Whittle Down Wednesday

Life has been soooo busy. I think our school routines are shaping up. Football has been so exciting! It is amazing to watch my little men on the field! I hated football my whole life until my boys began playing. I'm even figuring out the game!


I'm just getting caught up in housework and I've been to Walgreens once (I needed shampoo! We were sharing one bottle between two showers).

My family is asking me when I'm going to start shopping and couponing again. I think I'm almost ready. I sent one of my daughters to HT to try and "do triples" for me one day last week. The shelves were cleared. All she got was 5 pouches of tuna for 9 cents.

My freezer has been spilling snow on the floor for the past 5 days. I had to get it defrosted TODAY. When I realized it was Wednesday, I figured I'd take pictures for the blog. So here's my Whittle Down Wednesday project.


The FREEZER!!!

Before: After:

Much better. No more snowball fights! :o)

Edited to add: Now our ice-maker works again!! :o)

Whittle Down Wednesday

It's Wednesday again and I'm still in the kitchen! :0)

The purpose of our "Whittle Down Wednesday" is to inspire you (and us) to look at your (our)posessions from a new perspective.

When I re-read Peter Walsh'sbook It's All Too Much, I thought about what my first home looked like when I had 2 little girls and VERY few posessions. I remember wishing I had more (a couch, a bookcase, a newer table, etc.). Back then, my girls had only a few toys: a doll house, a play dish set, blocks, realistic looking rubber/plastic aniumal figures and their dolls. It was really wonderful. When there are fewer options there is less clutter and easier clean up. And they were not burdened by their things.

Next I thought about the last time I walked through a model home, it was attractive in more ways than one. It was neat and uncluttered.

Finally I thought if I were going to put my house on the market right now would my prospective buyers be attracted to the neat and uncluttered feeling my home gives? If your home does, just ignore this post!

This is the mindset I keep as I approach a space that I intend to de-clutter and make a more efficient space. It is not easy to keep this mindset, I get distracted by habit.

Here is my canned goods cabinet BEFORE

I stored canned goods, oils, cooking wines,vinegars and olive oil here. I also stored some serving dishes, peanuts, mints and other seldom used items.

Canned goods cabinet AFTER

Now I have canned meat, soups and fruits on the bottom shelf. I also moved my stationary/pen basket off the counter into this cabinet. Shelf #2 holds canned tomatoes and vegetables, pasta sauces, beans and jarred items. Shelf #3 holds my oils, cooking wines, vinegars, and peanuts. Shelf #4 holds small dessert cups, glass oil & vinegar bottles and some homemade pottery I use on special occasions.

Now that I am viewing the picture I see that my glass bowls on shelf #3 should be moved to the cabinet with my table setting dishes. I'm so used to storing them here I didn't even think about moving them until I saw how my photo might be scrutinized by others.

It may be a good idea to team up with a friend or neighbor and inspire each other to organize and de-clutter your spaces. This gives both of you accountability, motivation and a fresh perspective.

Whittle Down Wednesday

THE LINEN CLOSET

My linen closet is in my laundry room. I store sheets, towels, cleaning supplies, medicines, first aid, extra health & beauty supplies.


Inspired by the book "It's All Too Much" (se side bar for link to book at Amazon), I started the "clean sweep" in my home a couple of months ago and spent a little time in this room. I realized that we had towels in the linen closet, in the dirty hampers, in the washer & dryer, on hooks in the bathrooms, and occasionally on the floor in the kids' rooms. I realized that just because there are ten of us doesn't mean we need 20+ towels! I pulled all of the older thining towels (maybe 4-5) and cut them into small cleaning cloths. I stored another 4-5 towels in a hiding place that I could go to if we really did need the extra towels. I immediately noticed a difference in the laundry. Also, my fear of not having a towel when we needed one still hasn't been realized.


Yesterday, in preparation for this blog entry I tackled the linen closet once again. I decided to pull a few more towels (less is more!) and sort through my medicines again. I also pulled excess heath & beauty items I purchased for almost free at CVS and added them to my yard sale pile. Here are my before and after shots of the medicine/first aid shelf.

BEFORE

AFTER

Next, I pulled sheets that were never used because they were torn or the elastic had worn out. (Why was I keeping these?!) I organized the sheets in stacks according to bed size. We use 1 crib, 5 twin beds, 1 full and 1 queen size beds in our home. I have special linens and comfortors I use in our large bedroom for when we host another family - I keep these in that bedroom. I store the queen sheets and the crib sheets in a chest of drawers in the master bath. So, all I have in the linen closet are twin and full sheet sets. Looks pretty messy here.



I found that I have 12 sets of twin sheets and 4 sets of full, including those sheets on the beds. I removed the "Barney" sheets, but will hold them in reserve for #8 when he moves to a big boy bed. Next, I pulled two twin sets and one full set to donate. I need the remaining 2 fulls and 2 twins for when the house is filled with blow up mattresses and cousins. The extra 2 twin sets are cotton and will replace the flanel sheets currently on two beds. The flanel sheets will be packed away. They will not be stored here. Doesn't this look better?



Now I know that I don't need two sets of sheets for every bed. I don't wash all 5 sets of twin sheets on the same day. And, because we have fewer towels and less clothing I don't have such a back log of laundry. I find that when I do wash sheets, they are ready to go right back onto the bed before bedtime the same day. If I don't, the kids have a slumber party on the floor and they are back on the following night.

Now I have fewer possesions and greater peace! :o)

The Thursday Edition of Whittle Down Wednesday--the junk drawer!

The junk drawer. It's been on "my list" forever. My husband's been asking me to clear it out--and yet--I've kept putting it off. I finally tackled the job today, and you know what. Actually clearing it out wasn't bad at all! I could have saved myself all the dread it and the mental weight of it on me if I had just done it weeks ago!

I think every household has at least one junk drawer--where everything ends up that you're just not quite sure what to do with it. My challenge for y'all today is to take 15 minutes to work on it today!

Here's my before (scary!):
and after:

WHITTLE DOWN WEDNESDAY

I need to re-read Peter Walsh's It's All Too Much for some more motivation to declutter! I'm still working, but with less enthusiasm. I also have more people in the house to work around now that two of my girls are out of school.

I've been working on the basement and throughout the house slowly diminishing our "stuff." I had a VERY successful yard sale last Saturday. I cleared $500! I got rid of quite a few large items (A Little Tykes playhouse and toybox, a desk) and many smaller items such as frames, books, toys etc.

I wish I had pictures.
I was the coordinator of a large comunity yard sale in my church parking lot. I brought my camera, however, I was working to help other sellers find their spots and having them remove their vehicles that the buyers swarmed on us before I could pull out my camers. I hadn't even "set up" before I'd sold more than $50!

My best sellers were items I'd purchased using coupons. I sold toothpaste, diabetes monitors, glade plug-ins, razors, toothbrushes, deodorant, shaving cream, shampoo and conditioner among other items. I had quite a lot of these items and I'm sure at least half of my profit was from my "couponing cheapies" or "couponing freebies"!

I live in a very rural area, and I would never get the volume of traffic we got beside the highway and with a crowd of sellers and food to draw customers. The yard sale was a lot of work and a lot of stress. I'm not sure if I'll volunteer to coordinate again - we'll see. Hopefully I will find a yard sale someone else is coordinating in the future.

Time Saving Tuesday

Laundry!

I had no idea how a HE top loader would change my life! It is incredible. Gone are the days of 3 full dirty laundry baskets (or 7-8 loads) waiting for their turn in the washer. It used to take 130 minutes to dry my loads. Here is a Whittle Down Wednesday post (from April) where I tried to decrease our dirty laundry mountain.

Now a days my dirtly laundry baskets are empty! I run about 1-3 loads per day. I can't tell you how much time I save with this new washer! I look back at my former situation and I'm sad that I had the old machine so long!

My HE washer is a huge time saver!

Whittle Down Wednesday

Continuing the home organization inspired by reading Peter Walsh's book It's All Too Much, I recently tackled my pantry.

THE PANTRY
I didn't get rid of anything here. I just organized. I removed products I don't use often and placed them in my food storage in the basement.

BEFORE

This is the top portion of my pantry - the shelves and food storage. The very top shelf is very spacious. I think I could put another shelf up there. Right now I use this shelf to store a large storage container of rice, oats, napkins, paper towels and appliances I don't use regularly (the blender, the food processor and the rice maker).

This is the bottom portion of my pantry - hooks line the back wall, there is a potato bin, a large electric griddle, lunch boxes, a jumbo bottle of vinegar, a broom and dust pan. Aprons hang on right side wall and keys and my plastic-grocery-bag-storage-bag on the left.

AFTER

The shelf space

I have a lot of free space here now. I may clear some of my canned goods from another cupboard and place them here. Then I can store my bowls and pans in such a way that they won't spill out after the 5 or 7 year old have emptied the dishwasher. :o)

The lower pantry

For 4 years I've stored my griddle in the pantry on the floor propped up against a wall. It falls over all the time. I always wanted a little shelf installed to slide it in and out. I knew we couldn't put in a shelf and keep the hooks that line the back of the pantry. I rely on those hooks to keep all the lunch boxes and coolers off the floor. Well, as I cleaned up my shelves I realized that my cereal boxes still fit on the shelf when they are lined up right on top of the griddle! Four years of picking up the griddle almost every time I used the closet. Old habits die hard! I'm so glad I had a new perspective when I tidied this up!

Whittle Down Wednesday - Craft storage

Inspired by all of my sister's recent decluttering and organizing and the Peter Walsh book, "It's All Too Much", yesterday I tackled the bookcase that is in our kitchen. It serves as a place to hold our craft stuff/cookbooks/kids workbooks/address book--and more.

Here's what it looked like yesterday morning.



I spent the afternoon sorting, recycling and trashing stuff. In under 2 hours I had it all cleaned out, sorted and put back in. The final step was a trip to Target this morning to pick up some magazine holders to store the paper. I'm hopeful that by being stored in an upright container and sorted by colors that the kids will find it easier to pick out just one sheet of paper rather than starting a paper avalanche!



I was surprised that it didn't take too long to accomplish, but I think that it has a huge impact on the kitchen and will hopefully make the craft cabinet a more inviting place for the kids to use.

Whittle Down Wednesday

I'm re-reading Peter Walsh's It's All Too Much. I was getting sidetracked into just "cleaning up" rather than "streamlining my spaces" by removing clutter (items that don't serve the function of the room or space) and keeping only items that serve me!

I hosted a High School Graduation party for my oldest this weekend and I was busy all last week (too busy to post anything on the blog!) getting my house ready for guests and planning our party meals.

I did plenty of cleaning & de-cluttering last week.

Our family moved into our home 4 years ago. We were blessed by the addition of two new babies to our family since we moved in. I think when you are always in "baby-mode" (pregnant and being so tired OR, nursing a little one and being so tired) it is especially difficult to keep your head above water let alone have the clarity to try and figure out the difference between an item that serves you and an item that you serve. My "baby" is 20 months old now. Idecided now was a great time to take a look at my spaces from an un-foggy perspective.

I spent some time in my kitchen re-organizing my cupboards. Before last week I hadn't changed what went where since I unpacked all my boxes 4 years ago. I have lots of cabinet space. I think all this space caused me to keep items that just cluttered up my cabinets.

Here is an upper cabinet between my stove and my sink.

BEFORE

I was keeping vitamins, medicines, and first aid items on the first shelf. Crafts, flashlights, grilling equipment, baby soap & lotion (for sink baths), matches, candles, pens, paper, 4 broken Christmas ornaments and two broken dishes I planned to one day glue together.

I decided I already have a place for medicines upstairs and that it was silly to have more than band-aids and pain relievers here with the vitamins. So when I'd gathered up all the medicine to bring upstairs it didn't all fit in a grocery bag! I needed a bag and 1/3 - and this didn't include all the expired meds that went in the trash! I moved all the vitamins up to the third shelf from the bottom shelf. I think this is safer.

I let myself off the hook and I threw away the broken ornaments and decorative pottery. I threw away any dried up paints and glue. I choose a shoebox sized plastic container to hold all my painting supplies and glue for the kids. Other craft supplies are somewhere more accessible to the children, in this cabinet I only keep what I need to supervise. All these crafts are now on the very top shelf.

Now I have a very large decorative pasta bowl on the bottom shelf, the second shelf up stores my cut glass cake pedestal plate (this gets a lot of use April - October!), my grilling basket fork and turner & matches.

On the third shelf are all vitamins on a lazy susan and some candles.

The top shelf holds the crafts I mentioned earlier.

AFTER

I will post my other cabinets in the weeks to come.

Whittle Down Wednesday

I didn't have a lot of free time this week. I tackled a small project, the 3 drawers in my Master Bath. It only took me 15-20 minutes!
Here are my "before" pictures.

Drawer #1
In this shallow top drawer I store make up, deodorant, facial cleansers & Moisturizers, tweezers, nail clippers, free samples, and more.
3







Drawer #2
This is a deeper drawer. In herer I store hair brushes, hairspray, my curling irons, clips, 3yo DD's bows & elastic bands.







Drawer # 3
This is also a deep drawer. In here I keep hair dryer and accessories, hair gels (these are for keeping bed head to a minimum when my boys are in dire need of a hairlcut!), white strips I haven't used in over a year, facial moisturizers and foot care, and JUNK




I took a good look at what products I really use regularly. I took out everything else. I threw out anything expired. For information on the shelf life of make up products go here. Here are my "after" pictures!

Drawer #1
I still store deodorant, make up and facial moisturizers and cleansers here. I simply removed what I wasn't using regularly and threw out anything old, or that I had no intention of using.





Drawer #2
This drawer only holds brushes and hair accessories now. It is so much easier to find everything!








Drawer #3
Now I keep all irons, dryers, and now my hot rollers fit in here too!
(I threw the white strips out!)






I find that my vanity counter stays cleaner now. Because there is room in the drawers for what I use, it is less likely to end up on the counter! My 15 minute investment has made my mornings go more smoothly. Also, because there is plenty of room in the drawers for what I use, I have found that I put them away! Less clutter on the counter means a neater bathroom!

Whittle Down Wednesday

I began re-reading Peter Walsh's It's All Too Much this past week. Last Wednesday I posted here that I had gotten side-tracked into just "cleaning up" rather than "cleaning out." Keeping in mind that the items I store should serve my family rather than us serving these items, I tackled another small space in my kitchen this week.

I can remember wishing someone with "real" organizational skills would come and help me streamline the spaces in my kitchen. I had so much stuff in my kitchen I didn't know where to begin. Thinking about tackling it myself seemed overwhelming. But, I did it. I just took one cabinet at a time. I thought about what the best use for the space could be and I started small. I can't believe how uncluttered my finished spaces look and how easy it is to find just what I need. It is also easier for the kids to help me set up for a party or a meal, and to clean up without my help. My boys would just put clean dishes on the counter for me to put away because it was too dangerous for them to try to balance the dishes so high on the shelves.

This is my other 4 shelf top corner cabinet. This sits in the opposite corner from the cabinet I posted here last week, between my oven and my refrigerator.

BEFORE

Sorr, I can't find my before picture. It could have been taken with my DD's camera. Trust me, it was in bad shape. :o( I will post a photo if I find one!

The only item in this cabinet that I used regularly was my food chopper. Four shelves - what a waste!

I also kept some serving dishes, a box filled with cake decorating supplies, all my candy making molds (last used maybe 2 -3 years ago).

A waffle maker, a sandwich maker, an apple peeler-corer-slicer, and a carving set were here (they still are).

I also had some candles, a warming pot to melt scented wax discs and lots of these wax discs. (I sure do wish I'd cleaned this cupboard before my yard sale!)

I also had a number of baking spices and extracts. I moved these to my baking cupboard.

Just about anything else in here went in the garbage.

Now the cabinet holds all my serving dishes collected from various other kitchen cabinets. It still holds the waffle maker, sandwich maker, carving set, my slicing/grating tool, and apple peeler-corer-slicer. The only other item in this cupboard is a plastic Tupperware container that holds some CD's. (I have a CD player mounted under this counter). Here is the finished product!

AFTER

Whittle Down Wednesday

Peter Walsh's book "It's All Too Much" has been my inspiration as I work on learning the freedom that comes with owning less.

This book is not just about de-cluttering. It's about looking at the space in your home in a new way. As you think of each room, you decide what it's purpose is. You ask yourself who uses this space. Then you look at what is in this room/space and determine what items serve the purpose of this space and which items do not. Obviously you get rid of anything that does not serve the purpose of that particular sapce. When you are finished you have a space that has less "stuff" to maintain and only items that serve you.

I wish I had a before picture of this cupboard. This is my pasta, spices and seasonings cupboard.
I threw out all expired items and moved canned goods, some baking itens and baking spices out of this cupboard. (I'm working on my "baking cupboard") The purpose of this "space" is to keep my spices, pastas, seasonings and bread crumbs.

In cleaning this cupboard I learned that I had multiples of a particular spice. I combined those that could be combined. Then I made a list of all spices I have here. I taped it to the inside door cupboard (you can see it on the right). Now, when I am making a recipe I can just read the list to see if I have some of the obscure ones.

I just need to remember to write an item on a shopping list when I'm throwing a bottle away.

Whittle Down Wednesday

I highly recommend Peter Walsh's book "It's All Too Much!" It gave me such a new perspective on our things. As mothers so much of our time is spent taking care of, or cleaning our things. I decided I'd really rather have fewer things and more time.

This week I tackled the TV/VCR/DVD/Media cabinet in our family room.

Our family does not have cable or satellite TV. We used to have an antenna, but it broke.
All of our TV time is spent with DVDs or VHS tapes from Netflix, the local library or our own collection. As you can see from my before shots, our home collection was getting out of control.

We store our VHS tapes below the TV and our DVDs are above it to keep the more fragile media away from the little ones.
I removed over thirty titles from our collection. I tried to keep only musicals, classics, educational, and religious films. We can always rent a title from Netflix or borrow from the library. Honestly, I’d prefer they store the films instead of me!


Here is the cabinet restored to order! There is still alot of media. But maybe I'll pare it down again inthe future.
I taped up and rubber banded the remote controls back together and stuck them in a plastic container on the top shelf. Here is a photo of it inside the cabinet. This container also fits the white DVD sleeves from Netflix and loose DVDs that don’t make their way back into their cases right away.What an improvement. Everyone happily noticed the change here! AND, no one has even noticed any missing titles! LESS IS MORE!

Whittle Down Wednesday - Less is More!

We needed a Wednesday theme and we thought we'd try this one out.

As Mommy to 8 this is a favorite topic of mine. I recently finished "It's All Too Much," by Peter Walsh. It's a great book, easy read and full of terrific tips on cutting back.

The week after I finished the book I had thrown out more than 14 bags of garbage (on top of our regular trash). I had also donated 10 bags of clothing and bedding to Goodwill. In addition I have accumulated a number of rubbermaid tubs filled with items to sell at a large community yard sale I am organizing this Spring. I'm still working on rooms in my home, but I am seeing real improvement.

Let me begin with clothing. I wash laundry for ten. This is an area where less really is best! I look forward to summertime when sweatpants and sweaters are replaced with shorts and bathing suits! It really lightens the load, (pun intended). Peter Walsh points out that clothing really is inexpensive (particularly if you have hand me downs or shop yard sales). Your children need a few pairs of pants and a few more tops, a Sunday best outfit and maybe two pairs of PJs. The fewer clothing your children have in their drawers the easier it is for them to dress themselves. You reduce the risk that something falls out and gets gathered up with the dirty clothing only to increase your work load.

As we head into Spring and warmer weather mothers everywhere will be pulling out the warm season clothing, taking stock and planning purchases to fill in any gaps. This is a great time to take a step back and make a change. You want to spend these beautiful Spring days in the garden or at the park - NOT in the laundry room!

Children have favorite clothing. Like adults they wear 20% of their clothing 80% of the time. Go through their drawers with them. Select 2 -3 pair of pants, 5-6 tops to keep and then pack up what is left. Take what is left throw out anything that is stained or ripped, now you have a whittled down pile of pefectly fine clothing to donate to a friend, a charity or sell at a consignment sale. Get it out of the house now! Put it in the car to be given to a friend or dropped off at a local charity. If you are going to sell it, pack it away and put it in your garage or basement -- you don't want to leave it where it might make it's way back to your laundry room!

If you are anxious about letting go of too much, select a few (I mean FEW) items and pack them away, if you find you need an item it in an emergency or for a trip you have it all folded and ready to go.

Less laundry means less soap, less hot water, less time spent sorting and folding. Less laundry means more $ in your pocket and more time on your hands! You will find less clothing on the bedroom floor and lighter laundry loads, and this makes for a much more peaceful home!
Less isn't just more, Less is BEST! Don't wait, get started today!

Next week we'll tackle the linen closet.

WHITTLE DOWN WEDNESDAY

Our Whittle Down Wednesday posts are based on and inspired by Peter Walsh's It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living A Richer Life With Less Stuff. If you have cable you may be familiar with his TLC series Clean Sweep. I've never seen the show but the book is a great tool to motivate you to trasnsform your home & your life.

His tag line sums up the book: An Easy Plan for A Richer Life With Less Stuff. His book is a plan. He takes you through the processes of seeing your space ( home, room, drawer, etc.) as it is now and helping you to see what you really need/desire the space to be.

First, Walsh tells you to imagine the life you want to live. He leads you to think about the answers to the following questions:
What is the life you want?
How do you spend your time?
How do you feel at home?
How do you interact with your family?
What do you accomplish in your home?

Next, he asks you to imagine your ideal living space. What does your home look like?
Here are some questions he lists to help you envision your ideal space:
Does this house look the way I want it to?
Does this house feel like a home to me?
How do I feel when I come home to this place?
How do I want to feel when I come home to this place?
How do family members feel when they come home to this place?
How do they want to feel?
How do I feel when I enter this room?
What is this room's function now?
What is the function I want it to have?
In order to serve its function, what should the room contain in terms of furniture, contents, and open space?

These are the things I contemplate as I conquer one small space at a time. I'd love to have him come in and help me do a "Clean Sweep," but I don't have that luxury. Thankfully I have the accountability of this blog to see to it that I at least work on one space each week.

Here is this week's project. I tried to finish up the kitchen drawers. You must be so bored with my kitchen. I'm still not done, but I actually did more than one drawer this week.

I have a column of four drawers next to my oven. The first is my knife drawer I posted the transformation here last week.
I've labeled the rest of these drawers #2, #3 and #4.
Here is #2 before...


and after...I tossed sippy cup plugs, corn holders, broken measuring spoons. It looks much less cluttered.

Here is drawer #3 before...
Drawer #3 after...

This still looks pretty cluttered. I tossed out a few broken items, moved some items to other drawers and just tidied up. I just couldn't bring myself to toss any duplicate measuring cups. Sometimes I need 3 one-cup measuring cups!

Drawer #4 before... I keep potholders and towels here. You can see some of my rags have slipped into this drawer. I have a spot for rags under my kitchen sink. I also used to store bibs here, but pulled them out to donate. My 21 month old just pulls them off if I try to velcro one on him. I took this picture much later, you can see the evidence that we are out of paper towels, because now the drawer is nearly empty. :o)

The next two drawers are large and deep. They are below my silverware drawer. I don't load these drawers because, although they are deep, I'm afraid they may not be able to bear much weight. This is my foil, baggie and brown bag drawer before...
I also store phone books here, I tossed all the out of date phone books in the recycel bin, combined duplicate boxes andjust tidied up.

Here it is after...And this is my plastic bowl and plate drawer before...

and after... I store kid friendly bowls and plates that are within easy reach of my little ones. I also had my plain white wash cloths in here to clean up my son's face after meals. I am moving them to the pot holder drawer. I bagged the paper plate holders (they are green in the photo) to donate. I've had these for over 10 years and I know I haven't used them in more than five! Tucked in the far left corner is a collection of stainless I pull from when we have company and some plastic cuttlery.

This is the last drawer I'm blogging (I have a larege silverware drawer with two trays of stainless, but I can't toss anything here. We need all this stainless. I also have a small drawer that only holds appliance manuals). This is my baking drawer (named only because it is under my baking cabinet and I roll out dough on the counter above it).

before... after...

Stored here are: wooden skewers, the cord and drip cup to my griddle, a rolling pin, a dough mat, a small cutting board, a pie edge cover and some accessories to a food processor.

Although my de-cluttered areas are not exactly perfect all the time it is VERY easy to quickly tidy them up. As I have said before I have a 3 yo, a 5 yo and a 7 yo helping me unload the dishwasher 3 times a day, they have noticed the change and are making an effort to help me keep things tidied up.

Thrifty Thursday

THRIFT STORE SHOPPING
Great clothes - super cheap!!

I've lately become a real fan of thrift stores. I am learning to shop for most of my family's clothing (except undergarments) at thrift stores and consignment sales. I can't get everything there. I find it difficult to find casual pants/jeans for boys and almost anything for men. Boys are hard on their clothing and I don't think men ever get rid of anything! :o) I have two favorite thrift stores nearby. I only go looking about once each month unless I'm searching for something specific.
Here are some of my latest "finds."

This dress was $4. It is hard to see, but there is some nice bead work on the front.
This complete outfit came from Goodwill. Each piece was $1. The blouse is an Ann Taylor. Coral is my favorite color!
I found this Jessica Howard dress when I stopped in one of my favorite thrift stores yesterday after a Dr. visit with my #6 child. I paid only $2 for it!
I also picked up this evening dress for $8.
Here is the back view. The shawl was my mother's. This lavender sleeveless full legnth is also a Jessica Howard. I bought this for my 18 yo DD.

It came with a 3/4 legnth jacket shown here. My DD thinks the jacket looks "old ladyish" so we're keeping our eyes open for a nice shawl, wrap, or sweater. The price for both pieces was $2.
Here's a quilted zip front jacket I picked up at Goodwill for $1. It still had the tags on it! My DD #2 took this picture before we left to meet our carpool yesterday - it was a very chilly morning! This is a small sampling of the high quality clothing I've found over the past year. If you don't shop thrift stores, I highly recommend it. Don't be discouraged if you don't have success on your first few outings. It may take some time to find the locations that are clean and offer the quality you want at the price you want. Don't give up, keep hunting, success will come! If you have a blog, I'd love to see some of the deals you've gotten at thrift stores! Please post a link to your blog in the comments.

Here are a few tips I recommend when Thrift Store shopping.

1. When you head to a thrift store take along a bag (or several bags) of stuff you don't want or that doesn't fit anymore. Be sure to ask if they accept donations. This will help you not to accumulate too much. If you are following the "Whittle Down Wednesday" posts you'll know that you want to keep your possessions to a minimum so they serve you - not the other way around! Also, I've received % off coupons from Goodwill on my next purchase when I make a donation.

2. Find out what type of payments are accepted. Some stores will not take checks.

3. Leave your purse in the trunk of the car (or at home). Carrying cash in your pocket frees up your hands for sorting/digging/browsing.

4. Keep an eye out for sales and half price or dollar days. Then you'll get some amazing bargains.

5. Don't buy clothes that you don't absolutely love, or don't quite fit, or are otherwise substandard--even if they are a bargain! It's tempting to buy something that's almost right, because it's so inexpensive. It's still a waste of time, space, and your appearance to buy something that's just not quite right.

6. Many thrift stores have a no return policy. Other stores will give a store credit for returns. Examine your clothes very carefully. I once came home with a fabulous pair of brown dress pants that felt so comfortable, only to discover there was a small (but visible) iron print on the lower pant leg! I've also discovered a few broken zippers in the fitting room. It's better to find out before the purchase that there is a flaw.

7. Shoes - I only buy adult shoes if they have never been worn and children's shoes that are slightly worn or new. Athlete's feet, planters warts, etc. are NOT a good deal!