Thrift Store Bliss

Off to the local Salvation Army Thrift Store to donate three large cardboard boxes bulging over with quality and useable clothing for some new person or persons to purchase and enjoy. Wow does it feel amazing to free up our bedroom closet from excess clothing that we just do not have all the room for, nor do we no longer need so many pieces of clothing.

Having never really liked the words, "senior citizen", admittedly, and also with a smile and adorning a fancy cane, I can say that I now hone that title with all its' pros and cons! That said, nothing keeps me from my weekly adventure and thrill of seeking out a good deal at my local thrift stores.

Although, mind you, I live in a nine room old farmhouse that is full to the brim of what my daughter calls, "chochkies" (pronounced "choch keys") (knick knacks and some vintage items - some antiques, etc.) and various items that we know we eventually need to start weeding out and get rid of. I really have no business being let lose in a thrift store looking for more "chochkies" to bring home!

That said, let me tell you about today's wonderful thrifting adventure - I waited patiently as the lady pulled her large white car away from the curb with the perfect spot for me to park my old Caddy with the hopes that she may have also left some time remaining on the parking meter. The perfect spot as it was right in front of the main doors to our local Salvation Army Thrift Store. Love it!

Grabbed my heavy purse with everything but the kitchen sink lurking inside it, my trusty cane in case my right hip full of arthritis starts acting up, my little tin that once had those tasty mints inside it, but now holds my quarters for meter parking and tolls, etc., and several brown paper bags (because the store does not provide bags), I manage to get my sixty-eight year old, senior citizen body out and lock up the car. While maneuvering my arthritic fingers a bit down into my purse, I was able to get a couple of quarters out of my little tin and put them into the meter because the time remaining was was less than the time I knew I would possibly be spending inside the store. Two quarters in, the meter now reads one hour and thirteen minutes, well, that should be long enough - mask on - I'm good to go!

I like to always grab a cart if there is one available as I feel a bit safer walking around and being able to hold onto the cart and also because I am known to fill a cart in no time flat!

I first head over to my right where they have the children's clothing and toy section and I briefly scan the clothes for something cute that my eight year old granddaughter might enjoy - although she is well taken care of and has plenty of clothes and toys, I still like to check things out just in case there is that one unique item that speaks to me. Also, with the recent cleaning out and opening of our small (above ground) swimming pool, I wanted to have one or two extra swim suits available for my granddaughter when she comes to swim because sometimes they forget them in their haste to travel the hour south to get here from Vermont.

After a few minutes searching the children's clothing section, I did manage to find a really cute one-piece bathing suit - child size 7-8 and in a pretty mint green print and priced just right too (also the color on the tag was half price that day), along with a shirt, a cute skirt to match as my granddaughter really likes wearing skirts and dresses, and two tank style tops for her - and all on sale!

Off to the right, I then entered into their "knick knack" or should I say, "chochkie" section of the store where one can find books, glassware, picture frames, cookware, curtains, blankets/sheets, lamps and small furniture, etc. This section, I might ad, is my favorite section and I find myself hanging out in there a bit longer than the average person probably would; as I just enjoy touching and feeling the various styles of pottery and glass. I look for the unique and very different pieces of glassware and vases and I also look for china dishes that I can use to create beautiful pieces of mosaic style jewelry that I encase in lead-free silver solder. (I have a site on ETSY - "Bling Sky Mosaics" where I sell my creations (I have received many 5 star reviews as well).

At one point I found myself holding tight to a Pampered Chef box that contained an unused kit for creating the whole Gingerbread House at Christmas time! OMG! But, I put it back on the shelf as in my mind I wanted it, but it was not on sale and I thought that I will check back again next week and maybe it will still be there and hopefully on sale - we shall see! I have yet to create and bake one of these Gingerbread houses with my granddaughter and I was thinking that now that she is eight years old and really loves to bake with me, wouldn't it be a fun and memorable project to do with her? That is another reason why one will find me lurking about a bit longer in this section as I stand there and question and really try to reason with myself as to whether I truly need it now or can I put it back and wait? This is hard for some of us folks!

On this day, I was able to find three small china saucer plates with floral patterns on them (each for 49 cents a piece) and I plan to use them to create my jewelry. I also found three lovely and with quality, woven linens for kitchen towels (in colors that compliment my household) and then several books I know I will enjoy reading as I love to read as well and I never overlook an opportunity to find a good book at a great price.

After a good amount of time lurking about this section, and having found myself stumbling back out at the parking meter where I threw two more quarters in it as the time remaining was that of five minutes - and, as I am grammatically hoping to convey here people, "I love the thrill of the hunt!"

Now at the check out register with a cartful of my found items and my brain anxiously working hard in trying to add up the total, I reach into my purse and grab my wallet. I'm thinking I have probably spent about forty bucks. The nice young woman at the register totaled up my items and then said the amount was $61.29 (sixty one dollars and some change). I then remarked, "Wow, that seems really high to me", she then read aloud to me all the items I had purchased along with their prices, and sure enough, the total was right! It honestly does not take long to add up I guess! I did put one or two items back and then paid the nice woman and we exchanged a bit of small chit chat while I helped her bag everything up. I will really try to curb some of my spending so as to not exceed more than say forty dollars on the next thrift adventure as we truly are "senior citizens" on a limited budget and I have to be a bit more mindful of that and also the fact that we are actively working on ridding our home of excess clutter - not adding to it!

All that said, I do have to mention that in all this, we do have a large barn and we do open it up to the public on occasion each summer and sell much of the thrifted items that I pick up along the way as we do love to repurpose items and we enjoy the whole "trash to treasure" type thing (taking something old and making it new again) - a can of spray paint can do wonders in that regard. With the recent pandemic, we did not work much on opening up the barn to the public and therefore, we need to do some cleaning up in the barn and then, hopefully sometime this summer, we can then open up again and offer our repurposed items to the public for sale at decent prices. We are looking forward to all this with much enthusiasm!

Due to the ever-changing internet and the World Wide Web, you will find that I spend a lot of time on sites such as Pinterest and Instagram and with that, I do much research as to what is trending for home dakor and what hobbies or interests that people are seeking out. This research really helps my husband and I to know how and what to create with all our thrift store finds and when working on repurposing items.

As a parent, I have always taught my children to think about always having a "Plan B" in life. Meaning that it is always a good idea to not only have a day job that interests you, but also to have knowledge and an interest in something else that one could possibly fall back upon when needed and hopefully with a monetary value and interest as well - that being - their "Plan B". Trash to Treasure and repurposing items is, more or less, for us - our "Plan B".

So, as I am writing this, all my thrifted items are still sitting in bags and in the car and I need to now go and retrieve them and work my magic to put them away in places where my usual guests will not be viewing or talking about any new "chochkies" lurking about the house! Perhaps this is one instance where being a "senior citizen" is a "pro" vs "con", because I can always just say, "oh, I forgot we had that sitting there!"

The thrill is real folks!