Preview of the Preview Party Wednesday November 30th, 4 to 7 $10 Donation

Need something special for holiday events?

Bud mugs for the beer collector



Vintage Christmas decorations



Kids stuff starting at $1

Men's dress shirts

Louis Vuitton without Angelina Jolie prices.

We have racks and racks of woman's clothing.

Is it a loveseat or is it a  sculpture?

New kids clothes at thrift store prices

Vintage for your next Mad Men party

This looks brand new

75th Anniversary Wine and Cheese and Grand Opening Preview

We are in the same building as Whirlyball.

After the soft opening and the sneak preview, we are finally ready for the GRAND OPENING of our newest showroom 5055 Richmond road. just south of Miles.  (Bedford Heights if you are setting a GPS.)

In honor of the 75th Anniversary, we will be having a new showroom preview wine and cheese Wednesday, November 30 from 4 to 7.  The 10,000 square foot showroom is filled with men's, woman's, and children's fashions, furniture, jewelry, housewares, accessories, collectibles.  $10 admission goes to support programs in greater Cleveland.  Check out the facebook page http://www.facebook.com/NCJWCleveland



OK, when I get better at this, I'll be able to line up the photo's how they looked on the add selected page.

ZEN And The Art Of Thrifting

Jaimie is one of my thrifting mentors.  A true thrifting diva, she is always on the lookout for a FIND... mainly clothes for her family, or anything else she can use for her home and yard.  For her it is all about the thrill of the hunt. She clearly enjoys stretching her paycheck by thrifting.

One busy Saturday she stopped me as I came in to work, "I found something great for you this morning."  She was glowing with happiness.  Later when things slowed down, she told me she had found a rake for my Zen garden. Not your typical FIND, but something I really needed.  Better yet, the rake was designed for raking shag carpets.  Better yet, since no one has shag carpet any more the guy gave it to Jamie.  The only zen rake source I saw online wanted close to $100.  The do it yourself option was not possible. I could tell I did not have the skills or equipment to make one myself.

Why a Zen Garden?  When I moved into the house in March, the only loose end with the previous owners was a large wooden play set in the back yard.  We both agreed they could wait until better weather to move it.  Then it rained almost every day for weeks.  When the thing was finally moved, there was a large pile of sand left.  I planned to break it down and plant grass. 

After one long dripping, backbreaking, session of shoveling sand, I  knew I needed a plan B.  It was too hot to try planting grass and I did not want to look at a sand pile all summer. I don't even remember how I came up with the Zen Garden idea but I figured if it did not work out, I could always plant grass in the fall. Jaime loaned me her power saw and checked every day to make sure I still had all my fingers. It was easy to screw together a frame and stain it black. By adding more sand, and a few different rocks, the garden was complete.  Still, I did not have a rake until Jamie's find.

At yoga, they are always saying if you open yourself up and put yourself out there, the universe will provide. Well the universe did provide a nice hand broom to dust the sand off the garden frame.  I found it in my front yard but the universe never would have provided the rake if Jamie had not gone thrifting.

I have found great inner peace playing  meditating in my sandbox Zen garden. Raking the sand it hit me that the joy of thrifting is more than the FIND, it is also sharing the joy, it is also the energy of the thrifting community.  It is more than the stuff, it is the people you meet on the quest.

Billionaires are thrifters too!

The Thrifting Divas at work were chatting about their thrifting FINDS, and Ms. Bay Area exclaimed, "You can see billionaires in San Francisco trying on clothes in the aisles at thrift stores.  Saving all those clothes from the landfill is eco friendly."  Makes sense.  WOW another reason people thrift, as a green statement.

A quick Internet search for "clothing in landfills" turns up some amazing statistics.  One source claimed 93% of textiles diverted to recycling instead of landfills  can be successfully reclaimed. Other sites claimed that 66% to 85% of textile waste go directly to landfills without getting the chance to be reused or recycled. LA County estimates that 10% of the trash in their landfills is remnant fabric and clothing. Other sources place textile waste in America at 5% to 7% of all landfills. 

Other sites state that fabrics can typically take hundreds of years to break down in landfills.

Save the planet--go thrifting!

But what happens to the stuff that can't be sold to be reused or is too damaged to be repurposed?  Roseann Schmidt, Thriftique VP, announced at the volunteer meeting that all of those items are sold to what our Grandparents called "rag men."  We call them recyclers.  They take reusable clothing that does not sell in the US and ship it to developing countries.  The damaged textiles that are not usable anywhere are recycled into products such as shop rags, auto insulation, blankets, and underlay for carpets. 

After that meeting, I started another donation pile.  I took the frayed turtleneck that I did not think could be resold out of my bedroom wastebasket.  Just think, our ratty old underwear (clean please), old dog's blankets, fabric remnants and all of the other clothing and textiles that are way beyond "gently used," can be recycled.  Drop them off in a separate bag marked rags when you drop off your other donations.

What's My Name? Say My Name

Like most new parents, Mom and Dad Knowles probably had high hopes for their baby girl when they gave her a unique name. Now baby Knowles has grown up to become a one name international superstar--Beyonce.  I have much more modest goals for this blog but I still want a unique name.

I am somewhat of a thrift store virgin but Thrift Store Virgin would be a ridiculous blogging name for someone closer to 60 than 16.  Growing up, our family made donations to charitable groups that had stores but I never remember shopping at one or patronizing garage sales. My Mom and one of my sisters love to shop but the shopping gene skipped me. When they dragged me along, I was the kid whining to go home.  Now, I have a basket of mail order catalogs I browse while I am on my throne and if I need any clothes, I order off of the internet. Don't make me go to a mall.  I've met some contenders for any best dressed list through thrifting and I hope to introduce then to you and pass along some of their tips in the future. Calling my blog Thrifting Diva or any name using Fashionista would not workfor me.  While I can admire well dressed people, I'm in the most comfortable category.

As a child, my Dad was an appliance wholesaler.  I was the only kid at college with a microwave oven in 1974.  It was a real shock for me when I had to pay money for  appliances and TV's instead of getting them from Daddy's store.  Well into adulthood, I was dropping off a donation and made my first FIND.  My toaster had broken that morning and they had one for sale, so a thrifter was born.  I forget what I paid but I think it was $2.  I'm still happily toasting six years later.

When I went to work at the store that will not be named because I am not an official company spokesperson, they gave us a nice selection of Hawaiian shirts. Many of my co-workers were thrifting experts and they turned me on to a few good places to find more shirts.  My Mom could not believe it when we were shopping while I was visiting her in Florida. Driving down the highway,  I spotted a Goodwill and started screaming, "Turn in, turn here."  FIND  two nice Hawaiian shirts.  Mom is still not a believer. "I can't understand why you didn't get anything at all those nice stores I took you to." (It's more fun if you say it out loud in a Will Smith, Parents Just Don't Understand voice)  Born to Thrift,  not.

I started thrifting with zeal in preparation for my move when I bought a house last February.  I had been living in condos and rentals since my divorce 15 years ago and was fed up with elevator buildings.  Two months living in a duplex owned by the landlord from hell convinced me it was time to move.  Low, low, low real estate prices were also a big incentive and if you really want to get a good deal on a house,  shop in December and January.

I did not even have a snow shovel.  I also was looking forward to having my first garden in the spring and taking care of the small yard.. The house was in great shape and I  had all of the basic tools needed to hang pictures and organize closets.  For the lawn and garden, I needed all of the things I had sold at my post divorce, moving into a condo garage sale.  It was a shock to learn that the shovels and rakes I sold for coffee money were $25 plus at the big box home improvement warehouses. Lightbulb moment... I could pay coffee money for the things I needed if I bought smart. I started shopping at all of the thrift stores, read the classifieds for sales,  and turned to craigslist. By Googling estate sales, I discovered estatesales.net   For my needs, Thriftique and estate sales are the best resources because they sell tools and furniture. If you need kid's stuff and clothes, garage sales are good.

JACKPOT Snow shovel, $3.  It gives me a thrill when I trim my hedges with my $8 Toro using my $4 extension cord, or fertilize the lawn with my $12 Scott's spreader.  I have three different types of rakes and two shovels, all bought for less than the cost of one piece at Home Depot.  My garage is full of  hand tools for weeding, cutting, trimming,  planting and potting.  The two tables I use for potting were $7 total.

After I was happily settled into the new house, my sister the shopper, now an interior designer,  came from Baltimore to rearrange and organize. I had plenty of furniture  that she moved and she also brought me a bed frame from her basement.  Free is really a good bargain. I was able to find the rug I needed to put together the living room at overstock.com. A bargain but not free.

My other sister, also not a shopper, is very active in community service groups.  While I was at her house, I saw the National Council of Jewish Women Cleveland newsletter in the basket in her bathroom. They do good work for women and children in our community AND THEY HAVE A THRIFT STORE!  They were having a membership telethon and I told her to sign me up.  When I saw the call for volunteers at Thriftique in my membership package, I thought I would try it.  I had a blast with the customers and the other volunteers.  Every time I volunteered, they had new stuff in the showroom. I will show you some of the things I have found in future posts. The volunteers are an amazing group of dedicated people and the customers are some of the most interesting people I have ever met.  I kept going back, made some new friends, and found some great stuff for the house and yard.

I also found the nightstand I needed.  Sorry Crate & Barrel, I paid about what I would pay in sales tax for the piece I was looking at from you.

 And that is how I became Thrifty Volunteer.

Thanks for reading so far. In future posts I'd like to share my new found love of thrifting, introduce some of my thrifting mentors, and show some of the great things available at Thriftique.