Together on Tuesday: Nifty Thrifty Shoppers...Are You One?

Thrifting...do you do it?  Do you go to thrift stores like Goodwill/Salvation Army or secondhand stores like Plato's Closet?  Do you look for deals on Craigslist?  Are you a yard sale-er or flea market shopper? Why or why not?

Well...I will just come right out with a confession...no typically I do not.  Now, this is where it gets a little bit weird - but just follow me here and see where we end up (hint: we are going to end up discussing one of my bizarre phobias).  By all accounts, being the analytic type thinker that I am, I should be a thrift shopper for number of reasons.  Yeah weird, I told you...just keep following me on this.  Logically, I know that thrift shopping is a great thing.  You save all kinds of money; but also, and sometimes even better, you find great things that you would not find in typical retail stores these days.  I love the idea of re-purposing household items, especially furniture.  That is a great idea that yields really great results...not just great results, you end up with a custom, perfectly tailored item to suit your needs.  I know a number of my friends who do this.  Not only do I love the pieces they end up with, I've actually found myself wanting their finished products for my own house!

So, if I love the idea so much then why don't I do it?  Well, the truth just comes down to: time, my dislike for backlogged projects, and this aversion/phobia I have about clutter (which I will explain more thoroughly later in this entry).

Mark and I both work a lot and it isn't uncommon for our day jobs to runneth over into the evenings and/or weekends.  On top of that, Mark also has a small business he runs out of our home; the nature of that business has its own time commitment and project-based demands.  When Mark is working on his side-business projects, I have other things that I want or need to work on - or just spend it enjoying time with my dogs.

Because of our pre-existing time commitments, Mark and I have found that our home improvement projects get further and further backlogged with every passing day.  I do not like this.  That is no secret - I just do not like having multiple projects started, sitting unfinished, and having no time to finish them.  For me, it just leaves this lingering feeling of unrest and I do not like having the feeling of unrest in my home; it just sort of haunts me and causes me unnecessary stress.  I refuse to add to this by buying items (such as pieces of furniture) that I've made great plans for in my mind; yet, the time needed to accomplish such a project never quite materializes.

This brings us to my completely false and misdirected association of thrift items turning into clutter.  I know, and will freely admit, that the thought of clutter that I attach to yard sales and flea markets is totally just outright wrong.  Please do not misunderstand me here - I am NOT saying that I think I am too good to buy secondhand items at yard sales/flea markets.  I've had plenty of secondhand things throughout my life; that is not where my issue lies.  My problem is that when I walk into a flea market or a yard sale - all that my mind sees is a conglomeration of stuff that someone else has decided they don't want (for what must be some legitimate reason...right??).  My other flawed line of thinking is that when I picture a flea market or yard sale in my mind, I default to images of dusty old nick-knacks, tea cup sets, and porcelain dolls.  Just things that I do not need cluttering up my house - I already have plenty of my own things cluttering up my house.  I am always thinking that I need to get rid of stuff, not acquire stuff that someone else no longer wants.  As mentioned above, I also have a sort of aversion (perhaps even a slight phobia) to this type of clutter.  I do believe that having this touch of a phobia to clutter actually does lead to my psyche blowing out of proportion the memories of things I've seen that I do not like at yard sales and flea markets.  So, now you MUST be thinking...'ok, no one likes clutter, but a phobia...really?  How does one get a phobia to clutter?'  I have no idea, actually.  I did not grow up in a cluttered home by any means.  We were just normal people with a normal amount of normal things.  I really have no idea where this has come from, but I do know that it is beyond just a normal dislike toward clutter.  While writing about this, I actually found myself getting anxious just thinking about it.  If I were to enter a hoarder's home, I probably would find myself unable to breathe properly and/or in the midst of a panic attack (not kidding).  Second confession...I won't even go to flea markets anymore because I just get the feeling of them closing in around me, sort of similar to how someone with claustrophobia feels.  I am still okay with yard sales - probably because they are typically outdoors.

Craigslist?  Well, I don't like it - just because as a female, I don't take any comfort in dealing with a total stranger on the internet with the likely possibility of having to meet them somewhere (even if in public) to finalize the purchase and exchange money and the purchased item.  Mark on the other hand has had some really good luck with Craigslist.  Especially after we bought the house.  He used it to find things we either needed to get cheaply at first since we'd just plunked down most of our saved cash toward the house, or, things we'd only need for a season or two and there was just no good reason to pay full retail price.  Some of these items included our first riding lawn mower (got us through that first summer when we didn't really have the cash to lay out for a new one), flat-bed pull behind hauling trailer, a yard roller, and things like that.

How about you?  Comment below and tell me all about the treasures you've found that I am missing out on!