All my friends ask me the same question: How do you shop at estate sales?

To help answer their question, I've written up a few of my top tips for estate sale shopping beyond just where to find sale listings or basic guidance for shopping. I live in Southern California, so these tips might be more or less applicable depending on where you live.

I tend to use estatesales.net to find estate sales in my area, but estatesales.org is also a good source. You may want to check Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist for sales listed by individuals (rather than companies) as well.

Use a navigation app route planner

Once you find listings for sales you're interested in, input all the sale addresses into Google Maps, Apple Maps, or whatever navigation app on your phone you tend to use. Edit the route as needed. Now you have a straightforward game plan for the day.

Aside from planning purposes, inputting all the addresses into your navigation app before you get on the road saves the addresses into your recent search history. Sometimes, estate sales are held at locations with poor cell service (the best ones usually are), so skipping an additional step in the processes when you need to navigate to the next location can save you time fiddling with your phone.

Build a list of trusted estate sale companies

This is a tip that I don't see as often on others' estate sale guides. Once you've started going to a variety of estate sales in your area, you should keep a running list with notes about each estate sale company you run into in your area.

You can use that list to inform your route planning. If you see a listing for an estate sale but it's run by a company you've learned you're not a fan of (maybe you don't like how they price certain types of objects or they tend to run sales of estates with items that don't fit your style), then you can skip that sale or go knowing you are more likely to leave empty-handed. Perhaps you went to an estate sale and had a fantastic experience because the people running it were extremely friendly, helpful, and open to negotiation. Since estate sale companies might not all have Yelp or Google reviews, it's good to keep notes about good or bad experiences so you can focus your time and energy on sales you will probably enjoy shopping at.

Keep a running shopping list

On the topic of lists: maintain a running list of items you need to stay on the lookout for. This might be a simple list on your notes app or a page of a notebook you keep in your car. Either way, you should write up a list so that you're not relying solely on your memory as you browse an estate sale.

You should keep a list not only of specific items, but also labels or brands of items that you like. Personally, aside from specific items I am hoping to find in the foreseeable future (one day I will find a cool menorah!) I have a list of suit fabric company names.