BoomerGirl Diary

Boise, Idaho — A typical day for Betty Lou Donnelley involves washing other people's dishes, dusting their light fixtures and organizing their closets, but she is not a maid. She is a manager, a professional facilitator of estate, downsizing and moving sales in the Treasure Valley.

The seed was planted in 1970 with a neighborhood garage sale on Harrison Boulevard in Boise, Idaho. Donnelley's saltbox colonial had the perfect driveway, and several of her neighbors brought their things over and asked for help.

With a background in antiquing and collecting, Donnelley knew the treasures from the tsotchkes, the everyday resale items from things better left in a donation bin. The event was such a success that it became annual, and she was its grand dame for almost 30 years.

"We were famous for it ... I would handle up to 19 people's contributions," Donnelley said. "I had been a collector most of my life. I started buying on McAllister in San Francisco when it was a junk shop. I always loved going to auctions, estate sales and garage sales." Moving with her family into a modern home on the Plantation golf course in 1998, Donnelley still managed garage sales here and there, mostly as favors to friends. One of them was named conservator of a will and asked whether Donnelley would handle the estate sale portion of the proceedings. She agreed to do the job as a consultant, and it appealed to her knack for organization and spotting valuables.

In 2000, she began laying the foundation for her own company, Estate Sales Management LLC. With a degree in business, her previous work experience was in advertising and assisting the Idaho Legislature, but her new career path promised new challenges and a chance to help people do a tedious, often emotional job.

In the years since, she has taken on two full-time employees, including her daughter, Julie Morgan, and Carla Thompson, who researches, prices and arranges items for sale. Vince Olszewski is Donnelley's so-called "tall, skinny muscle man," a part-timer who does most of the heavy lifting. There are several other people who help out on certain days, but Donnelley is always at the door.

"There is only one way in and one way out, and that's by me. I'm a little feisty, but you've got to maintain a sense of humor. You'd go nuts if you didn't," she said of the pressure to satisfy customers while looking out for her clients. "I work with people, but the main thing I want to do is sell everything." Before the sale takes place, Donnelley and her crew have to prepare the merchandise, which can be the contents of an entire house.

"You're basically a cleaning lady. You go in with a big dumpster and throw away what won't sell, and clean and organize what will. Some of it is real glove work," Donnelley said.

That is one reason people pay for her services. If they are downsizing or moving, they sometimes need an objective eye and a few extra hands. In the event of the death of a loved one, even the thought of sorting through their belongings can be unbearable.

"It's the hardest thing in the world to go through it yourself. Some family members don't know where to start. If you're just putting your folks into assisted living it's easier, but if you've just lost them it's very hard," Donnelley said.

Lowell Hocking is coping as well as he can, but losing his love Shirley to cancer last year left him with an apartment full of things he either doesn't need or would rather not have to look at every day.

"They're just like Doritos," Hocking joked of the one-of-a-kind collectibles he and Shirley found on their many travels or created together in their own little shop. An antique suitcase was built into a side table.

Facades of classic books including "War and Peace" and "Pride and Prejudice" are the base of a handcrafted "Library Lamp." A storage cabinet with rattan baskets and a quartet of mailboxes stands in a corner surrounded by original watercolors and black and white photographs for which Hocking hopes Donnelley will find new homes. She priced each item according to market values and posted individual color images to her Web site so customers can browse Hocking's inventory without disrupting his life.

"After a while you accumulate a lot, and I'm trying to downsize a bit. I've just got too much. I feel very good about it from the standpoint that I hope somebody else will enjoy these things as much as I have. That's the key," he said. "Betty Lou is a very good friend, number one, but she's also one (heck) of a good business woman. She knows what she's doing and she follows through. She's very fair and she knows her clientele, but she's especially concerned with helping the individual." That concern sometimes results in higher prices than bargain hunters are hoping for, but Donnelley is not apologetic.

"Reasonable offers are totally acceptable, but I have asked people to leave," she said. "I have a fiduciary responsibility to get as much out of my clients' things as I can. Yes, I benefit more when that happens, but isn't that a reason to hire me?" If you do hire Donnelley, she and her team empty all cupboards, closets and drawers in order to clean, sort and price their contents. Fragile things are washed by hand. Anything that can't be sold or donated is tossed, while personal things are collected for review. Vintage items are consigned on a split commission basis, and donations are dropped at a nonprofit organization of choice.

The house is "spiffed up" before the sale, which is always on a Friday and Saturday. Items not sold the first day are marked down 25-50 percent, and remaining inventory is consigned at Donnelley's Garden City store. Clients receive 60 percent of the net proceeds minus the cost of things such as classified ads and a cleaning fee.

It takes her crew seven to 10 days to prepare a site and a few more to remove any unsold items. Event information is sent to a mailing list of 3,000 people, a mix of antique dealers, collectors, people looking for specific things or people just looking.

When asked why she is still working so hard when most of her neighbors are playing golf, Donnelley explained that her job combines treasure hunting with helping people in need.

"I love what I'm doing, and I like the energy of the people I work with. They could all be my kids. We laugh a lot," she said. "Sometimes you get to know a lot about people, what they like, what they've done in their lives. It's like Christmas all of the time."