Thursday, July 21, 2011

Goodwill Round 2 and some Pillow Talk.

I went into another Goodwill today to kill some time. This one is in a wealthy neighborhood in town so I wasn't expecting much.

Goodwill move their merchandise around, did you know that? Clothing dropped off at a Goodwill located in a well off side of town will likely be shipped to the poorer side. It makes sense if you think about it, only well(er) off people have clothing they don't need in decent enough shape to donate. So, moral of the story is that if you want to find good clothing and good furniture... drive to ghetto. Seriously. A friend of mine is a manager with them and he told me. That's why the Goodwill closest to me is so good, it's the only Goodwill in town with a furniture room so most of the furniture gets shipped there from others. Cool... and I don't live in the ghetto, but our Goodwill is between us and the ghetto.

Anyhow, I did find some stuff:



5 Williams and Sonoma dish towels and 5 matching dishrags. There were more in the store but they were not in good shape. The towels were 50 cents each and the rags were 25 cents. I have a small collection of red Williams and Sonoma products (apron, spatulas, measuring cups, etc.) Awesome find to add to my collection! :)

I also got another $1 down pillow:

Yum. Won't this look nice on the couch? No?

Yeah I'm rocking a friendship bracelet right now. 

Yeah I know it's ugly, but it has a down pillow on the inside! 

I read a tip a few months ago from the Nester I think... I can't remember. She mentioned that thrift stores are a great place to buy pillow inserts. It took me a while to understand what she meant since most are full of nasty baby vom covered ruffled pillows. Anyways, if you walk around the pillows and notice one that's still fluffy it's probably down. Then I take it down and gingerly sniff it (that's the scariest part). If it smells well enough then I unzip the pillow and see if it's got any weird stains all over it. If not then it goes in the cart! 

 Here are the covers of my recent pillow finds. 


They look much nicer out of their covers.

Then, once you've brought them home and had a quality inspection of them...


... bundle them up tight until you can wash them in the washing machine. They might have bed bugs :( And make sure to dry them well too or they smell like wet dog.

It's a bit time consuming but getting them for $1 and cleaning them is much cheaper than buying them new for $20 a piece from west elm or something.



In short sale news: We don't have any good news, I'm feeling a bit sick at heart really. Bank is refusing to fix the HVAC, we can't buy the house per FHA rules unless it has heating and ventilation. Catch 22. We also aren't willing to sink $2500 into a house before buying it. So we'll probably walk. :( It's a good thing there isn't a Bank of America in Kentucky (the owning bank) or I might have torched it in my rage.

:(

7 comments:

  1. Oh, aren't Catch 22s the most annoying thing in the world? I feel for you. Here's a big hug. *squeeeeeze*

    But, on the bright side, I REALLY love your new tea towels. Very gorgeous!

    Sarahx

    ReplyDelete
  2. you put the pillows in plastic bags to wash them? i have never seen that. what is the reason?

    ~michelle

    ReplyDelete
  3. No, sorry! I put them in a trash bag until I washed them-- I had an irrational fear that they had bed bugs so I didn't want them getting out into my house! I collected those 3 over a few weeks and waited until I had 4 to wash them all together, so I kept them in a trash bag til then to seal them in together (they take forever to dry so it holds up my laundry for a day).

    ReplyDelete
  4. My machine has a sanitize setting and I use that to wash all my goodwill stuff. I worry about bedbugs too especially since my husband travels a ton. I make him leave the suitcase in the garage and put his clothes directly into washer! Great tips! I love Goodwill too and I have a special one that I go to for most of my furniture. It's located in an older but nice part of town so it gets lots of old estate furniture. Some months they give you a 30% off one item coupon when you donate so I always make sure to take something to give in case they are handing out coupons!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Good tip on the pillows... I have never thought to look @ Thrift stores for pillows... Thanks for that... & on the home buy... we are going thru sort of the same thing...stuck a bunch of money in, on the banks assurance we had the loan... then they pulled the rug because of some qualifiers... AGH!!! (foreclosing bank is Freddiemac... govt stuff is just so much more paper work) We went to another bank, paid another appraisers fee, but now it looks like all is a go... frustrating to say the least
    Good luck on yours...

    ReplyDelete
  6. You are spot on with the "wet dog" smell! They can take forever to dry but it is worth making sure, just to avoid "That" smell! Do you use the same amount of washing agent as usual, or less?

    ReplyDelete

Let's chat! Nothing is more exciting then a new comment! :)

PS - if you do not have a google account, just comment with Name/URL so I can know who is saying hello!