Used

Before moving to FL ten or so years ago many things that were no longer of use got donated to the salvation army, and I greatly enjoyed doing that. When I moved to FL I learned of consignment shops and the thought of making money off of unwanted things hooked me. I have been consigning things for a years now (mostly clothes and household items my mother was getting rid of) and whatever didn't sell got donated to goodwill or the salvation army.

When I was pregnant with my son I did a lot of bargain shopping. I bought everything with coupons or on sale. I really enjoyed saving money. I found a certain thrill in the hunt for a good bargain (I was home alone while my husband was on the road and had nothing better to do then to spend money so I figured I'd save some). I continued to consign... it kept me busy. After my son was born taking stuff to shops and keeping up with inventory was tough. When I realized I was still paying too much for baby toys that he would quickly get bored of or grow out of, I started checking out craigslist.com and was/ am very pleased with my finds and the money I saved buying used, plus I feel good about helping and taking unwanted stuff off  the hands of other families. I've made a few sales on craigslist myself and that was pretty exciting as well.


I started just collecting whatever my mother was getting rid of in hopes and dreams of one day of owning a house and haveing a nice big garage sale, meanwhile I think I developed a problem with hoarding. Ok so we closed on our house March 4th, and I hadn't imagined we'd be owning a home so soon but we are, and it's great. We've moved in and everything that is essential is unpacked. Then there's all these boxes of things that have no place yet and it's driving me crazy. On top of this the previous owners left be hind stuff I can't bring myself to get rid of. I let my mother take whatever she wanted but there's still stuff that needs to go.

This Saturday we are having a garage sale like I always dreamed. Whatever money we make will go towards making the house look pretty. I hope to sell our living room table set, I feel it's far too dangerous with kids around and replace them with a nice storage ottoman. Eventually I'd like to sell all of the very outdated ceiling fans and chandeliers and updated those as well. 

We have a few things that we've collected over the years from friends who no longer needed the items. I don't mind that their unwanted stuff has helped to furnish/ decorate or home. We are buying a tv stand from our good friends and I can't wait to get it in our house. At first I wasn't sure about it because it's cherry wood and thought it wouldn't work with our current decor, but then I figured with the money we saved buying it used we could go out a buy other things to match like a nice ceiling fan and end tables.

 This is the stand in their home. Not exactly what I was looking for but for $150 I am sure I can make it work!

We bought this cute little toy chest/ bench from a seller on craigslist for $20. I think I could have haggled them down a bit but I'm very pleased with it. My son loves it. I did want my husband to paint it black since the furniture in his room is black but decided to leave it for now because it matches the wood trim in the house.

This is not a good pic of our new table. We bought it from the same family we bought the bench from. It's the table I wanted and sold new for $400+. They originally advertised it for $195 but we got it for $180 and I feel it was definitely a steal.

I'm anxious to do some more bargain shopping and hope for a good turn out at our up coming garage sale.