Looking for a place to give excess stuff to? Want to feel good about it and be helpful to those in need? Try the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. They take household dishes and books as well as building supplies and tools and pots and pans. Anything a household might need to start over. Go take a look. They pick up too and even on Saturday!
* * *
My neighbor bought two flats of shingles priced at 50 dollars a flat one day and marked down to 25 bucks a flat the next day when she got them. You have to have your truck there when you buy because there is no holding stuff and someone will jump in and get it if you don’t.
I saw great 1940 style white wooden shelves, two sets matching floor to ceiling for 30 bucks each. They had a great curly motif on top and were white enamel, didn’t really need to be repainted. I envisioned them nailed up in my kitchen as pantry shelves, could have stored a billion canned goods and jars and vintage dishes. Oh well. They were sold by time we went back the next day.
ReStore is a great place to buy a stove, a sink basin, lamps and lights all over the place and even an old baby grand with folk art painted designs all over it. I can give my stuff to ReStore without guilt of giving away a family item, because momma and daddy would approve, somebody needs it more than I do so they can start over!
Wallpaper, tiles, any excess paint, any amount of anything anyone could remotely use, old curtains, an old rocker, rakes, hoes and shovels. Do not hesitate
Dressers at ReStore were very vintage. Some flat ones that inspired me to think of wallpapering the outside fronts of the drawers (in floral prints), adding clean vintage knobs and enameling the rest.
Carpenters! They say you can show up at the ReStore enough times that you can find the really creative good carpenters in town because workmen frequent the place for their projects, and I suspect, to gab and hangout.
Need bulbs for the yard? Here's a similar idea:
Stop by the little hardware stores in neighborhoods (like Virginia Highlands, here in Atlanta). They have a box of bags of with half priced bulbs to plant RIGHT NOW. And they are mostly daffodils and tulips, in huge quantities, 6.50 a bag. So, get digging. I highly recommend daffodils for this area.
Another idea. Shop Breck’s sale online. Get brave and try the purple tree lilies (12.95 or so for three). After success with that this year, expand on the tree lily theme. Biff and Ginger McMansion will be so jealous. You see, their landscaper would never plants things like this! I am totally in favor of granny gardening and you know your country granny would have planted anything she wanted to plant. Just as long as it is pretty, smells good and shows up.
* * *
Find a Habitat for Humanity RE-STORE near you...
Read more articles like this in our Frugal Living Index
Copyright © 2016 by Susan of Atlanta. All rights reserved.
