However, I was all about the good deal. Everything I purchased, I got on sale or used coupons. I almost never paid full retail for anything. Then my daughter reached high school and in order for her to have extra money, she got her first part time job at 15, cashiering at a nearby grocery store. After a year of that, she got a job at Goodwill, sorting the incoming stuff in the back, tagging it and sending it up front. THEN she began coming home with bags of thrift store treasures, dumping them out on the floor in front of me and showing me her fabulous finds. And I was amazed at the really nice things she'd found! Who'd a thunk it!
It wasn't long before she said, "Mom, why don't you come to Goodwill with me? I'll show you how to find the 'good' stuff." Being game for anything once, off we went. And it was fun! The Goodwills in our area had 50% off every other Saturday. So that first trip ended up with me bringing home a BIG ol' bag of clothes for less than $20. Thus the Thrift Store Queen was born. And I still shop thrift stores to this day, 15+ years later. If only I'd lost that fussiness a decade before!
I've found some rather remarkable things in thrift stores since. A nice Coach bag for around $15, a newish Fossil bag for $5, and many other great purses and bags. In fact, I've not had a truly NEW purse in years and years. Have found lots of nice clothing for less than $5 per item with labels such as Laura Ashley, DKNY and BCBG as well as more commonly found brands such as Sag Harbor, C.J. Banks, etc. In the beginning, I was squeamish about buying used shoes, but I eventually got over it. I just could not pass up the Easy Spirit, Clarks, Teva and other brands of quality shoes that were never or rarely worn, for under $5 a pair. A dash of Lysol spray and there you go--good as new!
Even after we took off in our RV for life on the road, I still shopped thrift whenever I could, though in some areas such stores were scarce or not worth the bother. While in Kanab, UT which is 70 miles from everything, at the local Hospital Thrift Store, I found a like-new Lori Greiner rotating makeup organizer for $2. They sell on QVC for around $30. Three years later, I'm still using it. And loving it. There was also a small treasure trove of excellent quality European brand clothing, probably discarded by one of the many international tourists that pass through this state. In Cottonwood, AZ I found a barely-worn pair of Tony Lama cowboy boots, just gorgeous. And so on.
However, when we came to southwestern Utah in 2015, the sad realization came over me that THERE ARE NO GOODWILL STORES in this area. Whaat?! Oh, no! In fact, the only actual Goodwills in Utah are a few in the Salt Lake City area, 5 or 6 hours away. However, what Utah does have is Deseret Industries. Better known as 'The D. I.", Deseret Industries is a large LDS-based Donation Center and thrift store chain. I'll quote from their website:
"When Deseret Industries (DI) opened in 1938, Elder John A. Widtsoe established four guiding purposes for it: "First, those who have will be given another type of opportunity to help those who have not. Second, waste will be reduced by keeping our possessions in use as long as possible. Third, the work of renovation will employ many now unemployed. Fourth, articles in common use, of good quality, will be available at a low cost." ("Editorial: Deseret Industries, "Improvement Era, Sept. 1938, 544).
As well, the D.I. also partners with local businesses, community colleges and other training institutions, as well as within their own facilities to work with their associates, providing training and work skills in internships as well as actual on-the-job experience. So, very similar to Goodwill's original founding principles (which I'm not so sure exists any longer except on their website), the D.I. goes all out in employing, educating and training their employees, many of whom are challenged and find it difficult to find jobs elsewhere.
When I get the urge to go thrifting now, I shop at the big D.I. in St. George. It's twice the size of the biggest Goodwill store I ever saw. It's HUGE. And instead of the tightly crammed row upon row of clothing, they use the circular clothes racks you see in department stores. There's no musty smell so pervasive in Goodwills and other thrift stores. It FEELS like being in a department store. In addition, they have a big warehouse room in the back, where they keep items too large to put out on the main floor, such as furniture, large paintings/art, sports and fitness equipment, gigantic fake houseplants, bikes, trikes and other large toys.
Since we recently moved out of our RV into a more spacious, homey environment, we are without much in the way of home decor. So this week I went 'art hunting'. More about that in a moment, but first let me explain how my bedroom, entirely by accident, ended up tan and purple. Nothing against tan and purple, those are just 1) colors I'd never have thought to put together and 2) never would have been my first choice...EVER. It's just a bit of backstory to my latest thrift store trip.
When we hit the road in 2011, I brought along a couple of quilts that belonged to my mother. Mom had an obsession with bedding late in her life and had accumulated quite a stash. (Now you know where I get my hoarding proclivities.) I don't recall that she had actually made many of these herself; they were 'boughten'. After she passed away in 2001, my sister and I kept several of those quilts, many of which came in sets including pillow shams and sometimes bedskirts. So when my husband and I decided to buy this place and purchased new beds, I remembered one of Mom's quilts I'd brought along--a very pretty soft yellow and lavender floral print. When sheet shopping for the new beds, I found a nice deep, dusty lavender that I thought would go perfectly to set off that bedspread. Got home, washed the new sheets and put them on the bed and went to dig out that quilt. It was still new in the package, never used. Except it was PINK and GREEN! Good grief! Since the sheets were already laundered, I could not return them. So, heaving a heavy sigh, I put the pink and green quilt away and found a big, plushy tan blanket that looked sort of 'bedspready'. I threw that over the bed as a temporary cover.
A couple weeks later as I went into that room one day, that tan 'spread' against those purply sheets took me quite by surprise. I LIKED those colors together! It was quite tranquil and soothing. It helped greatly that the wall covering is a soft tan stripe pattern the same color as the spread. So I've decided to just go with it and treat it as though the colors were on purpose!
Thinking along those lines, I went to the D.I. yesterday, solely with the intent of getting some other pretties to enhance the tan and purple scheme. As well, I'd see if there were any acceptable wall art items to alleviate the nakedness of the rest of the walls in the house. I've looked at the donated wall art there before but never found much to my liking at all. I was getting resigned to the idea of paying retail somewhere else. It was my lucky day!
This time, I found a batik-like, leafy block printed stretched canvas in the exact soft blues, greens and yellows that exist in our kitchen ~ $3.00! For $4.00, I found a lovely framed floral print in soft purples, lavenders, tans and beiges, kind of Victorian-esque, perfect for that bedroom. (Still had the price tag on it of $44.99, too!) Then there was a set of two gorgeously matted and framed floral prints (again with the florals) in neutral colors for $2.00 each and they looked brand new. They now live in the bathroom. (I looked those up online and found they had retailed in the $65 neighborhood--each.) Lastly, another floral, this time a starkly simple modernist-style red lily, for $4.00. All I can say about so much floral is that we tend to lean toward nature.
In addition to wall art, I scored a couple gorgeous throw pillows for $2.00 each; one a purple and tan brocade square (for the bedroom again) plus a lovely taupe faux suede one with an embroidered southwestern design in the same shades of blues, rust and beige as our sofa. Found a nice Dexas 'granite' cutting board with a built in drain, no marks. $2.00. A square purple cut glass vase perfect for holding makeup brushes ~ $1.50. Though I've no idea what it's for, I snagged some kind of hardwood tray thinga-ma-bob filled with dividers that will come in incredibly handy (actually figured out later it was a store soap bar display tray; it now houses part of my massive Laura Geller collection) ~ $1.50. A pristine sunburst-style wreath with tiny pink and purple flowers `$.75. And a cream color ceramic planter that looks like a ring of parading geese. I've always wanted one. Why? No idea. But...I really felt like I hit the jackpot yesterday!
Fortunately, I've found a friend here who loves to thrift as much, if not more, than I do. Our trip to the D.I. the other day was our third together. I love me some thriftin' girlfriends, boy howdy! Yes, 'thrifting' is a thing now, and high time, I say. Why, even the stars go thrifting! Jada Pinkett Smith, Debbie Harry, Julia Roberts, Janelle Monae, Zooey Deschanel, Drew Barrymore, and of course, Macklemore, among others. So it's cool, right?
Till next time,
"Thrift shopping is really just an extension of me being that same kid and going into a place that's completely unconventional that has really endless possibilities in terms of outfits that you can put together, and just expressing yourself." ~ Macklemore
"I did a lot of thrift and vintage. I would mix those pieces into some of the more inexpensive items from Express, Gap, Old Navy and Clothestime." ~ Katy Perry
"The whole thing of clothes is insane. You can spend a dollar on a jacket in a thrift store. And you can spend a thousand dollars on a jacket in a shop. And if you saw those two jackets walking down the street, you probably wouldn't know which was which." ~ Helen Mirren
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