- December 20, 2024
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There’s nothing I love more than blindly shopping for weird junk.
To say that I live in Goodwill, might be an understatement.
When you have a store with dirt cheap prices that changes its inventory by the hour, it gets really hard not to just stop in every day and see what’s new. This is a routine I inherited from my mother who has been known to shop at multiple Goodwill stores in a single day.
And though my mom and I always used “saving money” as a reason to ward off my dad from our shopping excursions, there have been times when we spent well over $100 at our favorite thrift store.
So obviously, I was excited to move to a new city and check out all new hand-me-downs. Due to a severe lack of a social life, my weekends are usually spent browsing through some of my favorite Ormond Beach thrift stores and filling my tiny house with cool junk that makes people ask “why?”
This past Saturday, I started with the Family Renew Community Store, also known as The Secret Attic. I was introduced to this little gem by 100-year-old Elsa Windmann, who told me it was her favorite place to find cool jewelry. But this time, I wasn’t looking for any clothes or accessories (shocker). I was making yet another attempt to find a cool, old table to set my new (old) keyboard on. It had to be light too, because I would have to carry it up a flight of stairs by myself.
I saw the perfect specimen as I walked through the racks with weird mugs and a goose statue I had to convince myself I shouldn’t buy. I studied the table’s length, width and weight for about 15 minutes before seeing the “sold” sticker plastered on top. I was feeling immensely disappointed about the time and desk I lost when a man came up and told me he was guarding the desk and I should probably look somewhere else. Us thrifters can get seriously protective over our finds.
I then made my way to the Halifax Humane Society thrift store, where I’ve been known to find some of my best weird mugs (“The Big Cheese” was my latest score). Their furniture prices can get a little steep for someone who just paid five bucks for a dresser last week, but I still had to check.
I browsed, again unsuccessfully. It seemed as though the universe did not want me to have a cool, vintage desk to play my keyboard on. Or it just wanted me to suck it up and go to Walmart. But when it comes to shopping (and absolutely nothing else) I am not a quitter.
As I made my way to the exit, the man who usually rings up my purchase confusedly asked me “nothing today?”
I told him my plight for the table and how despite all the odds being against me, I was going to find it.
He gave an encouraging thumbs up and I moved on to my next destination,
The Prince of Peace Catholic Church opened a new, and much larger, thrift store recently but I had yet to check it out. Since I wasn’t at all aware of their usual items, I figured this had to be the place that housed my table. I could feel it.
When I walked in I was completely amazed with the amount of stuff. Like rows and rows of stuff. With the store closing in thirty minutes, it would take the world’s greatest thrifter to get through it all in time. Challenge accepted.
By the time the clock hit five minutes to closing time, I was at the checkout with a cart full of oddities. I found a cutting board in the shape of a cross-eyed owl, an impressive little collection of Ansel Adams photos and weird, barking dog toy that I could surely confuse Bear with.
Total amount? $15 dollars. I felt like a hero.
Walking to my car, my overinflated ego was quickly popped as I watched this smiling woman put the perfect keyboard desk into her trunk. She had gotten it for only five dollars.
As disappointing as that was, I reminded myself of the beauty of thrifting — there is always tomorrow.
