It all started when I declared early November that I was pulling
all things Christmas from the attic and going through each and everything with the goal to decrease my
Christmas crap by 75%.
I have 20+ years of Christmas collecting, 7 moves including a 3 year storage unit, and the uncanny ability to block a mess out of my mind
if it is in the attic.
It is the perfect storm for a special holiday edition of
Hoarders.
Yep. That is it.
*shudder*
It took weeks to go through everything with help. I was excited to put up the tree and a few accessories and return less than 25% of the boxes to a very roomy attic.
In the process of the sorting, I came across our
Liberty Falls Village.
Well, due to rapid growth it might be re-classified as
Liberty Falls City.
Blog-Stedman
and I started collecting
Liberty Falls cottages right after we were married. They were featured at large department stores one a week for 5-6 weeks leading up to Christmas. They were $5 a piece and
we he made sure that we didn’t miss a week…
in years.
I know you are looking at that and saying to yourself,
Holly, that is pretty impressive, but those are only the early years of Liberty Falls Collectibles! But what about:
- the 57 single boxed cottages
- the 22 double & exciting triple boxed cottages often with bonus pewter people!
- 22 boxes of pewter people and animals
- 2 books
- 2 village scene mats
Oh! ya, I have those too…
It is a massive
Liberty Falls collection that has been taking up storage space for over 15 years.
I haven’t put them out at Christmas since 1995.
It is just too overwhelming.
I approached blog-Stedman with the idea of finding a new home for the collection. He was surprisingly receptive and went off to do a little research. He came back a few minutes later and said that he had found websites where the houses were listed for $15 – 30 each!
Holy crap. Our kids are going to a fancy college!
It would be much easier for us if we could find a buyer for all of them at the same time so blog-Stedman went back to the computer to see if people were selling Liberty Falls lots on eBay.
He came back a few minutes later and said that what people
were BUYING them.
They
were buying them at $1 – $3 a house.
What! We PAID $5 a house close to 20 years ago! Don’t these people see the value in our collection?
But then he went on to say that he had come across a rare season that we had missed…
and it was priced very reasonably.
I am one of those hoarders. I just started collecting Liberty Falls 5 years ago. There are over 350 pieces to this collection and I am down to the last 50. I would buy them. I love them and so does my kids. They both want me to will them to them. So I might need 2 sets. Holy cow trying to get one was a killer.
Patty
Hey, Patty. I have a complete set if you’re seriously interested.
If your still interested I have over 200 houses plus trees and figures .
Heh heh heh…I pulled my insanely heavy box of Liberty Falls stuff out last year and told myself that I would donate it because I hadn’t put it out since moving to my husband’s house (he had a house when we got married 11 yrs ago.) I also talked myself out of donating the box because 1) it was super heavy and I couldn’t lift it into the car, 2) my Mom was visiting and said “hey! why not sell it on eBay?” and 3) I was overwhelmed with other stuff going on at the same time…So, it sat next to the refrigerator in the garage ALL stinkin’ year long! Needless to say, I told myself I would donate it again this year…and it still sits there. You would think I would have asked DH to put it in the car for me but that hasn’t even happened either…I. Will. Donate. This. Crap. This. Year. Before. Christmas. There. I said it out loud. Now, maybe I’ll actually get it done. Sure would like the floor space in the garage.
It’s just nice to know I’m not the only LFV hoarder out there! I mean we paid good money for those stupid little houses right? I’m still not even sure why. I guess they were cute when I only had 8 or 9 but now that I have 100. Not so cute anymore. Love your blog!!!
Merry Christmas!
have u donated yet? interested. will pay for shipping 😉
Well, your Liberty Falls collection is way more practical that the 500+ Beanie Babies we collected in the 90s. You don’t even want to know how much we paid for the Princess Diana bear on the black market. Those are also worth zip now, so I guess we’re holding onto them in case they ever make a comeback someday. You never know…. someday those little houses could be antiques and you’ll make a ton of money. Hopefully.
Oh Holly Holy, that is an impressive haul of Christmas crap. I thought I had a lot.
Proud of you for purging. I don’t want to say I knew someone on Hoarders.
Bummer about the prices, I thought for sure your kids could now afford UT! ha!
Holly, do I need to submit you for a special holiday edition of Hoarders?
So much for that plan. Oh well, at least one of the boys will inherit the collection!
Replace your Liberty falls collection with fake trees of all sizes and fake poinsettias, and you have my Christmas storage area! Not for long though – we are doing a MAJOR purge and SOON! It has to be now instead of after the holidays, otherwise I’m just done and it all gets thrown back down there. 🙂
Mallory’s comment: “Your textual tone is freakin ™ hilarious!”
Although I wholeheartedly agree, the phase “textual tone” cracks me up and makes me feel a bit gutter-minded.
I hope you wrote back to her. 🙂
PS I also love how little man there is just sitting, looking at it all in awe as if to say, “Holy Snowglobes, Batman!! I had no idea! These stacks are bigger than me!”
Is it weird that all I can keep going back to is your light fixture in the first picture? I LOVE that light. I want one. I think maybe I have spent WAY too much time looking at this kind of stuff as we tried to sell this house.
The little village stuff is really cool (although as a former military wife, I can tell you that would have NEVER survived in our world). But seriously, the light? Well done, Holly.
Love,
Buffi who really needs to get a life (and a light, evidently)