ReJoice!
The fun’s in the finding of your new-to-you treasure!
You can’t consign because there’s too much clutter?
The tagline of our master site, HowToConsign.com, is “Turning your Cluttered Closets into Cash!”, but recently, I’ve received emails from potential consignors or sellers or donors who’d love to do just that… but they can’t seem to get past the “clutter” in their lives, their homes, and their closets.
Here’s a solution. This web site promises to get you uncluttered in just 15 minutes a day!
Click here to get the calendar, and remember, there’s one for every month. so if you’re reading this after January has come and gone… no excuses! Start where you are, and pretty soon you’ll be
“Turning your Cluttered Closets into Cash!”
WAIT! Don’t toss it!
There’s all sorts of things around your house that your local consignment, resale or thrift shop could use as store supplies. Here’s some things that we use daily:
* Handled shopping bags. Especially those from classy boutiques which we might use for displays, but even generic handled shopping bags are useful as, well, shopping bags.
* Tissue paper. Okay, you’ll never use that half-pack of chartreuse tissue paper again, but we use tissue to wrap jewelry or delicate clothing in, and hey, chances are we think chartreuse is a kick in the pants!
* Movers’ paper. That stiff off-white paper professional movers use? We love it to stuff handbags with so they sit up properly and look perky. (Ditto those air-filled packing pillows and bubble wrap.)
* Replacing incandescent lamp bulbs with energy-efficient ones? Bring us your half-used-up old ones… they’ll light up a for-sale lamp and make it more salable.
In addition, before you toss, ask if these types of things might be useful: Giveaway pens from the last business meeting you attended, those zippered bags new bedding comes in, scrapbook paper, plastic merchandise bags or dry-cleaner bags. Not all shops can use everything, so don’t feel offended if they offer to pass on still usable-but-not-suitable things to the charities they work with.
Some really weird things entered my shopkeeping life that I really used and appreciated from my customers. Or from curbside (that’s where I found a great baker’s rack!) You might want to ask before you offer, though. Not everyone appreciates a broken-seated peacock chair as much as I did.
It made the BEST window displays!
Keeping the kids busy, happy, and creative
If holiday times mean lots of young people in your home, and you’d like to offer them some fun and crafty possibilities for various age groups, here’s some ideas from HowToConsign.com! Some of these ideas might involve a trip to your favorite consignment or resale shop… which is, come to think of it, another creative opportunity in and of itself!
This first suggestion is simplicity itself… if you have enough glue sticks at hand!
Cheap dollar-store socks and some felt, ribbon, buttons and baubles can be the start of a film director’s career!
Get them out into Nature (and gain a little peace and quiet at home):
Grown-ups hanging around and want to join in? Let ’em!
Two for budding jewelry designers:
Have the best time ever, while you’re making sure the kids do, too!
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Oh those frustrating people you love!
All the easy holiday gifts have been bought and wrapped. Now for those wonderful, lovable, wouldn’t-trade-em-for-the-world folks who are SO hard to buy for!
Now’s the time to hit the consignment, resale and thrift shops.
Here’s how it went for me:
I noticed on my last visit to my sister-in-law’s kitchen that she couldn’t find the right bowl to beat eggs in. They were all too large or too small, and I know just the size she needs, and I know she loves red… found it. In a church thrift store. (The volunteers were delighted…the money will go to help families make their rent.)
Kenny loves old Western novels, the traditional kind. He’s read everything that is currently being published. Found some oldies-but-goodies in a non-profit used book shop. (And helped the charity.)
Tyfanie (her mother’s eccentric, what can I say) is still, at 17, finding her own style. What better than a jumbo gift bag filled with accessories of all sorts from a feather boa to high-tops, hair clips to nail-studded belts? She’ll play dress-up for months on the $45 that wouldn’t have bought her a single sweater…which would, invariably, be the wrong style. Every gift in that bag came from 3 consignment shops. (And circulated my local dollars to local shopkeepers and local consignors.)
And of course little ones don’t care if their gift happened to spend a few weeks in a resale shop because some other kid didn’t like Astronaut Barbie or outgrew his fascination with dinosaurs.
And finally, my neighbors who are building a family room onto their house: I got them a gift certificate to the best furniture/ home decor consignment shop in town. I wouldn’t want to deprive them of the fun of shopping resale for just the RIGHT thing for their home.
How to Consign 