Showerthought: a guy at the Dayton library sale said my book bag was the problem, not my back
I used to haul a giant tote bag to every sale and pack it so full I could barely lift it, then spend two days whining about my shoulders. Last month at a library sale in Dayton, an older guy watched me load up 22 paperbacks and said, "Honey, you are carrying all the weight in one hand, get a rolling crate like the rest of us." I felt pretty dumb but he was right, so I grabbed a $12 plastic crate with wheels from a hardware store and tried it at the next garage sale. Night and day. I filled that thing with 30 hardcovers and pulled it around with one finger while everyone else was juggling armloads. What do you all use to haul your finds, or am I the last person on earth still using a tote bag?
Oh man, I was that person for years and I swore my tote bag was fine. I told myself the sore shoulder was just part of the hunt, like it meant I found good stuff. Then my sister made me try her little folding cart at an estate sale and I felt like such a fool for waiting so long. Two hours of digging and my arms didn't hurt at all, I could've kept going. Now the tote lives in my trunk as a backup and the cart does all the real work, I will never go back.