Goodwill Secrets and Thrifty Finds

I don’t know how Goodwill International works, but Goodwill of Central Indiana is one of the best GWs in the country. They have about 30+ stores, and they’re all very modern, clean, and even better – they don’t smell funny. :) I was privileged enough to learn about how they all work through my interactions with some of their corporate office people while taking on the duties of my 9-5 job.

Have you ever wondered how Goodwills don’t just pile up with tons and tons of donated stuff?

Three ways. On the first Saturday of every month, EVERYTHING in the store is 50% off. I always seem to stumble in on these days, and it is a mad-house. There are lines almost to the back of the store! Yesterday, I went into my nearby store around 1pm, and back at 8pm (I had to go back for something I wanted!). By the time 8pm rolled around, well over 75% of the inventory I’d seen earlier was gone. The place had been pillaged. Surprisingly, Goodwill employees were still extremely friendly and upbeat at this time of evening.

Second, check your price tag. Because nothing is supposed to stick around for more than a month (usually), GW does a color of the week. Price tags are color-coded so that each week, a new color tag is placed on product. After 4 weeks, that particular color becomes the color of the week, and at least in Indiana, that means you score 50% off that item. Don’t try to wait it out… good stuff gets snatched up quickly!

And last, in Indiana/Indianapolis, Goodwill has two Goodwill Outlet stores. If you’ve seen the GW trucks out and about, they’re transporting all the things that didn’t get purchased at the stores to the Outlet. In the Outlet, giant boxes of pre-sorted items (clothing, shoes, electronics, wares, plastics, etc.) get emptied out into shallow blue carts, and workers take them out onto the retail floor. They’re out there for exactly 30 minutes, and after that 30 minutes, whatever is left gets thrown away, donated, sent to third-world countries overseas, and the like.

I can’t gloss over the “take them out onto the retail floor” sentence, though. It is a MADHOUSE. It is like the feeding FRENZY of barracudas when they smell fresh meat. Like so:

Don’t get me wrong – stuff at Goodwill Outlet is NOT junk. Sometimes, it’s just priced too high and doesn’t sell at the store, so you can get some awe-some things here. Since it’s sold by the pound, you’re going to get a smokin’ deal. I see professional pickers and antique dealers here all the time looking for gold in a blue bucket… (spot them – they always wear gloves and have a systematic way of searching). Oh, and there’s rules too! When the carts are being replaced, you are not allowed to cross over the yellow line to grab your goods until the last new cart is put in place. Yes, furniture and TVs are easy to come by here too. And they all come cheap.

If you’re in Indiana, there are three Goodwill Outlets in Indy (but some GW networks don’t have any). Go there when you have a chance and relish in the chaos.

New Finds
I scored some gooood deals on 50% off Saturday yesterday. I have ideas on makeovers or uses for *most* all of them, so stand by while I get to work. Here they are in their thrifty glory:

So far, I’m making slow progress, but it’s progress either way!

Here’s my first quick makeover of a $1 “God Bless Teachers” scrapbook project turned ugly:

…with a little paint, a hot glue gun, and a $1 metal stencil tag from Michael’s.

Total cost: $3.

 

More before and afters coming up tomorrow!

Ps - I was just at Kohl's yesterday, and speaking of good finds, this driftwood mirror is on super-clearance for $50, from $130! The Bloomington store had 2 in stock, but it's no longer available online.

The Epic Thrift Chair Makeover

I have a lot of unfinished projects in my house. This is the story of one thrift store chair.

It was at least 9 months ago that I discovered a hidden gem of a thrift store here in Bloomington. For you townies, my secret place is called "Thrift Store" (creative, right?) on Walnut Street near Bloomington HS South. On my first ever trip there, I was still on a cane chair kick after cruising Pinterest. As fate would have it, guess what was sitting there front and center?

But really, it actually looked like this before I got my hands on it:

After a couple of not-so-intelligent Goodwill purchases, I promised myself that I'd take a photo and sit/sleep on it whenever I found a piece of furniture at the thrift store. This is the cell phone pic the followed. 

Fast-forward a few days and I got this chair and its identical twin home for $25 each!! They still didn't look - or SMELL - much better once I got 'em in the house. Being a safety person in "real" life, you won't have trouble freaking me out about mold and spores, so the "fragrance" emanating from the stained and torn cushions were convincing enough to banish them to the outdoors. (Likely? no. Odorrific? yes.) Here's a photo shoot of some of the details before I started thinking about black mold.

Cool Detail!

This moldy stained cushion is SO photogenic. 

Oh yeah -- and here was the icing on the cake. This photo really doesn't come close to showing you what this stuff was really like! Maybe a 500-pound person sat in this chair daily for years... this pre-makeover chair was a seating hazard!

These chairs sat around in the house f.o.r.e.v.e.r. while I gathered up the things and the time to work on them. The cushions, needless to say, were completely gone and I threw them away. I spent the next few weeks with a hammer, flat head screwdriver, and needle-nosed pliers pulling out the tacks and staples that held the seat on. It was so old and crumbly, it did not come off without a fight. Hundreds of those tiny little staples!

The Frame Overhaul

Besides the seat, the frames of both chairs were sturdy and in great shape. My first step was sanding -- sanding and sanding and sanding. I used a 80 and then 100 grit sandpaper, which seemed to work ok. Don't use anything smaller than that if you do this yourself... I found that the 60 grit left pretty deep "scratches" that took a while to smooth out with a finer grit.

I spray painted both chairs with Rustoleum Semi-Gloss White, which took 2 cans per chair. I used a really fine grit (180) sandpaper to smooth out the bumps once it all dried. (Nope, I didn't get endorsed for this, but I do like the sprayer head on the Rustoleum spray paint cans because they're not as messy as others I've used.) The top coat is brush-on MinWax poly in Clear Gloss, to help protect it and give it a little shine. A little of this stuff goes a long way.

The frames sat around with empty seats for another really long time. All it took was some jute strapping and a chair torture tool called a stretcher (both which you can purchase at Jo-Ann's) . 

Sorry I don't have any in-progress photos of this, but what you do is staple or tack one of end of the strapping to the frame, then put the pointy ends of the stretcher through the jute, rest it against the frame, and pull down so you're pulling the strapping extremely taut. Staple the other end. I would've needed three hands to take photos of this! The idea is to criss-cross them to make the seat.

Here's the final product:

Sewing and Making Cushions

Fast forward some more and I learned to sew. There are two really good tutorials out there. I used:

• This Link - for the cushions
• Design Sponge's 101 Tutorial - for the throw pillows

...Except I didn't discover these tutorials until AFTER I'd done all of this engineering (that degree had to be good for something, right?). 

Nerd alert!

Ok, so moving on. I sewed a bunch. I ordered the fabric, by Thom Felicia, from Calico Corners. The randomness of the pattern seems to offset the rigid structure of the back rails. Time for some sewing pics!

This is how you do corners.... and attach piping.

Sewing projects take a lot of thinking! Here's a corner where the zipper joins, inside-out.

You NEED a zipper foot, not just to do the zipper, but for the piping.

Did I tell you I'm proud of my sewing? Before this, all I knew how to do was hem my jeans and pants, so I'll tell anyone who's willing to listen. :) Moving on. I bought some foam from Jo-Ann Fabrics, cut it to size, and wrapped it with soft but thick batting. If you do this, make sure you buy this stuff in stages over a few weeks - these supplies are not cheap... they cost more than the chairs themselves! I cut them to size (minus an inch+ on each size to allow for batting) and carefully shoved them into the cushion.

For the throw pillows, I just bought an insert from Ikea. The throw pillows are still missing something. I feel like the orange piping is good, but doesn't stand out enough. It just looks like a plain white pillow. Anyone have ideas?

Last steps: Place cushions in the seats, put throw pillow on top, and buy a little table from TJ Maxx. (ps- still not sure what to do with the green rug, it's a little much. )

How about a little celebratory B&A?

It feels good to actually finish a project. How about you? Are you sitting on any half-complete projects?

Linked up at:

Home Stories A to Z

Thrifty Decor Chick
Perfectly Imperfect
Momma Hen's Coop

New Bathroom!

Hallelujah! I've finally finished the FIRST room in the house! It is DONE!

Check out the upstairs bathroom before and afters.

BEFORE:
Beige walls, old Ikea shower curtain from college, not much else.

Here's another view:

I was obviously testing paint when I had the thought to take a before picture, so you're lucky!

I chose this color paint for the bathroom, a clean slate-blue-grey color... there's a lot more blue it in than this swatch lets on.

I couldn't decide if I wanted to keep it clean and "normal" looking, or add some fun color to it.
For Option A, "Normal," I would've chosen all white accessories, white flowers, white frames, white towels, etc.
For Option B - Fun, it was a tough choice between yellow and magenta/pink. From reading this earlier post, you obviously know that I am in love with yellows and greys together, but the magenta pop seemed like the natural thing to do.

But everybody appreciates a little personality, right?

Afters (sorry for the low light, there are no skylights or windows!):

Here's a close-up of the artwork, my favorite part. All it took was an image of a bird and branches, which I cut out on magenta cardstock. The grey zigzags were just created in Photoshop and printed out on white cardstock. I used one of my many many many brand spankin' new Ikea frames!

As a sidenote, I have an addiction that needs to be dealt with-- it's birds. I flippin' love birds. I can't help it.

Someday in the near future I'm going to become the bird lady, 'cause I've already started a collection. Don't believe me? This is only the beginning of a veeeery slippery slope:

It all began with this guy, a patio accessory from Lowe's a couple summers ago.

This chick's not alone, either. He has a red buddy named "Roundy."

...My two round birds were so silly, I even have a birdhouse mantle decoration to go with them. [cah-ray-zee!]

Then I graduated to the hard stuff, the glass bird paperweight from Pier 1. It was tempting not to buy the glass octopus they had too, but that would've just launched me into more seascape madness.

And obviously, the latest paper addition, bathroom birdies.

So those are my bird buddies. I'm expecting it'll only get worse from here - but admitting it is the first step to recovery...?!?!

ps- My friend Mandy just shared this website with me: www.putabirdonit.com. Put a bird on it, and call it art. Hilarious but true!

Psst --  3/5/2013 -- Bathroom update! If you liked the bird art, check out the latest bathroom artwork update. I shared it as a free printable! 

Another one bites the dust!

Here's another quick before and after... it is *highly* dangerous that I have to pass HomeGoods often when I'm working!

Not only should it look good, but artwork should also be personal, interesting, or have some kind of "meaning" to the owner. This one is New York, and we <3 New York!  (Hopefully I'll <3 it as much after running the marathon in November)

Before:

 And after:



Finding artwork that matches the color scheme of that rug = HUGE relief.

So that's one blank wall down, and many many more to go. Every one is like an empty canvas waiting for just the right piece...

A cheap chair.

On New Year's Eve, I went to Goodwill  in North Olmsted with my mom and bought this old wood chair for $7.54:

Voila. There's your before picture. I'm still working on the after, but here's a blurry preview which should keep you guessing.

Edit: Chair is officially complete! See it here.