At estate sales, everything but the kitchen sink — and the rhino head

On any given week, more than a dozen homes in the Boston area open up for estate sales, the objects inside tagged and ready for haggling. The sales are a treasure hunt for the curious and the thrifty alike.

The skeleton’s new owner arrived to pick it up in a hearse, Hunt said. Scenes like this are typical for sale organizers, who are tasked with the meticulous and intimate work of cataloging a life represented by its belongings. And some of those objects are just plain weird.

“You learn everything about a person through their stuff,” said Hunt, who operates Hunt Estate Sales. “What are we other than our possessions?”

Amid the drawers and closets of those in transition — whether through a move or from life itself — Hunt has found remarkable items. Collections reflect passions, each home a fingerprint of the owner’s interests. A pacemaker rumored to once belong to a Supreme Court justice. Martin Luther King Jr.’s autograph. And in the home of a hunter, a taxidermy collection that required pairing with the Massachusetts Department of Fish & Game to review. Hunt recalls lugging a rhinoceros head — illegal to sell — into an off-limits room, knowing throughout the sale that it was absurdly waiting behind a “do not enter” sign. And where the skeleton lived, realtors also roamed. She tagged its cabinet with a sign: “Do not open!! Too scary for you!”

Lynda Watson, owner of Streamline Antiques, sold a straitjacket from a family’s collection. Its buyer was lined up at opening time, hurrying to the jacket and purchasing only that. Watson didn’t ask questions.

Sorting the homes of New Englanders, organizers regularly turn up historical artifacts. Chris Jordan, owner of Best Rate Estate Sales, once discovered a letter signed by George Washington, as well as items related to Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. But it was a mushroom growing on a backyard tree that stumped him when a shopper asked to buy it.

“I had no idea how to price it,” Jordan said. “So I just said, how about 10 bucks? And he was like, ‘Fine.’”

For organizers, personal ephemera are the things that stick out. Hunt and her team find objects like locks of hair, gold teeth, and personal notes.

“To me, it’s someone speaking from the grave,” she said, recalling slips that say “Do not use Mom’s rolling pin,” or “Mom, I promise not to wear my white socks in the house without shoes.” On a dish shelf, someone had written a note that said “clean,” though dust has accumulated in that person’s absence.

“Even if you don’t meet them … you really feel like you know them by the end of the process,” Watson said. “It’s a very intimate thing.”

Organizing involves sorting, cleaning, and pricing thousands of items, but sale operators say a little-known aspect of the work is coaching clients through a sensitive, emotional process.

Watson, a former social worker, relies on her human services background to ease the letting go. Families can struggle seeing sentimental items up for sale.

“We really encourage that they not be present for the sale,” she said. “It can be really upsetting to see things going out the door.”

Ruthanne Leslie Zanti, who operates Curious Cat Estate Sales, said sustainability is a draw for some of her clients, as sales keep items from landfills. And sometimes, a glimpse into the item’s future provides comfort.

“I’ll give them a photograph of the couple and say, they bought your bedroom set or your dining room set, and that really, really helps,” Zanti said.

For bereaved clients or those undertaking a large downsizing, it can be a tender process, and some organizers have become skilled managing the humans behind all the stuff, mediating disputes or just listening.

“We are like psychologists and therapists,” Jordan said. “People … cry on our shoulders, they don’t know what to do ... Somebody passed away, and now they have to let go of all this stuff … and then you sit there and console them and talk to them and make them feel better and let them know that everything is going to be OK.”

Previously, Hunt worked in elder care. Today, many aspects of her work call on those skills, helping clients take the time to get a haircut or assuming babysitting duties for a bit. “Every single one of these clients, they become our friends, [and] we become their family.”

“We can, in a month, take all of the weight off of their shoulders,” she said.

For buyers, estate sales offer a chance to purchase high quality goods at below-market prices, as well as unique designs. Organizers see themselves as matchmakers. Hunt said she often finds herself singing “Circle of Life” from “The Lion King” as she prepares a house.

“Every estate sale is a miracle ... because we have a short period of time to match something that was someone’s with someone else,” Hunt said.

“It really is a magical moment of past to future, and I always say I am just the bridge.”

Nothing is too small to sell. Organizers caution clients to pause before filling the trash bin.

“One thing we tell them upfront is, don’t throw anything out,” Watson said. “You’d be surprised what people will buy.”

Even the smallest bits may find a buyer, from plastic bags to printer paper.

“It’s a good way to fill your house,” Jordan said. And, “It’s a good way to empty your house.”

You can’t take it with you, the saying goes. But thanks to estate sales, someone else can.

Lindsay Crudele can be reached at lcrudele@gmail.com. Follow Address on Twitter @globehomes and subscribe to our free weekly newsletter at Boston.com/address-newsletter.