Give Until It Hurts........A Little

Purging your closet is a big topic on Thriftnerd. The less you own, the more you use of what you've got. Plus, donating helps others, and really.....isn't that what we like to think we're all about?

Ok. Say you've finished a good closet cleaning and purge. You believe you've given away every single item that you don't need or want.

Now, I want you to step back, and be completely honest with yourself. Have you REALLY cleaned out every single thing you can?

Perhaps you think I'm being a bit obsessive at this point. Not really.

I'm speaking from experience (again!). I know what it's like to hold onto that one last......purse, pair of shoes, top......because, well, you paid a lot of money for it! Or, someone gave it to you, but you really don't like it.

Now you understand my question!

Let's be honest. We're NOT Karsdashians. We're not even Kathie Lee Gifford. Do we honestly need to hoard goodies in our closet that we don't wear, when it could be doing a lot more good in someone ELSE'S closet?

That gorgeous Coach purse we never use, because the style just isn't right, could be the centerpiece of someone else's purse collection. What good is it doing YOU, stuck high up on a dusty shelf? Ah, but it's a COACH purse.

Well, big whoop de doo.

Queen Elizabeth could have bought it for you, but you're still not using it. Unless you charge admission and view your closet as a museum, GIVE. IT. AWAY.

The author Anne Ortlund, who is one of my favorite Christian writers, talks about having 'just enough' in your wardrobe, so that you can get dressed quickly and get on with the more important things in life. You know, like mothering and volunteering and working. How can you see the outfits you CAN wear, if there's layers of other things in their way........things that you don't wear, but can't bear to part with?

Here's another thought. When you donate your designer goods, someone else who might not have your financial resources gets a chance to own something truly special. You know how you feel when you find a designer label at the thrift store......something that fits YOU, but at a much reduced price that you can afford. You feel like a million bucks. Wouldn't you love to give that feeling to someone else?

I know there are women out there (and men) who can't bear to part with unworn wardrobe items. Sometimes there's comfort in viewing an overstuffed closet......until Monday morning, when you honestly can't find a thing to wear.

So, my sweet Thriftnerd-herd, step back. See that beautiful animal skin clutch? The one you've NEVER, EVER worn to ANY event? Why not donate it so someone else might be able to enjoy it?

And you can use that spot to store the things you DO use.

Forever 21 Rocks

Claire got a Forever 21 gift card for Christmas. So, last Friday night, she and I went on a date to the mall! We enjoyed our favorite orange chicken at the food court, then got our shop on.

I know I've blogged before about the fabulous, CHEAP jewelry Forever 21 sells. Here's a recap: if you love jewelry, especially yellow gold, but don't want to pay for the real thing, and you don't want gold that looks cheap, or is off color, hit F21. Their stuff is on the mark all the time! I got the above ROCK ring for $4.80. Yes, $4.80. Now, I have no delusions that this ring will retain it's color for years, but at that price, who cares? A replacement is easily had! Jewelry starts as low as $1.80 here, and there's always a great selection, not to mention fresh stock for return trips, as the stuff flies off the hooks!

Forever 21 specializes in merchandise that looks amazingly like designer brands. I have my eye on a black, quilted bag with a gold chain, that looks incredibly like Chanel. $20 is a lot more realistic, don't you think? An added bonus for me......I don't have to have a designer label, but I do enjoy the look! There's clothing, bags, shoes, jewelry and even makeup and skin care. I got two large tubes of body lotion in an intoxicating grapefruit scent.......for, you guessed it, $4.80!

Let's be honest, Forever 21 is a junior girls' mecca. However, there's no reason why a mama my age can't go in and get some great swag, too. Besides, I want to be the only almost 50 year woman out there with a ROCK ring.

The Girl With The Dragon Pin

You know the feeling when you've lost something, and it's been gone so long you think you'll never see it again? Maybe you even buy a replacement, and then........VIOLA! You find it!

Such is the case of my beautiful dragon pin.

Years ago, when I was a single mama, I was getting ready to go to a friend's party. I had put together a very nice outfit that had an Asian flair, and I found this gorgeous pin to wear on my blouse. It was truly a statement piece, something you don't see every day. I don't remember how much I paid for it, but I do know it was second hand.

After the party, I carefully put it in my jewelry box, and never wore it again. It's not the kind of thing you get rid of, though. It's such a unique piece of jewelry, and you never know when you'll have another occasion to wear a dragon pin!

Not too long after I'd married Michael, and we moved to Delaware, little Claire eyed my dragon pin one day, and asked if she could borrow it. Of course, I said, knowing I might not see it again soon. You mothers of daughters know what I mean :)

Little did I know it would get THAT lost. Things get covered over with STUFF, but you clean and you organize, and you find it again. No such luck with my dragon pin. Through the years I have poked through my jewelry, scratching my head, wondering where that thing went. Claire swore up and down she couldn't find it, had no idea where it was, and had even switched bedrooms (with the ensuing deep cleaning), all to no avail.

No dragon pin to be found.

In December, Claire was assistant to the director on her school's Christmas pageant. One of her duties was wardrobe mistress, and she had been given, in her freshman year, a special tie that all the wardrobe girls wore. She'd not worn it again since, and she really wanted to wear it that night. We turned 2 floors of our house upside down, looking for that silly thing. In the process, guess what we DID find?

My dragon pin!

That, along with a very nice wristlet I had loaned Claire in freshman year for her first winter formal. I was really, REALLY happy to have both items returned!

I know I can come across as Ms. Organization sometimes, but those of you who know me and have been to my house, know I fight the same organizational battles as everyone else. It really pays to clean stuff out occasionally!

Your Input Needed!!

I have an idea thumping around in my head lately. It involves taking all the information I've written about on my blog, and possibly writing a book. Specifically, a book about thrifting a wardrobe through high school. Most of what I blog about concerns my lovely daughter, Claire's resale wardrobe, and many of you have expressed interest in doing the exact same thing. While some of you are doing so, others might be puzzled as to just how to begin.

That's where a book would come in handy. Learning what to look for in the resale market (as compared to buying brand new at the mall), looking for quality in used clothing, learning to store your aquisitions for the best outfit rotation........even the composition of the typical prom ensemble (by far a blog favorite; we get our highest 'hits' for those posts!).

Now, I do have quite a bit of material suitable for publication. However, I'd like YOUR help! If you guys could weigh in with what you have found the most informative in my blog (pertaining to the teenage wardrobe), and what you would consider important to be included in my book, that would help me a great deal! After all, this blog is nothing without YOU.

Your ideas, comments, even criticisms (both postitive and negative, I'm a big girl!) would GREATLY be appreciated! Thanks in advance, and thanks again for reading Thriftnerd!

The Happy Linen Closet

Unless you are Martha Stewart, you probably don't think too much about your linen closet. That is, until it's overflowing onto the floor every time you open the door, and a strange smell develops on your sheets and towels. Not that I'd know or anything.

Actually, our linen closet was stuffed to the brim, for some reason. I couldn't find what I needed in it, and kept saying, 'I need to clean that out........when I get a chance.' Oh yeah. After the usual cleaning and upkeep of our humble abode, we kept forgetting.

That is, until I opened the door and one of our cats walked out.

How long had little Hope BEEN in there? Why didn't we hear her crying? UGH!!

A deep freeze that kept me housebound was the perfect day to tackle the huge mess. While I am so persistent in cleaning out our drawers and closets on a regular basis, I felt a huge need to keep every single blanket, sheet and towel that had crossed our threshold in the last 8 1/2 years. They weren't all 'company presentable,' either. Blankets and towels with holes chewed in them from deceased pets......scrub rags that literally took up several shelves ('how many rags do you use to clean your bathroom, Claire?' 'Two.').

Needless to say, I filled a huge, black trash bag to the brim with stuff I had to throw away, NOT donate.

So, what do you need to have on hand in YOUR happy linen closet?

As in most areas of life, there's no hard and fast rule that fits every household. You need enough towels for not only your family members that live in the house, but probably 4 visitors. Depending on your extra bed situation, enough linens for overnight guests. At our house, we have regular sheets for warm weather, and flannels for cold. Several blankets to have on hand, not just for guests, but also for snuggling up on the couch, or doubling up on chilly nights, is a good rule of thumb.

We recently redid Brendan's old room into an office/man cave for Michael. We purchased a very nice futon bed, complete with underbed drawers. Having those allowed us to store the pillow, blankets and sheets needed for the futon, freeing up more space in the linen closet. So, we were able to also store our huge beach towel supply, two vaporizers, and our collection of medical slings, wrist and knee wraps, and shoe boots, plus our heating pad. NOW I can find everything!

Believe it or not, after the cleaning, I saw that I needed to buy a few items. We needed more guest pillows, and one set of guest sheets was missing it's fitted member. Not too shabby.

While I was cleaning out the closet, I kept the door open to air it out, and completed the cleaning by sprinkling carpet fresh powder on the floor (I am NOT storing ANYTHING on the floor of the closet!). Made for vacuuming up, I left the powder there, for an extra 'oomph' of freshness.

Because I'm a weirdo who doesn't get our very often, I then Instagramed my beautifully organized linen closet.

What fun is cleaning and organizing if you can't share the results?

Buying Memories, Not Things

I've always had so much fun buying STUFF. Whiling away an afternoon at the thrift store, loading my cart with goodies. Then, at the end of the year, when I'm cleaning out my closet and drawers and finding all of that stuff that went unworn and unused........ugh. The fun quickly fades.

It may be because I'm turning 50 this year. Or, I had a awfully long time to reflect as I recovered from 3 surgeries. Or, it just may be the clean out last year really got to me. At any rate, this year, my focus is spending on experiences, not things.

Many of you are fortunate to be able to finance both, while hardly breaking a sweat. You can go to the mall, enjoy a dinner at the food court, then buy your kiddo goodies from their favorite stores.....all while planning and financing a trip to Disney World.

I can't do that, and I'm glad I can't.

There was a time when I had that much money. I didn't like what went along with it. I would rather live my simple life, with my happy family and restful home, and live on the little God has provided for me. It could be a lot less.

However, in order to enjoy experiences, and the resulting memories with my family, I must plan ahead. I have to cut things out, in order to put that saved money aside, so we can have fun later down the road.

What would I cut out? Well, for starters, I can bring my lunch from home again. After I went back to work, since I was conserving my energy as much as possible, I was picking up a fresh spinach, fruit and nut salad for lunch, plus greek yogurt with oatmeal as a snack. Sounds harmless and cheap, right? I thought so too, until I added it up and found out my 'harmless' ready made meals were costing me $22 a week. At that rate, if I put aside the same amount of $$$ and brought my lunch and snack from home, that money could finance a trip to Canton to see Brendan, and take he and his roommate out to lunch. Isn't that incredible?

See, I hadn't been doing the math. I do it for clothing and things I can buy resale. I wasn't doing it so much for other areas. Will I go into bankruptcy by buying salad and yogurt at the store daily? No. Will I end up in a cardboard box under a bridge if I have a daily coffee from Starbucks? Highly unlikely.

Would I rather enjoy visiting with my 21 yr old kid who lives 2 hours away? Most definitely.

Taking my food from home means I must get it ready the night before. Oh my goodness, I might have to forgo that 1/2 hour rerun of 'Big Bang Theory' to do it, but isn't it worth it? YES!

For those of you who save easily, thank you for putting up with my epiphany. Stifling that huge DUH didn't hurt at all, did it :P

Year End True Confessions

Who has two thumbs and is ready for a new year? This girl!

I am SO ready. What a long, strange trip 2013's been. It's been hard, it's been long............and it's drawing to a close. Thank you Jesus!

A year ago today, I was struggling with some very big feminine issues that I knew I would need surgery for, and we had no health insurance. I was scared, and I spent most of December 2012 crying. A year later, December has been MUCH happier. I am all done with THREE surgeries, and am looking forward to a much healthier new year.

For all of you who have read my blog this past year, thank you so much for sticking with me. I realize, some days I wasn't the happiest person, and I grumped along in my blogs. You can see where
I was a bit testy. If I came across as judgmental and picky about little things, I'm sorry. That wasn't my intent. I was hurting, and try as I might to put a happy face on my 'stuff,' some days I failed miserably. Add to all of that, financial upheaval, a child that moved out after turning 21, and the usual work fun........plus another child who turned 18 and entered her senior year with even more of a extracurricular activity load (and I STILL had to keep up, regardless of how I felt).....well, the 'Little Mary Sunshine' act wore a bit thin some days.

If anything, my blog should give you HOPE. For those tempted to say, 'oh, I HATE Erin's blog! She thinks she's SO perfect! I can't relate to her thrift shopping and budgeting!' HAH! If you didn't think I was human before, consider THIS: in order to have my hysterectomy, I had to use my 2 week vacation, PLUS go without 2 paychecks, in order to have a proper six week recovery. And, because AFLAC has taken their sweet time reimbursing me, we had to put our Christmas shopping on credit cards. Does that even REMOTELY sound like a thrift goddess? PSH! There was no gigantic stash of cash we had saved for this surgery, because we took a $1000 hit a month starting in September.

Feel better?

Enough of that. We have 2014 ahead of us........a crisp, shiny new year. Inhale that fresh, new year smell. It's alive with tons of possibilities. I know I am refreshed and renewed just thinking of what I can do now that I couldn't do a year ago.......stand on my feet for long periods of time, keep my house clean and my laundry caught up.......yeah, it's mind boggling!

We're all in this thing together, my sweet friends. Just as you struggle, so do I. Let's be transparent and help each other! For every bill we pay off, let's also talk about the ones on which we make minimum payments. For every $10 prom gown, let's also showcase the full price heels we bought to go with it. Life is a journey, it doesn't always look or smell good, but we're living it, regardless.

Let's learn from each other, and feel comforted that we're not alone.

Happy New Year!!