why I thrift
and what I'm currently searching for
In recent months (and at different points over the years), I have enjoyed going thrifting. Back in Ohio where I lived in my twenties, here was a lovely church basement thrift store where all clothing was $1-$4. Oh, the vintage beauties I found there. In the past year or so, thrifting has come back into my life as a form of self care and a way to budget our money better. I love the ritual of going to the thrift store, wearing my sound canceling headphones so that I can listen to music or a good podcast, and methodically going through the various sections that I’m interested in. In Denver I really love ARC thrift stores, but I’ve also been known to pop into a Goodwill given the chance. Through dedication (going frequently and searching thoroughly) I’ve been able to score some real gems. Recently for me it’s been a hand sewn dress for J with hand painted and crocheted flowers, a fully assembled Ikea play kitchen that another thrifter generously helped get into my car, and home goods a plenty. The joy of thrifting goes beyond just being fun and utilitarian for me: it’s a way to not feed the capitalist machine. It’s taking something that would otherwise end up in landfill and giving it new life. I feel like I’m cheating the capitalist system to some degree.
Since I love other people’s thrifting wishlists, I thought I’d share with you what categories I’m searching for when I enter a thrift store. Let’s get into it.
Dresses for J. This girl…let me tell you. She does not like a day without a dress. The other day I had her wearing sweatpants with a summer dress on top to preschool as a compromise (she wanted to wear a dress, I didn’t want her to freeze now that its getting cold). I also tend to look for cardigans, leggings, and footwear for her. The selection of bright, sparkly, light up rain boots is pretty impressive at the thrift store. A good soapy scrub and air dry and they’re good as new.
Baskets for organizing toys. Mostly ones that are the right shape to fit on my living room shelves, handles are nice so J can carry them, and ones that are slightly unique looking. Concealing the toys in baskets while still making them accessible so J can easily play has been great. Most specifically now I’m looking for wall baskets so I can recreate this storage idea for stuffed animals. I check the baskets for damage before purchasing
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Scrapbooking materials. I recently cleaned out the final 6 boxes containing all relics of my childhood that were being stored at my parent's home. It was weird. I’m in a serious purging stage so I hastily kept one or two of my thirty odd childhood journals and threw the rest in the trash. My dad called me and reasoned with me that maybe I had been too hasty in how much I threw away and I realized he was right…there was some important stuff in there. So now I’m in the slow process of creating a scrapbook (scrapbooks?) containing various photos, journal clippings and other childhood talismans. It’s heavy work, reading through old journals and seeing so much angst. But I’ll be glad to have some semblance of those years displayed in a scrapbook. I like looking up scrapbook pages on Pinterest for inspiration and I like this account on YouTube for more scrapbook ideas.
Artwork. This was a category I had been neglecting for a while, but I love looking for an old painting or print that fits with the neutral/vintage aesthetic of our home. I recently found the little owl pictured below.
I want to make J something like this for Christmas, so I found a little thrifted box and a few tiny dollhouse pieces to create a little scene. I’m thinking of it as a tiny travel dollhouse for outings! I also want to make her a drop cloth fort for our dining room table (like this) so I’ll be searching for a large piece of fabric that could work.
Neutral Christmas decor. Not wanting to spend on a ton of money on decorations (and not wanting to shop big box stores with tons of plastic waste) has limited me in the past on really going off on Christmas decorations, but now that thrifting is back in my life, I want it all. I also invested in Halloween decorations from the thrift store this year. I procured mostly neutral pumpkins and skeletons. I think it turned out pretty cute (pictured below). Now I’m looking for any little Christmas houses to line up on our window sills for Christmas. I found this cute house ornament (also pictured below) recently.
Other categories that I always check even if I’m not specifically looking for something include: handmade pottery (I scored 8 handmade salad plates so far and four bowls, as well as a mix of Ellinger wooden bowls), toys, sheets that can be used to sew dresses out of (floral prints especially), crafting materials in general, furniture (I’d love if I could find something like these stools), and men’s sweaters (for me and my man).
How about you? Do you thrift? :)
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