Dear readers,
We are lucky enough to have blog reader and Goodwill shopper, Sondra Caserio, share the following blog post with us. Thanks for the great post, Sondra! If you would like to post about your thrifting finds or adventures, please let us know!
Thrifting
I come from a long line of thrifters. When we drove eight hours to see my aunt and cousin i
n Vegas each summer, guess what the highlight of the trips were: thrift stores! When I went to visit my other aunt and many cousins across the country, my fondest memories were the hours we spent scouring rack after rack and shelf and after shelf of her favorite Goodwill stores and consignment shops. And, or course, some of my earliest childhood memories include checking out the endless supplies of knick-knacks, lamps, and who-knows-what, trailing behind my mother while pestering her for the zillionth time about when we were going to get to the toy aisle.
Looking back, just about every interesting and colorful item in our home was from Goodwill. We had the best toys. Little did I know then, most of our favorites were already vintage. Ho many girls could say they owned a giant orange Barbie RV? Our crayons were stored in sturdy vintage metal canisters in a rainbow of colors. And, despite the fact that there were five of us kids to clothe, our dresser drawers were always full.
I’m sure my love of items with a patina of age and a rich history behind them comes from the excitement that I always experienced looking for our next unearthed treasure at the neighborhood Goodwill. Now, a mom myself, I’m so grateful to have been brought up as a bargain hunter and thrifter. Now I bring my daughters with me to Goodwill. They are learning already that there is treasure everywhere!
I live within a hour’s drive from about six or seven Goodwill stores myself. I don’t get out to all of them as often as I’d like but they never seem to disappoint! When I can’t get there in person, I peruse a few Goodwill sites from across the country. There are even a couple of sites on eBay that you can peruse at midnight in your pj’s.
Goodwill of Northern New England’s eBay site
But, for me, the thrill of the hunt is the fun part so I love to visit the stores. It is usually the way I give myself a special treat after running my errands for the week.
There are some really great blogs out there belonging to other thrifting enthusiasts that give me ideas for my home or craft projects using things they have found at their local thrift store. They feature furniture make-overs and weird objects that defy categorization.
Here are a few of them:
Frually Retro
This blog’s tagline is “Seeking vintage housewares while entailing minimal expense.” It’s a really fun site because the writer frequently goes out thrifting and then shows some of the cool treasures she finds. One day it is a hat that would like right at home on the head of Sherlock Holmes or a vintage refrigerator that would have made Lucille Ball swoon. Another day it is vintage dishware in my favorite fifities’ colors.
Which brings me to another favorite because I collect vintage dishware in my two favorite colors:
This site is one of my favorites because they seem to know just about
everything there is to know about those fun, colorful dishes that your mom and grandma had. There are lots of colorful pictures as well as photos of stuff that might look like Pyrex, but is not. They have swanky ads from eras gone by featuring susie housewife swooning over her dishware as she feeds her smiling family an eight course meal. Then, of course, they provide pictures of just about every Pyrex pattern in existence. This is great if you want to identify a piece that you’ve found, especially if you want to find more of the same. They also provide tips on cleaning and caring for your pieces without destroying the pattern or finish.
This is another really fun site that inspires me to drag out those leftover paint cans from the basement and put them to good use. They have some really unusual takes on everyday items and some not-so-everyday ones. They combine odds and ends and come out with some really remarkable pieces that just about anyone would be proud to have in their home. For instance, they took a work, red metal toolbox and turned it into a really attractive centerpiece. Very cool!
This blog is a great one for anyone who wishes they could bring home just about every vintage object they see. I have such a hard time saying ‘no’ to vintage treasures. There is just something about that patina of age that makes me want to snatch it up to prevent someone who doesn’t really appreciate getting it. Dumb, right? I’m doing better though at admitting that sometimes you just have to leave it behind for the next vintage lover who comes through. And if someone like the writer of this blog is that person, then the piece will definitely have gone to a good home!
