Score at the Thrift Store!

I went to the thrift store yesterday. January is a great time to go, just in case you are wondering. Everyone is getting rid of their old stuff because their house has been crowded for more than a month now and they have to have places to put their new stuff!

Yay for me!

I found three cabinets of file drawers that I stuffed into the cart. As I was looking through the rest of the store a woman said, "Someone has alot of files at home!"

I told her no, I don't have alot of files to store. These will be perfect for storing my stash of fat quarters.... or yarn.... or sewing supplies..... or knitting needles.....

There are 3 cabinets each with 4 drawers. They were only $4 each!

If I get tired of them in the sewing room I can put them in the garage, I'm sure Hubby can store stuff in them.

Or I can put them in my pantry to store canned goods or small boxes of food or spices (whoever designed the pantry thought that 26" deep shelves were a good idea... not! I have no idea what's on the back end of most of the shelves.)

Or Blondie said she can use them in her 3rd grade classroom for art supplies or other supplies in her  (the school didn't give her very much storage or shelving.)

Or we can put them out in the barn and use them to store brushes, meds, rags, tape.... or lots of other stuff that just seems to get pushed around.

The woman was very nice and told me I was creative to think of so many different things to use a bunch of old file cabinets for :) Thanks!

If I get ambitious this summer I'll bring them outside and spray paint them a different color (or maybe 3 different colors.... or maybe the cabinets one color and the drawers different colors!)

I'm pretty excited with this find! I haven't found anything this good for this cheap in a long time!

I also found a few chess sets, a brand new domino game, mancala, and lots of packages of brand new flash cards. Those were all sent to Blondie's 3rd grade class room. She was thrilled with Mama's finds, too. (and so were the 3rd graders!)

Smiles all around today ....

Now I'm off to remove labels and dust out drawers. And then I'll start filling drawers!

Oh, and if you have other ideas for them, let me know. I'd love to add to the list!

A Basket for Yarn!

I've been watching at the local thrift store hoping to find a picnic basket that will work to store some of my extra yarn in under the knitting machine. The ones I've found so far were not something I could use. Some had fabric lining, which would be nice, except they had food stains and mold and I wasn't sure I could get the food stains or the mold out. Some were wicker on the inside and I didn't want to spend time on lining it, there are plenty of other projects to do! Some didn't have handles, some had no lids, some were in terrible condition and would have been best suited for the garbage.

But the other day I ran across a wonderful find! It is a large basket with a press board interior. The press board is a little warped, but it isn't stinky or moldy. The basket has a lid and two handles, and all three work! It fits under my knitting machine to hold the yarn for the current project. And it was only $5!

What a lucky find!

Patience, patience, patience. I've learned that if I know what I want and I am patient, I find it eventually, usually sooner rather than later. I've gotten so good at finding things that I have a list from several different friends that have asked me to keep an eye out for something for them!

Still looking for a 1952 edition of Great Books of the Western World for my daughter. We have one for the family, but she is such a lover of books that she wants her own set.

Do you have things that you keep your eye out for?