This chair showing off it’s back side was $35, the slipcover chair $13 with a $50 slipcover, the sofa table was $20 {all thrift finds} are you so sick of me telling you the prices? This room is turning into my second hand room.
Last week I dropped off a few things to my local Goodwill. And, I never just drop off, I always go in as well. I didn’t find much, a pair of uniform pants for my son {$3 compared to $15-25 new} and a pair of flippers for my boys to swim with also $3. On the way home I passed the Salvation Army. I’m pretty sure I haven’t found anything there for the last 6 times I’ve been in. However, I have found stuff there in the past. I almost didn’t stop because I didn’t want to waste my time, but the thought of passing up something great was enough to get me to stop.
I’m glad I did. This coffee table caught my eye. It was marked $49 but, I could see the date it arrived on the tag and knew it had been sitting around for a little while. I also know that my Salvation Army will discount items after they’ve been there a few days. Especially things that are showing a lot of wear.
It had two great pair of legs complete with casters and a sheet of beveled glass on top. The wood was in bad shape but, now that I know how to paint furniture, I wasn’t concerned about that. $35 later it was mine. And I was SO glad I walked into that store.
Ideally, I wanted a small round table. But after looking for one for months, I figured this one would be worth the risk. I knew I could fix it up and live with it for awhile and if it doesn’t work I think I could sell it at a yard sale. But so far I really like it.
Yesterday, Sunday, my husband and I needed to run out to Target. We passed the Goodwill on our way home and decided to stop in. He’s a great thrifter in his own right only his finds usually are books, Carhartt and golf stuff. I found this great lamp. I saw it from afar and knew I had to have it. It had a great drum shade and a glass bottom and was marked $10. I grabbed it and quickly looked around to see if someone would yell “hey you can’t buy that” or give me a standing ovation. Nothing like that happened but, I found that it still had the Home Goods price tag on it. Home Goods is part of the trilogy where pretty much all of my lamps are from {Home Goods/TJ Maxx/Marshalls}.
That’s right. $60.
The shade was a little dirty and the lamp looked like it had sat in a dust storm for a year but after I cleaned it up, it was perfectly acceptable. Here’s the thing, I’ve never been to the Goodwill on a Sunday. I didn’t even know they were open.
Value Village Thrift Store Dresser:: $80
When it comes to shopping thrift, the biggest secret to finding great stuff is persistence. Are you willing to pass by a ton of junk that you would never buy to find that one gem?
You have to keep going. Sometimes when I show off my great finds, I think people think that I find something great every time I walk in. Not true. I’d just have a even more boring blog if I wrote about every time I walked into the Goodwill and found negative nothing. I think I find something super great on every 20th visit on average. I find something good enough to buy about half the time, but many times it’s something small like a book or a silver spoon or a white plate, or shorts for my boys. But for me, it’s fun to go. And that great find is worth going and finding nothing. You can see that as an impossible feat or, look at it as an adventure and decide that every time you pass the thrift shop, you’ll peek in really quick and see what they have.
tall vase: $5, table: $7, big basket: $6 :: all second hand
Depending on your season of life, you may or may not be able to simply drop in a thrift store every time you pass it. It’s still worth going, even if you can only stop in once a month. That’s 12 times in a year, odds are you’ll still find something pretty good after a few times and you’ll be glad you went, you can use that high to get you through the times when you find nothing.
I’ve never gone to a thrift store looking for a certain item and found it. I go with a little cash and an open mind. 99.9% of the stuff I see is stuff I don’t want. You sift through a lot of junk. When I do find something, I buy it because I like it, I can afford it, and I think I can make it work in my home. I usually don’t know where I’ll put it until I get home. But, I like the thrill of the hunt and I don’t give up every time I come home empty handed.
Just keep going.
Amen! You describe thrifting perfectly! I have just begun doing such in the past year with our new home and it is SO WORTH the many trips to find gorgeous items for your home and dirt cheap prices AND they’re usually one of a kind items once you’ve dressed them up your own special way. My parents mostly bought “new” and I don’t blame them as they aren’t very crafty or even care too much about decorating impressively – thrifting is a whole new wonderful world to me ;)
No list, but I keep a mental idea in my head of what I’d like to find! That paid off the last time I went when I got a beautiful white soup tureen and a couple of old bottles. I agree though that you need to keep an open mind and look at what does catch your eye. Certainly just about everything can be made over. Just like buying new, though, if I can’t use it I’m not going to buy it just because it’s cheap! The stuff that is new just throws me ~ I have to look at it a few times to make sure it’s not a mistake. My GW has lots of Target stuff new. And, it’s stuff the store still carries!
My entire outlook on furnishing my home and living my life has been so changed by you and Christina Lewis. I was the typical just go to Ethan Allen or Boyles and buy what fits in the space (mostly becase that is how my hubby rolled). It is so much more fun to search for something and get it for a great price. My mom was the queen of what she called “Early Attic Distressed Yard Sale” . She could turn nothing into something. I am getting back to my roots and loving it.
Thanks for all the inspiration!
Oh well you know I’m in love with Christiana Lewis:: here she is folks, it’s been nice knowing you–I’m hoping to do a feature here at the Nest on her soon:
http://www.lovecominghome.com/wordpress/
I too love the thrill of the hunt! I, too, never drop off without also going in. and I,too, always tell pple what I paid for things. It’s my way of bragging. ;p
We should def. hang out! :)
great thoughts! I have my mom to
blame thank for my joy of thrifting!I agree with the hit and miss… but it does inspire me to go again, and to come home and brag to my husband at what I find, and how much I pay,… and how cool it looks when I repurpose it!!
thanks again for the motivation!
major oops with the strike thing!
this is what I wanted to say. I hate trying to be cool using HTML tags…obviously.
great thoughts! I have my mom to
blamethank for my joy of thrifting!I agree with the hit and miss… but it does inspire me to go again, and to come home and brag to my husband at what I find, and how much I pay,… and how cool it looks when I repurpose it!!
thanks again for the motivation!
Thrifted room? My whole house is thrifted. LOVE the table. I so agree with your thrifting tips. I always have a short list in my head of things I “need” for my house, but I often find things that I didn’t know I needed. It’s like treasure hunting!
girl! we are thrifting sisters at heart! i love going to the thrift store! and i usually dont just drive by! if i can help it! i need to do a post of some of the goodies i have snatched up at my local thrift store! dont ya think that the salvation army is kinda pricey! i mean it is a thrift store! hehe! i mainly go to goodwill! it took me a few times to stop being alittle snooty but now i am a regular! and they are starting to recognize me! i would love to go thrifting with you one day!
My wife and I LOVE LOVE LOVE thrift stores, almost all of our entire house is furnished from thrift stores and yard sales. You can find anything if you are patient and you cannot beat the prices. A couple of weekends ago we were at a yard sale and there were two matching night stands, now mind you we already had night stands but these were as my wife said ” just perfect”. And you know they were I did not have to paint them or anything, and they were $5.00 a piece yep two night stands for $10.00. And to boot they were good quality cherry wood, and the drawers were dove tailed not just stapled and glued. What a find, but seriously you can find anything at yard sales and thrift stores and with a little elbow grease and some great white or cream paint they are beautiful….. Keep THRIFTING I SAY!!!
Blessings to you and yours Curtis & Sherrie
Everyone say hi to Curtis–the one man brave enough to leave a comment!
Thrifting is all about patience and the thrill of the hunt, isn’t it?!
Thanks to your blog, and others of similar mind like Balancing Beauty & Bedlam, I’ve come to embrace thrift stores. While I’m off from teaching for the summer I’ve been hitting more stores. Last week’s buys included crystal/silver coasters for $2, a Gap fire engine red skirt for and a gorgeous Mexican embroidered blouse for $3 each, a set of eight crystal glasses for $1 each, and a whole set of white china with silver trim that serves 12 for less than $50. Thanks for today’s inspiring post!
What a great post! I am so glad to read from you and other readers that I am not the only one that drops off and goes in! Whew, I thought I was the only one in this club. I was so bummed today, because I had to drop off and not go in because I was pressed for time. All day I have been saying to myself, I hope I didn’t miss anything!
thank you for this post. I just myself posted my thrift store bomb out yesterday. Our local SA is so expensive I can buy it new at Macy’s or Nordies for about the same price. Very dissappointing.
I loved seeing all your great finds! I agree with you completely… my friends know of all the good finds I get at our local thrift shops and they will sometimes say something like, “I went in there once, I didn’t find anything!”… well duh!!! You can’t go once and expect to hit pay dirt!! LOL!
Tania
This is so true…half the battle is just showing up. I can go to my favorite haunt, A Classy Flea, 6 times and find nothing…then the 7th time, I want to take home half the store. Ya just never know…which makes it that much more fun. :-)
That table is fabulous! And that lamp…what a find! I find it crazy that someone spent $60 on it and then took it to Goodwill when obviously it’s great. :) You thrift pretty much like I do. I have been wanting to buy a few pieces of furniture but I’m in a season of being broke so I can’t. ;)
New reader here . . . found you through Sue from Laundry for Six.
I’ve been a committed thrifter for a little over 4 years – it started shortly after the birth of my first child when I went looking for a second hand exersaucer and came out with some excellent used condition Gymboree clothes. I was hooked.
Regret is an amazing teacher – I haven’t done a lot of shopping for furniture or home accessories, but I have a weakness for little girls clothes, vintage tupperware, and vintage embroidered tablecloths and aprons. After a few too many yard sale and consignment sales to get rid of excess I’m much more disciplined.
Persistence is important as a pp noted, and so is knowing your store (s). Our Value Villages have a sophisticated call center and call list and it seems that because people get on their call list and give more regularly, they are less likely to have “big” giveaways like furniture and more likely to have smaller things like kids clothes and toys. By contrast, the Salvation Army that does little to no calling, seems to have more furniture.
I’m just now starting to catch my breath in life and am beginning to think about really decorating the home we’ve lived in for almost 6 years ! Thanks for the inspiration
Great post and tips. And I LOVE that coffee table. It looks so good!
Great score on that lamp! I know our local Target donates returns and clearance items to Goodwill. I wonder if Homegoods does too?
yes, the target goodwill, those are AMAZING!
Best stuff in my house is from thrifting. Crazy! Anyway, gotta ask…what happened to the big white table you had in there? The tall one? Did I miss a post on what you did with that baby? yes, I’m too lazy to go check!
Oh yeah, I forgot to show, I moved it to my office and am sitting at it right now. Then I moved my old office table/desk into our family room and I love it there, I’ll have to do a post about it because I know you are all holding your breath not sleeping at night wondering where that table is.
I love how your front room is evolving. So very pretty–and Secondhand Sallies, at that!
You are right, the curiousity of “will I find that amazing something this time” is always what gets me to stop. And, if I have the girl with me, she loves to look at the wedding dresses. :)
So funny, I had to share…my 5 year old son just jumped up on my lap…don’t ask what he is still doing up at 9:15, it’s summer vacation for both of us!…and asked me to scroll back up to your top pic today. He told me, “We have to have that!” I asked what…the lamp, the chairs, the plates…what? “All of it mommy, it looks great!” Now this boy doesn’t care if he can’t find his bed in the chaos of toys, has never commented on any of our furnishings, other than the cave under his captain’s bed, but he loves that room of yours! I’ll take your thrifting advice to heart…I’m always envious of the finds other people have, but rarely take the time to look myself!
We have a store called Trinkets and Togs and I go almost every Tuesday and Thursday morning. I know I go too often when all I notice are things I have donated! “Mommy, I have one of those at home don’t I?” I quickly divert my daughter’s attention when that happens :) BTW I LOVE my prize from DaySpring! I got the wipe off message board and it looks amazing in my kitchen! I use it to write inspirational messages to my kids!
Wow – I love all of your treasures! I have been hitting the garage sales hard but have not found anything that fabulous. I have found some wonderful old frames for $1 each the last few weeks. Tyrying to come up with a good project for them.
Thanks for the inspiration!
XOXO
Jen
I am such a thrifter and I love it here~
Another tip, don’t be afraid to step away for awhile. Get fresh eyes and then return. I haven’t been in a thrift store for over 2 months. We are going through a great purge here and I do not want to add to it. So I took “time off”. Got a new perspective of what I really need and I will be returning today. :)
good idea!
I’ve been looking for lamps for a very long time and haven’t found anything that will work for me, I also haven’t found much for my home in general but that being said, I don’t need much either and good things I’ve seen would literally have no where to go in my home.
I DO have excellent, fabulous, awesome luck with clothing, I recently lost 90+ pounds and realized very quickly that I couldn’t buy new things every time I needed a new size. That’s when I discovered Goodwill. I still shop there and have a lovely wardrobe that people are shocked to hear I obtained at the Goodwill.
My favorite tip is to look in the more “upscale” towns of your areas. Rich people get rid of lots of good things. ;)
Yes, I think the rich wear things once and then give them to goodwill! I LOVE rich people!
Please keep telling us your secrets…and their prices!
My best most recent Goodwill find was three Southern Living at Home square bowls, which are $30 for the set. I got them for $3. I’ve become so addicted that I can’t stand paying even TJ Maxx prices anymore.
Heather, that is so true! sometimes if I’m shopping at yard sales a lot and then go into a goodwill I’m all “$3? I could get this for 75 cents at a yardsale”!
I can be a spoiled brat. It’s all relative I guess!
great advice! i love the hunt.. and worst part for me, going to ‘just look’ and finding something great.. and remembering that i’m out of shopping funds!!
welcome Curtis! join in our obsession with the rearrangement of furniture and following whatever the nester does!!
What kind of paint do you use to paint furniture. Just regular paint? Do you spray paint or use a brush. Love what you have done with the pieces in white.
I love the new coffee table you got. Casters are fantastic!
A thought. Isn’t your table in your living room too long for your sofa? The “new” square one would look really nice in front of your sectional.
Hi, It’s Michelle from Faith, Trust, and a little Pixie Dust. What a darling blog! So glad I stumbled onto you. Fun ideas.
If you decide to sell the coffee table from Salvation Army, I would love to buy it. I designed one for my husband to build me but he hasn’t found the time to do it yet and I really need/want a square coffee table.
Nester, you are such an inspiration! I so wish you could come and teach me a thing or two about combining patterns, colors, etc. The last picture on this post is so inviting and well meshed together and something I could never pull off with my own thoughts! I am so thankful to have your advice on here, but I still deal with self-doubt often with my color choices and flow of things from room to room! Thanks for inspiring me!
Wow, what a fantastic post. It makes me want to run to the salvation army first thing in the morning and search for hidden treasures. Thanks for passing on such helpful info!
Hey Nester,
This post was really helpful to me…thanks for writing it. :)
Nester, I found your blog a few months ago and I’ve been lurking, uh, visiting almost daily for inspirations. You’ve given me a renewed spirit for my own home and business, so, thanks for that! I have been looking for a coffee table like the one you have and now you’ve posted a new one and come to find out I own that exact one in my staging inventory!
Also, as the new year rolled around, I wanted to let you in a heehee moment in my house. I have one of the most frugal hubbies in the whole universe so when I went to do my goals for the house I had to list them as 2011 No Cost Goals for the House. Even no cost goals, are going to have some cost, let’s face it. I said out loud, “I think we should allow a $25 maximum for the No Cost Goals – per project.” My categorically cheap loving husband said, “I think the Nester would agree to that.”
So inspiring – you’ve given me hope, for one working on a limited budget with grandiose ideas!
I thank you for your website; I plan to buy your book. Please keep these wonderful ideas and
tips coming!
Thank you!
Mary Bianchi Chlada
Burr Ridge, IL
please learn how to clear up wood polish- painting that table white was criminal!
Just discovered your blog and am absolutely in love! I am a die-hard thrifter and an aspiring interior designer so your blog provides lots of inspiration! :) Thank you!
please, please, please tell me the color of the paint on the wall where your gorgeous collection of plates is….
why is everyone’s home so beautiful :( not fair hahaha
I’ve been a thrifter for years! My kids, who are young adults now, grew up in thrift store clothes — nice ones! My home is decorated in late Salvation Army / Early Goodwill style. I love the thrill of the hunt. AND I love to save money. Stylish living does not have to cost a lot of money. Love your blog!!
Nice site. Keep up the great work
hi there, i linked to your plate wall on my blog. hope you don’t mind. i credited you, of course.
this post is fantastic, btw.
ps, vases are the absolute BEST at thrift stores. i keep seeing the most amazing vase pieces at our local thrift store. soooooo pretty.
It’s always that yard sale that you creep by thinking there is nothing you need and you get that nagging feeling to stop, go in, and in the back is something you’ve GOT to have. NEVER fails!! Last one, I saw 4 small padded piano benches, In my mind I saw 2 at the end of my bed, all for $5.00!! I scoured a local Goodwill for material to cover the seats, Now I have friends that have placed dibs on the other two! All four, painted and covered for under $10.00! Woo Hoo!
I thought I saw the clear Home Goods lamp in another photo as a set. Did you find another one just like it?