The Toughest Thrift

I walk at least two miles a day, and I have been since last April without missing a single day. That's why my three-year-old sneakers are cracked and the soles are starting to peel away from the uppers.

To get a new pair I went to the local shoe store, where I only shop every couple of years, but all the sneakers have gotten super expensive. I don't mind paying a little more for good quality, especially when I'd be walking in them every day, but nearly everything I saw looked very cheaply made. I decided to see if I could thrift some decent sneakers instead.

I think shoes may be the toughest thing to thrift. Most are donated used, which I didn't want, and those that are new are snapped up fast online. But after months of watching and searching I found a pair of Skechers in my size that were brand new with tags, bid on them, and won the pair.

They arrived last week and are really pretty. They've also got very sturdy soles and fit like a glove, and came with an extra pair of shoelaces. They're in gray colors with amethyst reflective strips, and while I usually buy only white sneakers I certainly don't mind that.

These shoes also retail for $79.00, and the cheapest I could find them discounted was on Amazon for $55.00. I paid $14.99 for my thrifted pair. Savings: $40.01.

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Downsizing

This was my fabric stash once I sorted everything -- 22 full bins. I spent a day taking out and boxing up what I could part with, with the goal of trying to reduce it by half, so I'd have 11 bins. I was very strict with myself, and removed everything that for one reason or another I was sure I wouldn't be able to use. This is what I ended up with -- 12 bins of fabric that I'm keeping. It's not quite half, but close enough. Half of what I took out went to a local quilter friend, a school and Goodwill. These four tightly-packed bins will be going to the local quilting guild once I make arrangements with them for a drop-off place. I am relieved and a little sad and now determined to control my impulses to thrift more fabric. I don't want to do this again, so until I use up six bins, I can't for any reason bring any new fabric into the house.

In Progress

I promised myself I would show you the good, bad and ugly of my cleaning this year. This is what it looks like when you dump thirty years' worth of stashed fabric on the floor -- and oy, what a pain in the butt to pick up again! This is what it looks like after it's been sorted, folded and placed in containers, which took me about a week. Now the hard part is to downsize my stash by at least half, I think (that's my goal, anyway.) I've already e-mailed the president of the local quilting guild, a local friend who is a quilter, and a public school art teacher I know to see if I can donate some of the excess to them. The rest will go to Goodwill. Already I've reduced my vintage textiles from two bins to one, and my scraps from three bins to one. It's probably the hardest clean-out I've done, which is why I saved it until last. I know I have too much fabric, more than I can use in my lifetime -- but at the same time, I love it. So I have to

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.

Valerean

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