We got a Goodwill! We got a Goodwill! I’m so happy! We got a Goodwill!
Back when Rob was a non-cuddly little infant in a stroller and I was a stunned and isolated new mother, we had a Goodwill within easy walking distance of our apartment. I used to have a goal of getting the two of us out of the house every single day, and that was one of my favorite destinations. Pretty plate for 50 cents! Revereware saucepan for $1.99! End table for $10.00! Suitcase for $5.00!
Plus, that was where we donated our decluttering: I didn’t feel as dumb getting rid of all the brand-new tags-still-on-them placemats it turned out we never used if I knew they were going to a good cause (and to another shopper who would get the same thrill I got when I saw the plates for 50 cents).
Then we moved, and there was a Goodwill but it was pretty far away, and then that Goodwill closed. Years of twilight passed.
Then, on a day we didn’t realize we should note as The Day Our Lives Changed, construction started on a new building. We felt mild curiosity: What will it be? A new Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts, probably, since there are only two so far in that mile-long strip.
But no! No! It was a GOODWILL. We discussed it. Could it be a rumor? Maybe it is just a Dunkin Donuts BUILT BY Goodwill, and not an actual Goodwill STORE. But it continued to look like it was actually going to be a Goodwill.
This past Wednesday, my mom and I were driving up that road and we saw the full parking lot. Could it be OPEN? Is it OPEN?? IT’S OPEN. My mom made a hard right into the parking lot. And oh! The riches! A Gap sweater and a J. Crew sweater for William, $4.99 each—but one of them was yellow-tagged, so it was only $2.50.
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| William does not want to model his $2.50 Gap sweater |
Four non-cropped sweaters for Elizabeth, who had NO sweaters this year because they’re ALL cropped, $1.99 each—oh, but one is yellow-tagged, so only $1.00!
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| Elizabeth in her $1.00 non-cropped sweater |
A Rugged Bear pinwale corduroy dress for Elizabeth, $1.99—whoops, yellow tag, $1.00! A cute short-sleeved t-shirt cardigan for me, $36.00 store tag still on it, $7.99! A Lands’ End tie-dye shirt for Edward—THE VERY ONE I HAVE CONSIDERED BUYING FROM LANDS’ END.
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| IT’S THE VERY ONE |
Carter’s spring/fall jacket for Henry, $1.99! A Gymboree sweater for Henry, looks like it’s never even been laundered let alone worn, $1.99!
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| Henry wearing $1.99 |
Whoooo. I felt faint. I think one reason I got so many good deals is that four of the five kids wear sweaters, but sweaters are the kind of thing a lot of people WON’T wear. So people end up donating huge piles of them: I think in the men’s section there were a lot of Unwanted Sweaters Received For Christmas (which William will wear EVERY SINGLE DAY until spring).
Speaking of sweaters, I wished SO HARD I was involved in a group that did an Ugly Christmas Sweater event, because there was a PERFECT sweater for it. Perfect in that it was not actually entirely ugly, but was nevertheless comical. Cardinals and holly EVERYWHERE. Also: it was a VEST CARDIGAN.
Then, that same night Paul and I went out on a date (we went to Chipotle because neither of us had ever been; we both liked it a lot) (I wore my new short-sleeved cardigan), and after we went to dinner we went back to Goodwill! I bought another few things for the kids, and tried on a jacket that wasn’t quite right the first time and wasn’t quite right the second time either. I looked more thoroughly in the plates and stationery, where I found a Griffin & Sabine stationery set I would have wanted very very badly twenty years ago, and maybe I need to go back and buy it. [Edit: I went back and bought it!] Paul bought an electronic item BECAUSE HE DIDN’T KNOW WHAT IT WAS. It was $4.99, that’s what it was. I could get TWO GAP SWEATERS for that. He also bought a set of three new glass storage containers, for a full-price price. I don’t think Paul understands Goodwill.
Ha. This kind of makes me want to go to Goodwill today, but we have other plans. My 5YO wears sweaters, and I couldn’t find many in his size this year (that I considered “affordable”), but our Goodwill is sorely lacking in children’s clothes. Since it’s a college town, there are lots of name-brand, like-new 20-something clothes in fake sizes such as 0 and 1 (<--surely not real sizes), but not much for a 30-something mom or her 5YO. I do buy drinking glasses almost every time I go in there.
I love thrift stores. The actual Goodwill in my city is overpriced, but I love the Salvation Army here. Wednesday is half price day on everything. I pretty much exclusively do all my clothes shopping there.
Is it weird that while the Goodwill part of the post is totally exciting, my favorite thing is “The Jerk” reference in the title? So awesome.
Love this post, partly because I like thrift store shopping myself, but mostly because WIlliam looks so irritated in that picture that it completely MADE MY DAY (sorry WIlliam but it really did.)
so jealous! We have donated a LOT of stuff to goodwill in the past year, and we still have about 10 more car-loads to go (hey, getting rid of your entire house is SO LIBERATING.) and I want to go shop, so I can find the eclectic collection of dishes and silverware because I am not a “set” person but my husband won’t let me (jokingly) because “we have enough crap!” heeehee.. if it wasn’t so far away I’d just go myself!
Not even considering the prices (which I realize is most of the point) I am so jealous that your daughter, who is only a year older than mine, will either a) assemble an outfit of matching clothes for herself, or b) consent to wear an outfit of matching clothes you have assembled for her. I feel crazy combinations of colors and patterns are cute on preschoolers, but not so much on a first grader but she gets all bent out of shape when I make suggestions, so mostly I go with the flow.
I’m so sorry for your Goodwill-deficient years! I’ve started on a major decluttering tear and have been to mine three days this week to donate. I also love shopping there, but ours IS rather overpriced. Especially for clothes.
StephLove- It varies. Some days she puts together outfits I consider great. Other days, I have to go with the flow!
Hah, my 15 month old did not appreciate my ignoring him to read your post. He always gets upset when I laugh loudly! I’m so happy for you. I, too, have a love for second hand shopping, but have lamented my poor area (and therefor, poor Goodwill and SA) since I moved here. It’s a hard knock life.
Oh, I love thrift stores, especially Goodwill. I completely relate to your excitement! :) I like the fact that our Goodwill stores have fitting rooms, so I can try clothes on (Salvation Army doesn’t, but their clothes are often a little cheaper).
I also choked a little bit when I read ‘Griffin and Sabine stationery.’ Ahhh! So jealous! I have 3 of the books…I always loved them. :)
~ Wendi
I HAVE that Griffin and Sabine stationary set. I bought it full price in a bookstore years ago and have used almost all of it and it has given me great joy. If I had found it in a thrift store? I can’t imagine the transports of ecstasy.
I also adore thrift-store shopping. I don’t have a lot of money, and you also get things that aren’t looking like the Ikea-things everyone has. Sadly, around here there’s not many of them :(
The social-project one from the city just closed, and while there’s an Oxfam here the prices they ask for are just ridiculous. Recently I dared asking if they could drop the price on an overpriced item (mokka-maker for directly on the burner, dirty and needing a new rubber sealing ring) by two Euros. I got the stinkeye and was told off “but it’s for the poor people”! Well, I said, don’t have much money myself and according to the label this thing has been sitting here unsold for weeks. I thought charitable means helping poorer people all over.
Nope, no dice. Not selling things appears to be more helpful, even if the stuff is donated to them anyway. So it just reminded me why I usually don’t go there and when I can rather give money directly than deal with them. I’d love to have one of those big Warehouse style Charity shops like Goodwill around here.
I love this post so much! It’s inspired me to go to my favorite local thrift shop while I’m out today :)
Does yours do 50% off Saturdays? The Phoenix Goodwills have everything in the store 50% off every other Saturday. I will confess to scheduling trips to visit my parents around those Saturdays-cheap shopping and free childcare!
I am so excited for you! We have a horribly overpriced SA here but our Goodwill is AWESOME!! There prices are great and they get weekly shipments of brand new awesomeness from TARGET! My sister just got a vase that is still in store felling for $20+ and she got it at Goodwill for $2!!!
Jess
Are the clothes separated by size? Because at my local Goodwill they are not, and I’m just not into rummaging through every size known to humankind to see if any of them are mine. When I go visit my mom I stop at her Good will because it is awesome.
Beth- Not yet, but they’re new so maybe they will! Right now they have a system where they give everything a color code based on when it came in. So each week, everything marked with the oldest color code is 50% off.
jill- Yes! We did find quite a bit of stuff in the wrong place, though. Like, I looked through the XL women’s after looking through the plus sizes, and I found half a dozen plus-size things there.
You sound like someone who is ready to listen to the song Thrift Shop by Macklemore! The video is on YouTube – very fun video and song, though perhaps to be watched after children are in bed. I am always in the mood for goodwill shopping after seeing it.
Having just found a Jones New York wool swing coat that ZIPS at our local thrift store for 12 dollars, I totally empathize with your excitement. We go to our thrift store once a month, spend 50 dollars, and come home with bags of jeans, sweaters, roller blades, shoes, etc., for the kids.
I am still high from my local thrift shop excursion earlier this week. I rarely go because it’s too crazy with my kids, but I had some time while the older was in preschool and I popped in on a whim. I got several pristine Little People toys that I had considered for Christmas, some storage baskets, 8 pairs of pants for the boys (one with tags still on!), a big wheel tricycle, two baseball mitts (a lefty and a righty, because I have one of each), and a large Pottery Barn mirror with hooks (what is that called?) for the mudroom area. All for 60 bucks! I felt pretty good about it. Can’t wait for garage sale season, which is my favorite place for secondhand treasures.
Mmmmm, Goodwill. We got a new one a few years back and it is GREAT. Perfect both for acquiring and for disposing.
I love Goodwill and William’s picture made me snicker.
I love going to our Goodwill. I haven’t been for a while though. I always find good kid clothes there and books. And I found a few really nice maternity things there last year.
I love Goodwill! I get probably 90% of my clothes there (the exclusion being jeans, because I lack the fortitude to sift through 50 pairs of strange jeans [fringe! gray tie-dye!] to find one normal-looking pair).
I just got so dispirited with my son putting holes in ALL the knees of ALL his pants at once (and he had to do it two months before it’s going to be even remotely close to shorts weather) that I headed to thrift him some new pants just this week. Oh, the joy of spending $1.99 or $2.99 on brand-new or just-barely-breathed-on pants, instead of $16.99. Oh! The JOY!
“It was $4.99, that’s what it was.” made me actually laugh out loud an not in the LOL way.
Hooray! Goodwill!
I flippin’ LOVE Goodwill. Yay for you!
Who are these giant children and what have you done with the little cutie twins and that teeny Henry?
The entire time I was reading this, I was also singing “Thrift Shop” and wondering why the hell I’ve never been to a Goodwill store.
I cannot even read the other comments first because I am in such a rush to tell you that I LOVE GOODWILL. There are not enough caps in the world to emphasize how much I love it. I also love garage sales for kids’ clothes. I will never understand people like my SIL who disdain Goodwill for kids’ clothes. If you go to the right one, you can get things that are AWESOME and PRACTICALLY NEW and also NAME BRAND for almost nothing. (Sorry for the caps–see my comment above.) I love Goodwill! I’m so happy you got one nearby. What a happy day in Swistle land!
The title of this post makes me so happy. I’M PICKING OUT A THERMOS FOR YOOOOOU.
This made me laugh out loud. Did you know they have an online store? It’s not for $1.99 sweaters so much as for specialty items, and it’s auction style, but it’s still fun and you can occasionally snap up a bargain. I’ve bought my daughter a couple of gently-used Vera Bradley items on there that would have cost a good bit more on eBay.
Leigh- OOOOOooooo, no, I did NOT know that!!
If that Christmas vest also involved sequins, I am pretty sure it’s the same one I have for Ugly Sweater Party purposes. It is great.
Hey, now you can talk about how certain items in your/your children’s wardrobe are “thrifted.” Instant blogging/hipster cred!
“IT’S THE VERY ONE” made me laugh and laugh.
First of all, I am positively SWOONY at the thought of a date that involves Goodwill!
Second, whenever I see construction near me I hope for two things: either Target (knowing it won’t be but secretly hoping) and Trader Joe’s (same). But I think I have to add a third secret dream: Goodwill! One nearby would absolutely make my year!