The Ultimate Thrift Store Score

I love thrift stores. Always have, always will. My devotion wavered a bit in the past 5ish years. It seemed that a lot of the local thrift stores thought pretty highly of themselves and were selling items for a lot more than they were worth. Stores were dirty and unorganized, clothes had to be inspected thoroughly for imperfections, and so on. I used to be able to come home loaded down with clothes and lately I spend two hours and come home with 3 or 4 decent pieces. Just not worth it.

Until now.

Sometime after we moved, I noticed a little thrift store by a local church. The sign boasted 25 cent clothing. I assumed it was a charity for people in need and that the clothes were probably pretty awful. I never bothered to stop in.

In December, we ended up attending that local church and have recently been getting plugged in. At our membership class, I met with the woman who founded and runs the thrift store to talk about volunteering. I was really impressed with her high standards of excellence and quality and her heart for the community.

A few weeks ago the boys and I toured the store and I was blown away. It was clean and brightly painted. Everything was neat and orderly and organized. All of the clothes are gone through, one by one, and anything with holes, rips, stains, missing buttons, etc are thrown into salvage. Anything that's in really pristine condition is sold at their boutique where things for for a dollar or two. Everything else is sold for 25 cents.

All of the work is done by volunteers which means that, after operating expenses, all of the money goes back into the community. For instance, 300 local children will have all of their school supplies provided for them. They sign up in advance, lists are secured from their school, and everything is purchased and assembled by volunteers. On the day of pick-up, there is a celebration with free hot dogs and snow cones and a bubble truck. A beginning-of-the-year celebration.

How cool is that?

So, I've been working there now for a few weeks and am really loving the ladies who volunteer, the work that I do, and the money I save by shopping there! Love, love, love! I'm thrilled to be at a church at serves the community and makes it easy to jump in and get involved.

This is an especially great time to get involved because they are doing some re-branding and updates and promotions so it'll be neat to see the impact and influence that is generated as a result. I can't wait to see how this turns out!

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