My never ending project and other thrifty packrat ramblings

After a month of household disasters I am finally getting the house back in order.

I had a plumbing issue where they had to pull up the carpet and cut through the concrete to get at a pipe. This meant cleaning out my most cluttered room and putting everything into the garage until the work was finished.

I also had the shelf and my closet pole come off the wall in another room because I had too many items hanging and the weight pulled it off the wall. This forced me to take all of my clothes out of the closet and also put them in the garage for a few weeks. Thankfully I have a large department style clothing rack to hold it all. Each morning before work I would go into the cold garage and have to pick out my clothes for the day.

Part of the closet issue was that I hang my shoes. I don't have a classy closet so I get creative. I had no idea I had so many heavy shoes. I've decided to hang them in another room to take a little stress off. This of course means shifting and purging items from the second closet.

The new and improved shoe area.

While purging I found items that I had forgotten I had. Some good, some ridiculous. (see last post) I'm definitely a pack rat.

So yesterday my sister-in-law and I pulled together and had a joint garage sale. SIL is a great decorator and she re-decorates often so she had some fabulous decorative pieces to sell and I had some art and we both had clothes. We rocked the sale and people walked off with some awesome bargains.


I get a kick out of the garage sale buyers. Such an interesting lot. There are the folks who need inexpensive clothes and household goods. There are the re-sellers who love to talk about their deals and there are the more subtle re-sellers who buy and don't brag. I like them best. I also like when someone brings their children with them and I love to see what the children are interested in. I must say I am a sucker for the kids and many times just give them what they are looking at or sell it super cheap.


I think that thrift shopping with kids is an excellent way to teach them the value of a dollar. When my niece and nephew used to visit me when they were younger, they looked forward to a weekend of garage sales with their Auntie. They seemed to really enjoy it.


Being thrifty on some items is a passion for me. I'm not above buying retail I just prefer not to if I don't have to. I find tons of cool art at yard sales and some have become treasured pieces for me. One example is my small collection of masks. Rule #1 I have to really like the mask and have a certain feeling about it.

I like to buy items that speak to me. Or if I think it might make a unique gift for someone I know, I may buy it and save it for a gift giving occasions. (or no occasion at all). Yes, anyone who knows me knows that I am not above giving unusual pre-owned items as gifts. This is accepted in my family and we many times give each other interesting little gifts that may have been pre-owned.


Below is an example of some of my masks that I decorated my work office with. All of the masks, the basket and the framed art were pre-owned and bought for pennies on the dollar.

Do you ever buy pre-owned? What do you buy? Why? I'd like to hear about it.