blog #298 >> THE BINS

Today, I broke my Goodwill ban. It had been 71 days, 9 hours and 17 minutes since my last trip to Goodwill. After that trip, I realized they had doubled all their prices and got rid of most of their children's books. Quite frankly, that was it for me. I quit my Goodwill addiction cold turkey; however, I knew I couldn't last. Although there are many other decent second hand stores out there, Mike's and Village Merchants among them, none can compare to Goodwill's ever changing selection. I'm actually surprised I held out as long as I did. But I figured "The Bins" wouldn't be nearly as expensive as the regular Goodwill and I thought they might have moved their old children's books there.
I was right!

"The Bins" is an amazing place! You could spend all day there and never see the same thing twice. I would get half way through looking in them all, and then they'd bring more out. You just pile your cart up with whatever you want and then you pay by the pound. You don't even have to take the stuff out of the carts. They've got this giant cart scale that they weigh your cart on, and then it minuses the weight of the cart. The more your stuff weighs, the cheaper it is. Fortunately, books aren't included in the cart because they're super heavy. Hard bound books are a dollar and soft bound books are fifty cents. Clothes are a $1.50 a pound and housewares are even less. They also have a great variety of furniture, all as cheap as the dirt they're covered in.

That is the main drawback to "The Bins" it's really really dirty, not so much with visible dirt, it's more... grimy. You can just see it in the air around the people who are tossing the clothes every which way in search for the perfect 70's tie-dye shirt. (Or whatever it is they're trying to find.) At one point I found I just couldn't stop sneezing. I couldn't figure it out at first. I'm not allergic to dust at all, but then it dawned on me... CATS! I'm deathly allergic to cats! They must have dropped off the crazy cat lady's things after she went to live in the mental institute... and that bin I just pawed through with the blanket... that must have been her cats' favorite blanket... Ewww! I saw some people looking through the bins with gloves. And I don't think that's such a bad idea... And I'm not that much of a clean freak. The place kinda makes a person want to take a shower, a bath, and wash their hands and clothes all at the same time. You can buy a plate with the food still on it. And I don't want to know why the books were wet.



Anyhow... here are the goods!

Today I found, an amazing 60's table cloth with blue roses on it. Like most everything at "The Bins" it's got an unidentifiable yellow stain on it. But I've got some Yellow Out and EVERYTHING I bought will be cleaned in some way before I'm done. I also bought a couple of vintage shirts and some retro pajamas with cowgirls on them that I think I'll re-purpose. This is the place to go for buying clothes that you want to alter into something else. I also bought an old plaid wool coat in pretty good shape that I want to convert into a skirt. It will make the most wonderful skirt. It can be my next weekend project. I also bought a couple of neat plates and some mushroomy stationary. I realized when I got home that the light blue 60's overnight case I bought looks just like my lunch box. I mean they're exactly the same. They're the same color, they're the same shape, they've both got two clasps, the only difference is that my lunchbox is smaller. I also got a jar full of fabric covered buttons some of which have trolls on them. Those really made me laugh. I think I'll make more pins to sell on Etsy. And last but not least. I've discovered where the old children's books went. And I was able to pick up a few of my favorites. I'm such a sucker for old books. The old children's books have great illustrations. And old books have such a nice smell...

Anyways, "The Bins" are fantastic and I think I'll go back someday. Probably not for another two or three months or so, I really don't need to drag anything more home. But it's a swell place to treasure hunt.

T