Mom’s Money

Hey Mom - It’s Thrift Store Season!

Thrift stores have a season?  You bet they do!  In fact, they have several “seasons” each year.  The trick is to find the right season for your family’s needs.

Most folks hibernate a bit in the winter and really don’t get into an organizing and cleaning mood until spring.  Even in balmier climates, winter still takes on a lazier feeling.  We tend to slow down a bit, even if it is just a mental process and not an actual need to avoid the snow and ice on the roads.

But, when spring comes around, we get back into gear.  We’re ready once again to tackle our closets, garages, basements, and attics.  And, oh what treasures we find.  It’s not exactly OUR treasure we’re finding… but it will be somebody’s.

Our boxes of “trash” will soon find their way into the thrift stores, becoming someone else’s “treasure”.  Whether we find ourselves with piles of outgrown kids clothes, unused kitchen appliances (remember the food dehydrator?), or unloved furniture, we no longer want to burden ourselves with all this stuff, because, after all it’s spring!

Children’s clothing is one thing that takes a real leap forward and fills up the racks during the spring months. Seems we’re satisfied to keep shoving little Johnny’s outgrown jeans and shirts to the back of the closet all winter long.  When spring comes, we finally have to admit to ourselves that little Johnny will not shrink to fit his old clothes.  We dive into our children’s closets and drag out those old items that haven’t fit our children for months now.

After Christmas is a good time to find several types of items.  Ornaments and decorations, for instance.  That’s when many people realize they didn’t use all their ornaments again this year.  While some folks put them all away again, postponing the inevitable ornament-purging, there are always going to be a few brave souls who finally sort through their less-loved ornaments and decorations.  Those treasures will find their way into the thrift stores sometime in January or February when these fine folks get tired of tripping over the boxes marked “donate” sitting in the hallway.  If you’re a young family just starting out, perhaps an after-Christmas trip to the thrift store will get your own ornament collection started.  Then, twenty or thirty years down the road, you’ll be able to do the same thing and donate your old ornaments to a new family.

If you’re in the market for a party dress for your daughter or even for yourself, or a dress jacket for your little boy, the after Christmas and after Easter seasons are just right for you.  Depending on whether you need a wintry dress-up outfit or a summery dress-up outfit, shop the season that applies.  Even a few days after a holiday may reap some great rewards in fancy attire.

Kitchen items are not so easily predictable.  You may find that sometimes right after canning season is over, you can find canning supplies that someone didn’t want any more.  After Christmas, again, you may find cast-off appliances that are perfectly good but have been replaced by new ones received as a gift.  This would apply to electronics, as well.

Just use your own experience to gage when the thrift stores will have the most items you’re looking for.  If you clean and toss out stuff in the spring, chances are someone else does.  If your garage gets a thorough reorganization every fall before you have to actually use it to park your car in for the winter, chances are someone else is making room for their car, too.

Of course, you have to be thrifty in the amount of stuff you drag back home… or next season you’ll be taking even more trips to donate some of your own treasures!