I used to LOVE to go to thrift stores!!! Nothing better than paying next to nothing for something (whether I needed it or not)! And I could always count on getting my paperback fix or something I could use at work. My husband and I have even picked up some furniture once or twice.
Since my father passed away last year, though, thrift stores make me infinitely sad. They have lost the spell they once had over me. The rows and rows of "stuff" represent pieces of many different people's lives. Pieces that each have a story or once had a place in a home. Now those stories are shelved and forgotten, unwanted. I think of the person who owned them and wonder if they realized when they bought it, or received it as a gift, or when it was passed down, that it would soon outlive it's usefulness. I also wonder if the people who dropped off all of these things were thinking the same thing I was when I was cleaning out my parent's house....
Why in the world did they keep this stuff?
If it was so important to them, why did they keep it in a box stuffed up in the attic?
Did they really use all of this crap???
Yes, I admit I thought those things~I even said some of it out loud....repeatedly and sometimes with quite a few more colorful adjectives.
Once upon a time, parents handed down family heirlooms to their children and they truly meant something. It was a treasure that had a story and took up an important place in its new home. Now adays, we go through attics, basements, garages, and storage bins FULL of life's stuff. Is it making those folks happy? Is it being honored where it is? Is it necessary for life? Probably not. And when those folks have moved on, where does that stuff end up? Yard sale. Trash. Thrift Store.
According to the NARTS (National Association of Resale and Thrift Shops) website, thrift stores/resale still "continue to be one of the fastest growing segments of retail." Each year for the past three years the industry has grown 5%. Business is steady. Notice that the shelves are never empty and new stock arrives each day.
My husband and I had a revelation one September when our basement flooded and we lost pretty much everything that was in there. Not one thing we lugged out and threw out was worth one tear. Which said volumes to me about my "enough". Each trip up the stairs with an armful of dripping stuff, the on-going conversation in my head went from "Why in the world did we keep all of this junk???" to "At least my children won't be having to do this when I'm gone."
Which brings me to "enough".
I have thought about "throwing out my life" (junk) for a year now, even had a plan to be done by the time I turned 41. HA! That didn't happen! But lo and behold, guess what my pastor's sermons have been about the past few weeks? Simple living. Drive it home...
Which got me to rethink that throwing out plan...as I step over toys, books, and the flotsam and jetsam that is our life. Isn't it time? Past time I would say. Time for me to reread Jeff Yeager's book The Ultimate Cheapskate's Road Map to True Riches. He is the ultimate cheapskate, and he offers a lot of wisdom for simple living.
So, it's time for me to start culling out the extra, the non-essential, the stuff that's just here. I will keep the thrift stores in business for a little while, and I will work on NOT bringing in more things that will end up there later. I am attempting to slay the "enoughasaurus" so I can begin my next project... but that's another post.
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