It’s the time of year for thrift (or garage, for you fellow midwesterners) sales. If you’ve got the time to poke around, there are great finds in those endless stacks of odds and ends. As two busy moms, to be fully prepared for the dig, we’ve come up with a plan that is sure to help you in your thrift shopping year round.
First, take inventory and survey your needs. Take out all of those bins or empty our last year’s dresser drawer and see what you already have and where the “holes” are. For example, just this past week I pulled out a fabulous new pair of Paulina Quintana pants that I purchased a year ago on super clearance. With their bright blue, red and black design, I realized that I don’t have hardly ANY plain colored t-shirts (especially in dark neutral tones to play down the craziness of the pants).
To assist you with this inventory, we’ve developed a great checklist (boy and girl) that you can download from our website or from our blog’s printable’s page to highlight what you are missing.
Second, using this list, create a shopping list of your needs. Of course you aren’t going to pass up the deal of a lifetime on another pair of crazy pants, but it might help you focus your gaze a bit more tightly. Think beyond your current season needs and sizes. To be truly thrifty, you’ll want to use this opportunity to broaden your scope to the following areas: next season’s clothing and outdoor gear, sports clothing and gear, extras or seconds needed for camp, daycare, preschool, the cabin, and Grandma’s house (Wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have to drag your pack and play each time Grandma took the kids for a night?) and special occassion clothing.
On the back of your list trace one of your child’s feet in pen and then trace one of their basic shoes around it in pencil. THis will come in handy when you find yourself evlauting shoes for purchase that no longer or never were labeled by size or are labeled in a foreign sizing.
Finally, stick your list(s) in your purse or in the car for surprise thrift stops!
Watch for our next posting for what Lisa calls “Garage Sale tips for the OCD Mom”.
Ellen