing except the body we take on at conception.  When we leave it, we leave with nothing – not even the body with which we have identified for as long as we have lived on this earth.  So how have we gotten everything so messed up, mixed up, confused and just downright wrong?

We need to go back to accept the fact of who we are instead of who our leaders have created us to be through their mythology – which we have accepted – and look at and accept who we really are and what we really own, if anything.  Once we do that, the Bettina Lifestyle is simple – it is a “New World Order” based on our shared humanity – and a joy to live.

Whatever we receive in this life is a gift and something we own only temporarily.  It really belongs to the earth – whatever that means.  So we should take care of every pin, every dot, every tittle and iota that comes into our possession because it is not permanent and it is not ours.  We keep all of these things for a second and then pass them on to someone else, unless we have ruined all of what we have possessed in the meantime and then we throw our things into the landfills.  Those things we claim to own came from someplace else and are going someplace else when we no longer have use of whatever we have acquired.

Enter the Estate Sale – the Yard Sale – the Garage Sale.  All ways we use to get rid of our ‘old’ stuff’ that we no longer want nor think we can use.  The thought of taking care of our things because we are passing them along in the future very seldom enters our minds.  We are the throw away society.  We use it and throw it away.  And what happens to those waiting to receive those throw away items?  Sorry, but they were trashed, discarded, uncared for because the person using them interrupted the cycle by their inability to recognize their humanity and the need to share everything with those waiting to receive.  We have dehumanized those waiting to receive to justify the way we have dehumanized ourselves.  We have re-created ourselves in the image of the god we created who would put up with our sins, and wastefulness and uglinesses to ourselves and to others.

If we had taken good care of what we ‘owned’ temporarily, and understood that what we have must be used by someone else, those things would continue their lives and would continue to be useful someplace else and to someone else.

Some people can only buy and use “new” stuff.  Some of us delight and cherish the ‘old stuff’ that we find at Estate Sales.  It is like winning the lottery to find something wonderful for a fraction of what we would have to pay for the same item “new”.  It is living on society’s throw aways, but what a luxury life.

Clothes are the best example.  If you wear your clothes carefully, you can pass them on to continue to be used by someone else.  So Bettina provides for that.  Bettina Network, inc. has estate sales.  Bettina Network Foundation, inc. gives away that which is given to us to those who need the give-aways to be able to participate in this society.  How wonderful to find those give-aways in good condition.

There is no understanding of the ugliness and selfishness of the society in which we live until one becomes homeless.  You can understand it on a very small basis as you interact and see the political fights, the petty jealousies, the coveting thy neighbors belongings. You can understand it only so far, if you also have a position which pays you money to work; friends in the same or better position of whom you can be jealous; belongings which don’t quite measure up to those of your neighbors.  Homeless,  you are cut off from all of that and are standing outside alone or with children or with other family or with friends- all of you alone -it is a stark emptiness, fear and feeling of what was it all about and what is it all about now that I am on the street!  But oddly enough, that tendency to create negative structures in which to live is so strong that the homeless recreate the same scenarios only on a different level from that which we find in the society at large.  What stops that?  What intervenes to get rid of all the myths which we have created to continue this insanity?

To be homeless raises the question as to what got me in this place? Did I do something or not do something that I wound up homeless and cut off from everyone and everything except those in my condition?  There are a few people who reach out to help, but they are not my friends.  They are making themselves feel good as a part of their “belonging,”‘  enhancing their position in society; reaching out to ‘do good’, but going back into the lifestyle and the society which created the underbelly of people that are not doing so good.

Why do we throw away our children onto the streets?  Why do we cast our elderly into buildings which harbor and collect all of the germs and diseases one gets as one gets older and keeps them from being seen and interacted with by others – the normal younger ones?  Why do we eliminate youth and family from these buildings and put those who are only one step above the elderly in such places to ‘care’ for them?  Is there something about youth who don’t tow the line and the elderly who shouldn’t be seen with the rest of us that makes us segregate?

As racism subsides are we so quickly replacing it with this form of elder-ism and creating more isms – so we don’t run out and might have to acknowledge our equality?  Separate and unequal now true for the elderly and for our children?

It is interesting that one sees, on the streets, people active until about age 70 and then it is rare to see those much older unless we see them amongst the homeless.  We have to go out of our way to these elder-buildings to see anyone older than 70.  Why do we so desperately need to be better than, that we will destroy other human beings to fill our need to be better than?

Marketing and advertising create the image of being stunned by those over 40 who look good (translate young) – who are not ill – who are active in society.  We just gasp at a 50 year old who looks younger and is still very active.  Corporations almost totally refuse to hire anyone over 45 and we go along with that.  Somehow, wisdom does not count.  And we can see that in how our society operates.  If wisdom were allowed in, and we commonly shared the experiences we have acquired  from having lived many years through much,  that might change the structures of our world and those who are busy creating this horror might have to give way to others who understand, acknowledge and act out of our common humanity.

If we treated our possessions as being with us only temporarily would that change all of this?  If we consciously understood that when we leave this earth we would not even be able to do so taking our own bodies?  Would that make a change?  If we passed on what we now own and use when we either no longer want or need it and we passed that on in good shape to others would all of this change?

As of now, wearing clothes someone else bought and wore and now throws away is not considered great.  Many of us won’t wear other peoples’ clothes.  We expect to immediately get sick and die from some terminal disease we catch in that process.  This need for new stuff and only new stuff has been created by a marketing and advertising campaign which has made us deathly afraid of each other and sometimes of ourselves.  We must feed the “growth through throw away” societal structure.  The faster we can get others to discard and throw away the faster new industries and companies can grow.

Look at this, –  we can’t stand to be around someone who has an odor. That has created a whole industry, which is thriving.  Try it sometimes and see how repulsed your friends and even your family can be if you smell.  And we all smell.  The exception is those who temporarily get rid of their smell by using chemicals which in the long run are harmful to one’s health.  Maybe those products need the addition in their television commercials to list all the bad things they do to the body, if you use them, as soothing music plays in the background.  Your smell is as unique as everything else.  Get used to it.  Can you walk into a room and know any of the people who just exited by the odors left or do you know the odors left by the brand of the chemicals used by the individuals?

We prefer to be around those who have more than we do and we will do some strange things to each other reaching ‘up’.  We cater to those who seem to have more, hoping they will acknowledge us and pull us ‘up’ with them.  And those already ‘up’ are doing their best to distance themselves from those who have less because they don’t want their ‘position’ compromised, especially by the unwashed.

Take a look at what keeps us without an odor – full of chemicals.  Take a look at what  keeps us clothed – chemicals, oil, especially in the middle classes and you will find these  chemicals and processed oils giving off gases into our bodies.  The food the chefs, who now make millions of dollars for the prattle produce, – can be really fowl, only we claim it to be exquisite because we repeat what we are expected to repeat to stay a member of the group.  Once upon a time these Chefs touted Olive Oil as the only Oil to cook with if you wanted to be healthy.  Slowly, too slowly, word got out that one can’t really cook with Olive Oil because it goes rancid as the temperature in the pot goes up and it doesn’t have to go up very far for the rancidity to appear killing all of the B vitamins in our system.

Try life in this New World Order.  Take good care of what you currently own,  with the thought that it will be owned by someone else in the not too dBettina Trademarkistant future and you want to preserve it so it can continue to be used and enjoyed.  Pass your belongings on to those who either won’t or can’t pay the top dollars required of the people buying new stuff.  What is this new stuff they are buying?  Shoes full of chemicals way into four figures; New pocketbooks which show off a certain status costing into five figures.  Instead of landfill, make sure those items with which you currently live are in such good condition they can be passed on to others to enjoy.

Find someone homeless and bring them into your social circle.  Include them in your parties, your dinners, your outings, your vacations.  You don’t have to provide them with permanent housing.  When dinner is over they go back to their homeless state.  When you return from vacation, they go back to their homeless state.  When you pass someone homeless on the street – smile and speak.  When you pass anyone on the street – smile and acknowledge your common humanity.  What will that do?  Possibly cure this society’s penchant for creating homelessness and then not taking responsibility for what we have created.  How? By acknowledging our common humanity.  If I have a lot in common with that person on the street how can I do otherwise than to at least speak.  Maybe one day……………..

As the homeless are more included in your life and the lives of your friends and family maybe they will see another way to move out of the state they are in.  Maybe doors have been opened for them and within them to help move them off the street.

Try this beginning of a truly New World Order and see how far it takes you and us.

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

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Posted in Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Foundation, Bettina Network Info, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Class in America and the World, Empathy, Estate Sale Analysis and Info, Growing Old, Hedge Schools, Moving Sale, politics, Press Release, Press Release from Bettina Network, Spiritual Reflection, Ubuntu | No Comments »

How Exciting is This!!!!!

Tuesday, June 24th, 2014

Sometimes life gives you lemons, sugar and beautifully clear water all at the same time and all mixed together ready for you to drink.

That is how we feel this morning in Bettina Networks little community.

Why?

Something very small, but very important in the way we live and are with each other.

At the end of a Bettina estate sale, everything left goes to the Bettina Network Foundation and we look for those who are in need and work with them to help them establish a better, more productive lifestyle.  We prefer helping those who are recently homeless, because they have the greater need.

Well, one such person established a new policy with these sales.  It is called “When you are given something, give back.”  No matter how little you have you can always find a way to give to others.

One young woman, in difficult circumstances, was given a dining room table and chairs from one of our sales – something that didn’t sell.  She called the person from Bettina’s who gave her the gift and said “I would like to help on your next sale.”  And help she did.  She didn’t help in the actual sale, she helped during those evening hours after the sale when we pack and move what is left to clean out the house and leave it ‘broom clean’ for the next inhabitants.

We couldn’t have finished our last sale without her help.  What she did was to make it possible for someone else to receive a gift as she had and to make sure the gifts could continue to be given because we were fulfilling our obligations to those who were ultimately providing these gifts.

At the end of her work evening – and she worked unbelievably hard – she decided she wanted to join our small band permanently.  She liked what we did – the way we were with each other – and felt she had a lot to contribute.

She also wholeheartedly joined the rest of us who do this work for the benefits of weight loss and the exercise it provides.  We don’t have to join a gym to work out we have our own calisthenics and weight loss machines to help us reduce fat and move it around the body from one place to another:)   I won’t give her name.  You will see her around Bettina Network activities and hope you will reach out to embrace another human being who has decided it is time for all of us to look out for each other – without agendas.

We all need to give back.  No matter how independent we think we are and no matter how strongly we consider ourselves ‘self-made’.

Sometimes, we just don’t know how to give back or to who.   Well, Bettina Network Foundation is providing a way for you to do that.  Join us and help us to help more people get their lives on a new footing.  We are lawyers, doctors, management, sales people, bankers, therapists, psychiatrists and the very young learning to live in a way that we thrive realizing and committing ourselves to make sure that others thrive also.

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Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

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Posted in A Scattering Sale, An editorial just because, An Estate Sale, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Foundation, Bettina Network Info, Bettina Network NEWS, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Estate Sale Analysis and Info, Moving Sale, Shopping, Thought for the Day | Comments Off on How Exciting is This!!!!!

Bettina Network Foundation

Thursday, June 19th, 2014

We are working with an attorney to finalize the Bettina Network Foundation and to shepherd it through a 501(c)3 filing.

If you have asked Bettina Network to manage your Estate Sale, or Moving Sale or Scattering Sale or Antique Sale you know there are two parts to the sale and when it is over everything left is handled by Bettina Network as we work towards leaving the house “Broom Clean” because either it has been sold; the people have deceased and this is one step in the process of settling an estate or etc.

What happens to those ‘left overs’.

That is one of the exciting parts of the sale.  At the end of the sale Bettina Network takes everything left and oversees those items getting directly to people who are newly in a home from homelessness.  We make sure all of the items go to help furnish the new home of someone or several someones who need all of the things which make life comfortable.

That is a very important step for those leaving a life of living on the street to living in an apartment or other kind of home.  They need everything and we try to help provide that by working with those who have vetted people to whom we give the items left over from a sale.

Hopefully, when our 501(c)3 comes through we will be able to give a receipt to the people who have given us their items left over from a sale, which they can include in their federal tax return as a deduction.

There are those who have reached the status of “Gold” members of Bettina Network Foundation  because of what they have given and the spirit in which they have given to others.

To know more about what we do to give back – click on the Foundation link on the Bettina Network web site.  It is in the process of being updated, but should contain more information shortly.

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Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

 

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Posted in An Estate Sale, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Info, Bettina Network NEWS, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Estate Sale Analysis and Info | Comments Off on Bettina Network Foundation

Bettina Network Estate Sales

Tuesday, June 10th, 2014

I had to send in this blog and hope you will publish it.  I really had second thoughts about sending it because I don’t want too many people to know what I have discovered – don’t like the competition, but you have an openness that I have seldom found in this world so  I will depend upon your wisdom because of the many benefits I am receiving from being a part of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community.

We recently asked you to manage our parents’ estate sale because we have inherited a houseful of furnishings and I thought you would be the best person for the job.  When we asked you I was a little taken aback by your ending requirement that what is left over after the sale be given away, first to those who are members of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community and then to those who purchased at the sale.  My natural instinct is to want all of what is mine and give away very little to others.  In addition, I want others to give to me.  I don’t know how else to put it.  That makes me sound pretty bad,  but it is true and clearly my sentiment is shared by many.

My wife and I talked about this and we realized that we have benefited from your ‘give away’ policy.  There are several items we needed to furnish our apartment when we had very little.  I went to one of your sales with $5 to spend looking for a birthday present for my wife.  I bought a pocketbook.  You wrapped it beautifully in the wrapping paper that you gave me and my wife was delighted.  More recently, we wanted a microwave.  When we received the invitation to come back for the free part of your sale, there was a microwave and we brought it home.  That is when we realized the genius of what you are doing and we want to be a part of your business so I called this morning to ask you to take on the management of our estate sale for my deceased parents and whatever is left over at the end of the sale we will gladly give to whoever comes along who needs or wants some of those items that did not sell.  At first, we wanted to limit you to only giving away small items and you would not accept the sale under those circumstances.  We realized we would not have our microwave oven if that were the case so yes, we want you to go ahead under your terms and just drag us along albeit kicking and screaming all the way.

We were also at your sale when a couple came along looking at the rosary beads you had on the table with other things for sale.  They were not priced.  When the woman eyed the rosaries, picked up one and asked for the price we were floored when you said you would not sell a rosary, but she was welcome to accept it as a gift from the owner.

What do I know now?  I will be more giving and I know when I need something I will look for one of your sales, bring my Bettina password and just maybe there will be what I need waiting for me when my money is short and my need is large.  It takes a lot to survive this life to the end.  It takes even more to thrive.  With a little help from my friends I will get through.  I certainly didn’t expect genuine help to come from a commercial business.

I think I will just hang-out at your next sale.  I loved those moments.  Keep up the good work and may God bless what you are doing.

A fan and now a follower – Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ed. Note:  We removed the persons name because we are hyper about privacy and would like to respect the privacy of others.

Thank you very much for those kind words.  It is nice to know someone gets what we are doing and not only approves, but enjoys the process.  We will do our best to continue to earn your respect and will work very hard for you with the distribution of your parents lifetime collections.

________________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

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Posted in A Scattering Sale, An Estate Sale, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Estate Sale Analysis and Info, Guest comments, Moving Sale, Spiritual Reflection | Comments Off on Bettina Network Estate Sales

How to Live Elegantly Spending Less

Saturday, November 2nd, 2013

copyright 2013  Bettina Network, inc.

Estate Sales – Yard Sales – Home Liquidations – and many more names which describe a family or individual or group of people selling what they can’t use, don’t want, need money so they sell the things they own, etc.

These sales provide you with an opportunity to really buy what you need and what you can’t find elsewhere because it is probably not sold anymore.  It is also your opportunity to buy something “real” instead of the pressed paper furniture, plastic made to look like glass, really expensive clothes which don’t last the season, etc.  Try the book sections in estate sales instead of the library.  For $1 or $2 you can snag really great books and sometimes first editions.  Although the first editions may cost as much as $5.  And then pass them along for others to read.

How do you live like this?

Instead of shopping at the mall – make a list during the week of what you need and would shop for-  at the mall, the big box stores, the discount houses, the really upscale designer original shops, the one of a kind furniture stores – to continue to live well and comfortably.

Look up the sales – usually over the weekend – map them out so you can easily go from one to the other without doubling back – and off you go to this new lifestyle.

Many sales by professional estate sale people take credit cards and some even take checks.  When you hit one by owner you probably will need to have cash, although some private sales also take checks.

A real find is the liquidation of an estate which includes all the things the person used in life and now must be ‘scattered’ to others.  All the basics you need for your home you will probably find at these sales.  It is like shopping all the different departments at the stores you may now frequent and which max out  your credit card and ruin your credit.  The estate sales will let you live in the same or better style and you will find your credit card bill much reduced and very manageable at the end of the month.

I wanted a bread baking machine, but didn’t want to spend the $100 plus dollars it cost to buy one – and I tend to have very high end taste.  I will sniff and look down my nose at anything not well made with less than top quality materials.  Especially those items copied from their beautiful, elegant forebears.  But I also have a very low end budget so I shopped for three week-ends until I found my bread baking machine.  It was brand new, still in the box, still sold at the Bloomingdale’s of the world and I paid $20.

My neighbor was going to a very elegant birthday party and wanted something with lots of bling to wear.  She found a beautiful Valentino dress – in her size and with the sales slip and price tag still hanging on the dress.  It was beautiful.  Not as much bling as she wanted, but it screamed luxury and fit her perfectly.  Because she found this at the end of that particular estate sale she paid $18 for a dress with a price tag over $500.  She bought shoes to match, at the same sale, which didn’t fit her 9 1/2 feet, but fit my 7 1/2 feet very comfortably.  She bought them for me for $5 as a ‘thank you’ for turning her on to the estate sales.  She went off to her birthday party beautifully dressed with her old shoes, which still looked great with her new dress.

That goes for every part of your life.  You have to be patient, but in the end patience is rewarded as you find that what you want always turns up at one or another sale.

My kitchen is total testimony to this lifestyle.  It is fully stocked with every gadget around, none of which cost me over $1 or $2.  I profited from our American penchant to buy what we think is really great and will make our lives easier, put it in the drawer or closet and never use it – content with the fact that we have it  ‘just in case.’  I imagine what the person who owned the gadgets I bought was thinking when they went to the store to buy these items – which at the time they couldn’t live without.

I just foolishly bought two shelving units for my attic – to store an ever increasing stash of clothes (my weakness – probably coming from my modiste grandmother).  I bought them brand new from a very upscale hardware store.  They cost $120 each for the component parts I needed to put together the kind of shelving that would help me store these clothes carefully so I could reach whatever I needed in seconds.  At the very next estate sale I went to, there were several shelving units just like the ones I had just bought.  I bought two more at this sale – took them apart – washed them because they were in the basement of the home where I was shopping – put them together the way I wanted them to be and WOW – I had two more units for which I paid $10 each.  What a difference.  My impatience cost me $220 which would have been much better spent on something else, or given to someone who needed a little lift in life.  Having to wash the units didn’t bother me.  I took them apart so I could re-assemble them into my storage needs and carefully washed each piece.  Since they were very good quality stainless steel and beautifully made – not the flimsy kind one finds in the stores these days – they looked like new when I re-assembled them into closets for the attic.

Now I am looking for glass containers for flour, sugar, rice – all the things that need storage in the kitchen, but elegant storage.  I am looking for antique glass or porcelain or any other kind of container which is easily cleaned and looks very elegant to add to what I already have in the kitchen.  I don’t expect to pay more than $2 or $3 per container – for a really great one I will go up to $5 so when I get home from the grocery store I can ‘decant’ my primary cooking ingredients into them and have them within reach.  Because they are going to be very beautiful they will look just fine on the counters in the kitchen.  They will also be home to  the organic teas and spices that I love – and it will keep them fresh and constantly used because I won’t have to reach around and behind other stuff  only to  find them moth infested because they are still in their paper and other kind of containers.

That goes for every part of your life.  You have to be patient, but in the end patience is rewarded as you find that what you want always turns up at one or another estate sale.

I think you get the message.  Happy hunting – maybe one of our blogs will suggest a way for you to use all of the money you are going to save with this new way of life.  It certainly brings ‘recycle’ to new heights.

Ed Note:  For the purposes of full disclosure, Bettina Network, inc. manages estate sales across the country.   The sales will soon be a benefit to those who belong to Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community.

________________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

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Posted in An Estate Sale, Estate Sale Analysis and Info, Housekeeping, Moving Sale, Shopping | Comments Off on How to Live Elegantly Spending Less

The Morning After

Monday, April 29th, 2013

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2013

Estate Sales should be staffed by psychiatrists and psychologists who are looking for material to use in writing a book about all of us.

At some time or other we all pass through – either an estate sale or a bed & breakfast.  We pass through as a guest or as proprietor of a bed & breakfast (defined in the old fashioned sense of a private home which welcomes guests) or the owner or executor of items sold via some kind of estate sale.

Our goal, the Bettina Network’s goal, in this business as in our lives is to be truly responsible to the environment; to quality in all our offerings and the way we offer them; to diversity, acceptance, equality and especially respect of others.

That said – we would like to pass on to you some of the lessons we have learned – and we will certainly take them to heart and do our best to incorporate them in our lives going forward.

One incontrovertible fact – the estate sale, scattering sale, antique sale, moving sale, art sale are social events.  Many people come to meet and greet; to see what is offered; to talk about themselves and their lives; to travel-in-place exploring the neighborhoods around the sales finding new places to eat – to visit – to enjoy.  What has been obvious to us for decades is the fact that antique people, estate sale people, artists, bed & breakfast people have some very similar personality and character traits in common.  So much so you can spot a ‘newbie’ in a few seconds.  Interestingly, that ‘newbie’ gains experience and moves up in the ranks very quickly.

Estate sales have three kinds of merchandise – the ‘real’ antique and old masters art, the collectible items, the new stuff being sold so it can be replaced with more new stuff.  Mostly, or should I say historically, those items are segregated into “classes” and sold separately in different sales.  Our way of doing business is to offer them all at once so you have the experience of seeing what one person has deemed important and collected over a lifetime or over the time they have spent in a particular house or profession.  One of our goals is to break those barriers and offer a Rembrandt and stainless steel spoon in the same sale.  We now have enough appraisers, art historians, consultants who are expert in just about every item out there working with us to be able to do that with confidence.  We hope as we move forward, you will gain enough confidence in us and in our ability to bring to you the best way of selling your art, furniture, collection, musical instruments, jewelry, cars, houses, stocks, bonds, other financial instruments and more, that we are the first and last people you call to engage to sell any and all of your earthly possessions.

Currently, the  ‘real’ antiques and old masters art works are the joy of every collectors heart.  They don’t even have to be able to afford the prices, they just like to look – to touch – to feel – to smell the items they have read about, would love to own but can be satisfied just being there to hear about the owners – where the items came from – how they were acquired – how they were taken care of, etc.  These folks love a bargain, but will pay a fair price because they know what they are buying will only increase in value over the years and they hope it will become a family heirloom and their inheritors will cherish those items left to them and will pass the stories surrounding the items down through the generations.  These are the dream clients.

The collectible items in sales appeal to a whole other group of people.  These are the people who are looking for that big score.  Finding that item for $1.00 which will sell for $100,000, but they will be content adding the 999th item to their collection of Disney, or old spoons, or interesting picture frames, or Victorian furniture which used to be in their grandmother’s house or…..  These are good clients, but their conversation is very different and their approach to an estate sale is very different from those looking for that exquisite work of art.   You don’t have a community forming with this group.   That strong bond forms with those looking for the antiques and old masters art works.  But you also don’t have the intense competition and extreme jealousies which can form around those looking for those antiques and art works even as their sense of community forms.  You do, however, have a lot of bragging going on about 195 items collected with only  804 to go to have an entire “collection”.  Out of this group can come those in whom a switch is flicked and the hoarder appears.

The third group is problematical – both those who own what is being sold and those who buy.  These are the people looking to furnish and add some luxury touches to their homes and generally they want to do it as cheaply as possible.  No problem with that, nor is that a negative.  Some of the people selling have bought items for their own comfort and enjoyment and want to recoup some of what they spent as they move on.  Others have done the same but want those buying this used merchandise to pay close to full price because they have their faces turned around and are so focused on ‘taking’ that ‘sharing’ is an unknown and unknowing concept to them.  There is not often a two way street here and there is very little recognition of anything except their need to squeeze everything and everyone around them dry, leaving nothing behind and even taking from those who don’t have much to give.  These tend to have bought and are selling poorly manufactured merchandise, have lived with it very hard so it can be quite damaged and want others to pay a lot of money for their – no longer new and well worn goods.

Once you walk out of that nicely decorated store with its offer of interior decorators to help you place the items, choose colors, materials, window treatments which they make and more, the value of what you have bought and are probably having delivered drops immediately in value by at least 50% and each year thereafter that you keep that new merchandise, the worth of it drops ever more sharply.  The penalty for purchasing merchandise which is not beautifully crafted; not able to withstand the test of time over its design attributes; is poor material camouflaged to look like something it isn’t is the low price you get on the resale market.

To not recognize that fact and want others to pay for your enjoyment of goods you purchased which are not worth what you paid for them in the first place and which you have worn hard is a very unrealistic place to be and is either a naive or ignorant expectation.  This group is usually made up of those who are up-from and who turn a hard cold face to the world – responsibility and respect are not attributes which can be used to define their character.

And then there are the customers.  These are the ones who make psychiatric history.  Some of the antics we have observed should only be in books – fantasy books, unreal books, novels when one needs to create drama, or really – Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.

The customers who are most intriguing are those who come in to a home, find what they want, take out cash – usually about 10% of the price of the item – and wave it around in front of your face saying something like  ‘look, I have cash money for you right here, right now”.  I am never sure of their expectations.  Is the response to that supposed to be one where you put your tongue out as you hyperventilate because you are so eager to grab the cash you will do anything?  Are you supposed to follow their waving the cash around with longing looks in your eyes?  Do you faint on the spot because you are so close to cash and its affect is so overwhelming you just lose all control and all consciousness so they can rip you off before you can recover?  Or maybe you are expected to dance around them excitedly because they are so willing to pay so little to get so much?  Whatever the expected response, what they are showing are the really negative character traits we all recoil from and what is so, so sad – they don’t even realize – the emperor has no clothes and his/her real ugliness, rudeness, arrogance, disrespect of self is showing and neon signs are flashing out all kinds of messages for the world to see.

It gets even better!  An estate sale is the place to go to understand what large retail corporations have done to American Society and to other societies around the world in the name of competition, branding, marketing, advertising, selling strongly to people who don’t need what you are selling -can’t afford what you are selling – have lost the ability of discernment in things they think they need and struggle to buy and don’t know about the secrets some retailers are hiding behind those fancy packagings.  The need to bring non-profits into the picture, which is so commonly done today, blows smoke into your eyes. You need to gain back that lost discernment, but not yet – this feeling of your giving to those in need while buying what you think you want continues to cover the emptiness in you with the money you are spending for so very little in return.  The non-profts, in return, are losing their soul and their mission in that same process.  Their real, direct contributions drop.  The number of people knowing about their mission, committed to it, working to help bring about their goals drops dramatically in this process, but the mirage has been created and we all fall for it like 16 year olds whose hormones are raging.

It is at the estate sale where the customer goes to project upon those selling their feelings of anger, anxiety, being ripped off which they acquire when they are buying retail.   Some go to the estate sales to gain back the power they have lost in the greater society by parading around like the great and powerful of yesteryear, treating others as though they are the servants and have the job of mopping up what they leave behind.  It is to the estate sale we go to crap on the people selling because we can’t do the same to the large multi-national retailer ripping all of us off in the name of making a profit, because we don’t have the strength of character to be able to put blame where its due.

At the same time, the loveliness of shopping happens at estate sales because they are very personal and at the sales are the customers who have beautiful spirits and share some of their lives.  They share who they are, what they are looking for and why and who want to stay within their budgets and pay as little as possible but also want you to thrive and make sure, as best they can, that what they are buying and what they pay for what they are buying seems fair to all.  Sometimes, they share some of their dreams and visions of the future, what the world could be like, their problems, their great families, their ungreat families who have sent them out to strangers to share what’s in their hearts and I could go on for quite a few paragraphs.

Accordingly, having learned these lessons and a whole lot more, we are responding in a way which lessens the pressure on those selling with us (our staff) and which makes our days in this business much less stressful:

1)  We have established a “watch list”.  No we aren’t watching for thieves, they are the least of our worries.  We put on our watch list those who are ugly in spirit and want everything for themselves and enjoy ripping off others to get it.  They can’t do this in a larger context because it would be defined as a criminal act and they would have penalties to pay through loss of their freedom.  So we will use our “watch list” to exclude them from all future sales;  spend no time with them and discourage them from coming to Bettina Network Sales.

 

2)  The only people we will put on our ’email’ list, a list of those to whom we send notices of our sales – invitations to special events – invitations to previews of sales before they are open to the general public – will be people who are fully human; who understand and promote equality and diversity; who have reasons for buying other than to hit the jackpot by ripping off others.  How will we know these people?  Experience.  Work an estate sale for a few hours and you will also know!!!

 

3) The last day of our sales will be split in two.  The first half, items left will be half-price to those who have previously purchased items from our sales and the second half will be entertainment, refreshments and what is left given free to those who have receipts for having purchased previously or who have checked with us about people they know who are in need and who could use some of what is left.

 

4)  As time goes on, this list will get longer.  But for now it is a beginning.  We hope it is a beginning of the Reformation of retail in this world.  I can’t say in this American Society because it is not limited to the U. S. A., it goes across the world and is getting stronger.  An ethical, responsible, strong and good character is what is needed to overcome the greed, avarice, jealousy, obscene profits, now driving this and other industries.  If that is what you have – join us!  We would love to manage your sale; house your travelling guests; be a lifestyle reference.

________________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted in A Scattering Sale, An Estate Sale, Estate Sale Analysis and Info, Making Connections, Moving Sale | Comments Off on The Morning After

Looking for Staff at our very unusual company

Tuesday, April 16th, 2013

Bettina Network, inc. is looking for people who are passionate about estate sales and want to join our team a part time person working estate sales.

There is much space for progress up the ladder of a fun, demanding, exciting, innovative company.

We are also looking for people who code/program/web design/e-commerce.  Same thing – start as a part time person and work your way up the ladder of success.

call us at 617 497 9166 or 800 347 9166

________________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

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Posted in Estate Sale Analysis and Info, Job Opportunities, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Looking for Staff at our very unusual company

A Great New Year’s Resolution

Monday, January 7th, 2013

copyright 2013 Bettina Network, inc.

We encourage you to follow our example.

OUR RESOLUTION FOR 2013:  we will no longer buy at retail stores, shopping malls, etc. – except on that very rare occasion when we can’t stop ourselves – but as time goes on we hope our faith in the system sustains us and we can make it through with this new way of life.

In 2013, we are only going to buy from Estate Sales, House Sales, Yard Sales, etc.:)  Fantastic.  It is about time someone tried that.

While this may sound a bit self-serving, since a part of the Bettina Network is about managing public and private sales, this idea has been hanging around far longer then our business.

Society looks at people who try this as those who do it out of desperation and can only afford to buy at “used goods” sales.  Even those who can only buy this way feel sorry for themselves and pine for the day when they can shop the malls and all the other retail places to shop.  They have been pitied by most of us for having to live on such merchandise. Those who are wealthier tend to buy at “antique sales” – showing their upward mobility and class status change, especially if they are buying at antique auctions of the New York and California variety.

We used to go to such sales to buy the choice pieces which couldn’t be found anyplace else.  And then one day we noticed there was a screw driver – practically new for only $1.00.  The exact same item was much more expensive in the Hardware Stores because I had been looking and pricing them trying to figure out average, better and best –  so – hey – why not buy it here, especially since the one I was looking at was one deemed the “best”.

And then we began to notice other things and began to really enjoy the sales.  We buy all of our clothes at estate sales now and we dress beautifully – mink coats, rabbit jackets, racoon long coats practically dragging the floor (because they were made for someone taller, but it looks much more lush on us), fake fur capes, leather gloves and more.  We even buy our stockings and undies at sales.  AND – before you make ugly comments, they are all brand new with the price tags still attached and with the stockings, they are still in the sealed plastic wraps.  Most people seem to buy more than they need so they won’t run out – and they don’t – death catches them before they run out of stockings or other such things.  We even find an enormous amount of clothes – brand new – with price tags still attached – and some are more than 30 years old.  They have been in someone’s closet forever and never worn.

I love to find houses where the people who lived there for years had their everyday items, which they used all the time – and their “good” items, which were never used.  I can go through those houses and come out needing help to carry stuff to the car and have spent about $70 to $90 instead of the four figures such things would cost at the retail and luxury stores.  The luxury stores are where most of  the “good stuff” comes from.  The everyday heavily used items have come from the discount stores and aren’t good for much except discard.  The “good stuff” has generally been purchased at great personal cost because it shows an upward movement and is not used because the people buying it and using their everyday stuff while saving the “good stuff” know they can only afford to buy such once in a lifetime so it can’t be used.  A dilemma which has shown up some interesting new habits throughout this consuming society.  The “good furniture” in a middle-class home was traditionally covered in plastic.  That habit has come in for many jokes and for much poking of fun, but think about it.  If you can only afford to buy a beautiful sofa once in your lifetime and know you can’t afford to have it recovered and it can be cleaned only with great difficulty and high expense you have to do something to preserve it.  The alternative is to live with a lesser item and that doesn’t work in this upwardly mobile, consumer ridden society.  We always aspire for more then we can afford – and generally overlook real gems under our noses which would give us a better and more elegant lifestyle.

We also began to notice we could buy all of our cleaning needs at these sales for $1.00 and sometimes even as little as $.50.  We found Gel Gloss – new and unopened, which costs much more than the fifty cents we paid for it. And on and on and on.

And then we started picking up all other kinds of things we hadn’t thought about buying at house sales.   – Last week at a sale there was a new piece of heavily quilted and tufted aluminum foil.  We didn’t know what it was for,  but it looked ideal to be cut into pieces to put behind the radiators to keep the heat reflecting back into the room – thereby saving energy.  It cost us $2.00.  As we were leaving the woman who organized the sale said – “hi, are you going to insulate your hot water heater”?  Wow – we realized that is what it was for,  so instead of cutting it up, we went home and wrapped the hot water heater so it would be insulated and reduce our gas and electricity bill.  Wouldn’t have known that – and before arriving at that particular sale, I was thinking about calling a plumber to get our hot water heater wrapped.  As we were leaving the sale, an elderly gentleman, realizing we knew nothing about wrapping hot water heaters, and was observing when we discovered I didn’t even know what it was that I was about to buy, gave us a lesson on how to do wrap the hot water heater when we arrived home.

So now, we are really on the look out for EVERYTHING and realized – if we went to the sales with a list of what we need – we might not find it at the first sale, but shortly thereafter we will turn up what we need at a fraction of the cost.  All of my Christmas presents came from house sales.  That was fun and I didn’t have to break the bank to celebrate Christmas – and my love is giving handcrafted, unusual items as gifts.  The sales let me do all of that.

History buffs should love this way of buying.  I have learned so much history in the process, that I can’t believe  I have come so late to this way of being a consumer.  And the real treat is to be able to look around other peoples houses to see how they live.  I have picked up decorating ideas, organizing ideas, – have seen lifestyles I didn’t dream existed and more from traveling around to house, garage, yard and estate sales.

I guess you might say we are becoming estate sale addicts.  Can’t go the week without finding a sale.  And you know you are addicted when you buy a size 9 boot when you actually wear a size 7 because it was $5.00 and you saw the same boot at Neiman Marcus for over $300.

There is – surprisingly – a community that forms around these sales.  You get to know other people at the sales because you travel around shopping this way and they are far friendlier than the people I see at Bloomingdale’s.  Even the store clerks at Bloomies treat me arrogantly and I bathe every single morning.  When they talk down to me I almost want to say – ‘I have more money than you do – so there’.  But I am far too old to let my inner urgings take over.

The people selling at estate sales are quite a different crowd then the retail clerks at the Macy’s of the world.  They know more – for one thing.  They generally can tell you all about the merchandise they are selling because they are collectors of antiques and other items and have to love and know history to do that.  I have learned so much about life at these sales.  There is always an anecdote that has to be told.  The sales conducted by the family are just as interesting because you get to know when and where particular items were collected and how grandmother loved that vase and you hear the story of the clock grandpa bought or the piano where they had to have soup for years thereafter because they spent so much money on it, but they wanted their children to have a piano and the best they could buy – and now were selling it because the grandchildren weren’t interested in it – they wanted a new piano, much more poorly made, with a lesser sound, but which looked “new and modern”.  A little olive oil rubbed into that ‘old’ piano for a few months would make it look beyond ‘new and modern’, it would look old, treasured and exquisite.

One of my grandchildren expressed the appallness of her parents about my buying shoes someone else had worn.  So I have developed a recipe for all of you to use when buying used shoes, boots, clothes, etc. and it goes like this:

For shoes, take cotton – or old newspapers – and sprinkle it liberally with essential oil of lavendar – preferably organic essential oil of lavendar.  Stuff the shoes with the cotton or whatever you are using.  Drop them into a plastic bag, of which you have many from the store – don’t go out and buy new bags – and let them sit on the side of a storage room or other out of the way place for a couple weeks.  Anything in that shoe will have vanished when you take it out of the lavendar-scented bag and your shoes will smell heavenly.

For used clothes – we buy “dryel” or “woolite”.  We buy “dryel if it is something we think needs to be cleaned in a plastic bag or “woolite” if we just need to purify the items.  Put the clothes or afghans, draperies, or whatever you have purchased that needs cleaning,  in the “dryel” bag and put it in the dryer for a turn on the “normal” setting.  When the dryer stops, immediately take them out of the bag or the dryer and let them hang until the odor of the dry cleaning substance begins to fade.  Then you can either send them to the dry cleaners if they need spots and such removed or they are ready to be put in your closet without fear of whatever contamination by another human being worries you.

Essential oil of lavender, which you use in the shoes,  is a disinfectant and can be used in many other ways.

I needed a stand for my television set and nothing I found seemed to fit.  Everything I liked was over $100 – way over – and made of pressed paper.  However, browsing an estate sale I found a beautiful Oriental cabinet, just the right height – with bamboo trim, beautifully lacquered and painted with semi-precious stones worked into the painting for $45.  That was my final sign that this was the way to go.  I was thrilled – brought the cabinet home and it was perfect.  It had drawers in the front so I was able to put all of the things I stored in the present tv stand I was using, in the drawers and the look dressed up the room unbelievably!  The old tv stand that I needed to retire was made of pressed paper (that imitation wood) and was beginning to just fall apart – as such things do after only a few years.

I could go on for pages.  We have converted several Bettina Network host families to stop shopping in retail stores – so we will tell you the stories of their adventures or misadventure as they happen and will also try to introduce the topic at breakfast to see if any of our guests find this a great lifestyle or if they find us crazy.

Hopefully, we will come up with tips to help you as you take up this new passion.

________________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

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Posted in A Scattering Sale, Estate Sale Analysis and Info, Housekeeping, Shopping | Comments Off on A Great New Year’s Resolution

Dr. Alice Amsden’s Commemoration at MIT

Saturday, November 3rd, 2012

Dr. Alice Amsden, Barton L. Weller Professor of Economic Development, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Over the weekend of October 20, 2012 MIT held a commemoration/memorial for Dr. Amsden and it was recorded and published.  One of  the Bettina Network Community members called to ask that we post the email on Bettina Network’s Blog that we sent to those who purchased at Dr. Amsden’s Scattering Sale.  She had forwarded the link to a couple friends and they said the content of the weekend should have a wider ciculation and encouraged her to have the commemoration put on the blog.

In that spirit, the link follows and we invite you to take a look.  It was a tremendous couple of days and an opportunity to both pay tribute to Dr. Amsden and to learn about her ideas, work and family.  We came away with a much greater understanding of what she was about and a different set of ideas about how the world could work.

We sent the following message to those who purchased items at this sale and decided to share it with the Bettina Network’s world.

http://amsden.mit.edu/program/

http://ttv.mit.edu/videos/21431-alice-amsden-commemoration-part-1

“A couple months ago you purchased items at a Bettina Network Scattering Sale which were from the estate of Alice Amsden.

There was a memorial service for Ms. Amsden at MIT recently, which is now on-line.  We have included, at the top of this email, the link for you to use to see this service.  It is a fantastic tribute to Dr. Amsden and it gives you an idea as to who she was, her work, ideas, colleagues and more.

Some of us keep as much of a provenance of the items we buy as possible.  We assume you are one of us and would like to have this information that you can peruse as you wish.  There are six parts to the video and it is excellent.

Thank you for being a part of the Bettina Network Community and for the purchases you made at the Alice Amsden Sale.  We hope this video becomes a part of your collection and you keep it with the items you purchased from Dr. Amsdens estate.

At Bettina Network we are working on building a research library which would include such information on all the items we sell so the next generation will be able to search for and find the art, furnishings, everyday items and more of those who meant a lot to them.  I still wonder what happened to some particular items from my grandmother’s estate.  I would very much have appreciated being able to search for those items, so we are working to give others that opportunity.

We also hope the research library will be used by researchers, appraisers, historians and others to gain an idea into who owned what, why, its value when it was sold and its history before it was acquired by that particular person.

We hope this video is as meaningful to you as it was to us.  Besides the ideas and discussion in this Commemoration, the video about Alice Amsden from baby to the end of life was beautifully done as was the tribute to Dr. Amsden by her family.

We commend it to you with our best wishes and thanks!”
_______________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

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Posted in A Scattering Sale, Bettina Network Info, Estate Sale Analysis and Info, Making Connections, Memorials, Preserving Family History and Stories | Comments Off on Dr. Alice Amsden’s Commemoration at MIT

A Bettina Network, inc. Scattering Sale

Friday, August 3rd, 2012

  A  BETTINA NETWORK, INC SCATTERING SALE

Available “on location’

In Two Parts:  (See Press Release at bettina-network.com/blog/ to understand how Bettina Scattering Sales work.)

First Part – On-Line. from July 31, 20112 through August 4, 2012

Available thru On-Line Auction

 

 

 

Second Part – On Location. From August 3, 2012 2pm thru 7pm Thru  August 4, 2012 10am thru 5pm

Front View of Desk

 

The location is:  36 Irving Street, Cambridge, MA. 02138 Harvard Square off Kirkland Street (Irving is a one way street)

When you place a bid in this Silent Auction, your name is entered into the “Gift” pot along with others who bid at this sale.  The Gift given to the person whose name is chosen is a one night stay in a bed & breakfast in Concord, MA.

We know you will be respectful of the neighbors, especially since parking can be a problem in this neighborhood.

The worldly goods of Dr. Alice Amsden,  Professor of Political Economics at MIT in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning and Researcher at MIT Center for International Studies are being offered to you.  The things with which she surrounded herself to make her life more comfortable.   Dr. Amsden’s collection includes Japanese, Korean, Chinese and English furniture which she inherited from her family. Other items in this sale include: books, posters, cut glass, porcelain, jewelry, wall hangings, Korean platform bed, American futon bed beautiful wood, REF INF1200 – boxes unopened, Jevity 1.5 cal cans – six unopened boxes, dozens of VHS tapes from Japan and U.S. – still in the shrink wrap, dozens of VHS tapes custom taped of sports events-historical events-unusual stories dating from 1986, interesting objet d’art, stainless steel pots, iron pots, lots of porcelain bowls-plates-other forms, leather jackets, suede jackets, Japanese smoking jacket, new tennis shoes, other clothes, books, CD’s, paintings, lots of Japanese Lustreware and more.

English Regency-style Drop Leaf Table

On-line at www.bettina-network.com, you will find a silent auction part to this sale which ends August 4th at 5pm.  The items offered in the silent auction are different from the items for sale on location.  They are all in the same location and can be viewed online now or starting August 3rd at the Amsden Scattering Sale location. Both sales end at the same time.

The items in the silent auction will be sold to the highest bidder.  All bids for the silent auction must be made on line.

Exquisite Rug

For more information see Bettina Sales on our web site at bettina-network.com

The second part of the sale is on-location at 36 Irving Street, Cambridge, MA. 02138.  That sale starts August 3rd from 2pm – 7pm and August 4th 10am through 5pm.

The on-line and on-location items are both located at the same place in Dr. Amsden’s Cambridge – Harvard Square home.

English, Spanish and French spoken to help you get as much information as possible in a language you know best.

Purchase an item at this sale and you are invited back to the house for a small Sunday afternoon musical.  Bring your receipt – which is your invitation – look around the house and take with you whatever you would like which has not been sold as a gift to you at no charge and help us leave the house in a ‘broom clean’ condition.  At the same time, enjoy a bit of wine – tea – coffee – pastries and the flute music of Orlando Cela, well known, accomplished, classical flutist.  

=======================================================================================================

Bettina Network, inc. is looking for people interested in working with us on estate sales.  You must speak at least two languages – one English – and have a love and understanding of elegant, different and unusual lifestyles.  A knowledge of art, antiques and history is a definite plus.  The work includes cleaning, researching, styling, greeting people at the sale and selling. You must have a strong need to grow and learn and can add to our vision of a Bettina Network Community.  The pay is low, the opportunities high and possibility for advancement has no cap. ===================================================================================

________________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in A Scattering Sale, Bettina Network Info, Estate Sale Analysis and Info, Job Opportunities, Preserving Family History and Stories, Shopping, Shopping Cambridge MA | Comments Off on A Bettina Network, inc. Scattering Sale

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