2024 in Thrifting

About a year ago I wrote a post here about my new direction with thrifting, and what I had learned while transitioning for just thrifting now and then to attempting to thrift more.

This year I stuck to that path and tried to thrift everything I needed, like some purses to replace my fifteen-year-old purses, which were falling apart. Here you can see the lot of beautiful Vera Bradley bags I got for $9.99.

When I needed some new socks, I thrifted a huge lot of them (including lots of other things) for $9.99. Nine months later, I still haven't worn them all.

These brand new Fila sneakers were at steal at $9.99. I got them in the original box with Kohl's $59.99 price tag. I found the purchase receipt in the box, too; the sneakers had been marked down to $29.99. The paper stuffing was still in the toes; evidently the original owner bought but never wore them.

My thrift of the year was winning these gorgeous mint condition $80.00 Nike sneakers for my guy at auction but only paying $12.99 for them. I'm pretty sure they were a store display pair as they had only one tiny scuff on the sole. He has been paying $50 to $60 for his sneakers, but the reason this is my thrift of the year is that I wanted to prove that I could thrift new shoes for my guy cheaper than he can buy them at the store.

Now my guy is thrifting right along with me, and even took me on a thrifting spree that he paid for, which included this beautiful bundle of fabric from our local thrift store for $14.99.

I think people are starting to discover that thrifting can save them big bucks, because the online auctions have gained more bidders now, and I see lots of folks shopping at the brick and mortar stores. Accordingly prices are going up, too.

There are still bargains to be had if you look for them, and always a treasure to discover, like this donated quilt rack in need of repair, which the thrift store allowed us to take for free. Just have fun with it, and see what you can find.

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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.

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...

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.

Valerean

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