I’m living out Hollywood fantasy lives via TikTok estate sales

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I’ve been to Shakespeare’s house. I’ve been to Henry VIII’s house. I’ve visited the homes of countless tangential royals, courtesy of the National Trust. But the houses I’d really like to walk around are harder to gain access to. I want to root through an ex-showgirl’s closet overflowing with sequins and feathers; I want to mooch around an Old Hollywood exec’s garage, where he keeps letter-headed correspondence from movie stars; I want to swan by a three-person bathtub framed with pink-tiled Tuscan columns. And thanks to TikTok, I can.

I have recently become obsessed with watching TikTok videos from estate sales, featuring furniture, clothing and decor in situ in homes. Under the #estatesale tag you’ll find over 67,000 videos with vintage interiors, fashion and thrifting fanatics (with account names like @estatesalefreaks) from Austin, Texas, to Washington State to Chicago exploring estate sales and sharing their finds. Some link out to online stores, while others are apparently just in it for the love of the snoop.

Such sales are much more common in the US than the UK, and the best, in my opinion, are filmed in Los Angeles, where souvenirs picked up during lifetimes lived in Beverly Hills high society or in the movie business, or as art and music professors, are displayed for perusal and purchase. “This is your chance to own a piece of history,” has become something of a catchphrase for my favourite creator of these kinds of videos, Quinn Fiona Garvey, who has more than 93,000 followers.

These videos take you on tours of homes frozen in time, moulded around decades of a niche interest or profession. They are shaped by a personal taste unburdened by the tyranny of Pinterest mood boards or the homogeneity of Instagram interiors influencers. Often filmed as a preview to the sale opening, with the implied sense that vultures will soon descend, they feel like the last glimpse of not just a life, but a lifestyle that is no longer with us. “Estate sales will bring you to some one-of-a-kind places . . . they introduce you to the real people of LA,” says Garvey in one clip.

The objects for sale have stories to tell. The house with the showgirl costumes from the 1960s to 1980s charts the rise and ultimate fall of showgirl revues, when Las Vegas moved to develop a more family-friendly image (explained by Garvey as the camera pans over a neon, bedazzled thong). The dining sets in the 1980s home (designed by architect Michael Pierce) of the late TV writer, director and producer David Jacobs tell a story of throwing lavish parties through the ages.

Vignettes like this exist in contrast to videos where celebrities take publications on a staged tour of their homes. Belongings here are often personal branding, or even just pure aesthetics to create a mood. “I love limes,” actress Dakota Johnson said on one such tour, deadpan, justifying a bowl of only limes she would later reveal were placed in her kitchen as set dressing, as well as revealing she’s allergic to limes. The people whose homes and belongings we see in estate sales have no skin in that game. The objects are merely grouped and presented for shoppers. But they reveal strange insights into personal passions.

I often find myself willing someone to buy the whole lot, including the home, and open it up to visitors, like Charleston, former hub of the Bloomsbury Group. Perhaps this is because the threat of obliteration is a looming spectre in the Los Angeles real estate scene. Earlier this year, actor Chris Pratt razed the historic mid-century Zimmerman house designed by architect Craig Ellwood in order to build a mansion. And this summer, Marilyn Monroe’s home was only saved from planned demolition following a petition. The urgency to document these homes feels ever present. “It was another one of those quintessential time capsule homes, the really special ones filled with character that are always getting demo’d,” Garvey laments in one video.

Contrary to assumptions, estate sales aren’t only conducted when someone has died. One TikTok creator recently shared a jubilant haul from the estate sale of a stylish 97-year-old woman. In The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, author Margareta Magnusson encourages people to unburden loved ones by streamlining belongings ahead of time. After all, you can’t take it with you.

Either way, for the TikTok voyeur, these video tributes to an individual’s taste are an opportunity to savour the eccentricities of a truly unfiltered life.

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