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How National Thrift Shop Day at Goodwill® Can Inspire a Living Room Makeover
By Felicia Czochanski Bisaro
Summer is one of the most popular times of the year for people to move. Whether you’re switching up apartments, moving for college or moving from one home to another, it’s likely, at some point in your life, that this season will be full of packing and unpacking boxes. As you start to get settled into a new place, you can better understand what it needs. Maybe it’s a bright piece of wall art here, a warm light lamp there or a rug to tie it all together. Filling in the gaps can be a fun and creative process. It can also quickly get overwhelming and expensive. Yet shopping smarter, not harder, can help you make your house a home without breaking the bank.
August 17th is National Thrift Shop Day — a day to celebrate secondhand shopping and a reminder, if you even needed one, to go to your favorite Goodwill store. Shopping at Goodwill is not only a fun treasure hunting experience, but it’s also a feel-good experience, knowing that each purchase I make will go directly back to its nonprofit mission to provide free career training and other support to the local community. Shopping at Goodwill provides resources to those in-need based on the local economy, but also supports the environment by keeping items in circulation longer. That makes dropping off donations to Goodwill a win-win; as you clean out the clutter of your home, you also know that revenue from your items will go back to your community.
Plus, you can find unique items for a small fraction of their retail prices at Goodwill. Walking through the store to browse the racks and shelves, you never know what you might find. It could be a perfect piece of wall art or even a frame that would be ideal for one of your own photos or prints.
Your Goodwill might also stock home goods like the colorful ceramics you see below. Beautiful vases and platters can help when you’re planning to host people for your housewarming party!
Furniture can be one of the trickier categories to find quality pieces on a budget. Many Goodwill stores carry furniture like what you can see below. You can find things like armoire, televisions, nightstands and chairs. These are even some solid wood pieces that are being sold for a fraction of their retail pricing.
For instance, the standing lamps below were priced at $9.99. If you were trying to buy one of these in a regular retail store, you might expect to pay a minimum of $50 — and, of course, pricing can go sky high depending on where you shop. The average standing lamp price is probably closer to $200, which makes these options for $9.99 an amazing find.
As you settle into your new space, remember to give yourself some grace and patience. It can take time before a new place feels like home, and it definitely does not happen overnight. More than any décor or furniture you bring into your home, it’s the memories that you make there that will be the most important.
