Another Recreational Sport – Thrifting

With what seems a busy schedule every day beginning with our morning walk, working on the book, writing blogs, planning a kitchen remodel, making meals and ending each day by religiously practicing my Italian, there seems to be little time left for other things like house chores, yard work and errands. We manage to fit them all in, so I don’t feel guilty in the least when I hurry out the door on Monday mornings and head to one or more of the local thrift shops...by myself.

Why Mondays? Well, Savers in this area has 50% off everything in the store. Salvos, aka Salvation Army, has specials and so does Good Will. In the past, David would drop me off when he was anticipating spending time at Lowe’s shopping for tools or other ‘guy stuff’. ‘Guy stuff’ shopping could be sprinkler parts, electrical parts, plumbing parts, various and sundry pieces of lumber or just browsing each aisle for cool guy stuff. If it’s not paint chips or cosmetic enhancement related or something of particular interest to me, following him around at Lowe’s is sheer drudgery. At the thrift shop however, after being dropped off, I always seemed to whiz through knowing that if I lollygagged, he’d be back quickly and I’d be rushed out of the store, probably missing the bargain of my lifetime.

Now David is indeed a patient man. When in a thrift shop situation, however, he checks out the books, perhaps the men’s shirts and then after five minutes or less , he’s done and proceeds to follow me around until I finish. ‘I’m not rushing you’, he repeats time and again. But, of course, I do feel rushed. We respectfully agreed that it’s never a pleasant experience for either of us. So, on Monday mornings I head out in Blue and have a ‘me’ morning. No questions of ‘what would you use that for?’ or ongoing commentary about how I already have a blue shirt or how he really doesn’t need another t-shirt because four ratty t-shirts in his drawer are really all he needs.

When I visited Lin recently on our holiday trip, Lin and I (sans our partners) went thrifting twice. We don’t talk while we thrift. It’s serious business. We don’t even browse the same parts of the store usually. We meet up occasionally to share a find, but otherwise, until we sift through our potential purchases at the end and provide final judgments, we are solitary, thrifting sisters, quite content to explore on our own and share commentary only when necessary. It’s a soulful, exhilarating experience.

A fine looking grandfather and, like me, not all his parts work quite the way they used to.

I’ve talked about thrifting before. It’s more about the hunt, than the actual purchase. That said, finding something awesome for next to nothing is a high unto itself. So, what great finds have I managed recently? Just before we left in December for Lin’s, I found an awesome grandfather clock. Okay, it doesn’t work and both David and Paul had to move it, but it’s a beautiful piece of furniture and definitely worth lots more than the $38 I paid for it. In actuality, most every piece of furniture and accessory we have in the house was purchased at either a thrift shop, a consignment shop or via Craigslist. Recycle, reuse, re-purpose.

Belleek for $1.50 … that’s crazy!

In Rhode Island recently, I found a Belleek candle holder for $1.50 at a Good Will Christmas clearance and a CRE Galway Porcelain picture frame for $1.00 at a Salvos. Both are in perfect condition and though neither are million dollar finds, they’re beautiful pieces and a welcome addition to our rather modest fine china collection.

Uncle Rabbit happily dwells in the CRE picture frame until I can find another photo to take his place.

And this week there’s the French dictionary I’ll need to bone up on my French for $1 along with a ‘Just Enough French’ to review the basics for another $1 … and a new 2018 John Grisham novel, Camino Island, for a dollar as well. Plus I picked up a couple of good quality, namebrand polyester base layer shirts for me and a long-sleeve Eddie Bauer shirt for David with the original tags still attached.

Well, let’s just say it was a good week for thrifting...in more ways than one. And next Monday? You know where I’ll be.