I have found especially if you go on days when the shops are more crowded lets say a Friday or Monday, that calmness is key. The aisles are packed with other pickers and gatherers and you don't want to give away your ammo so it's best to remain calm. I circle around like a quite vulture waiting to grab my prey of all things old, used, vintage, peeling, unique, retro and cheap. I look up on the highest shelf way in the back and my eyes go back and forth looking for a find. I bend my body down and look on the lowest shelf and I sometimes squat down and look. My fingers get dirty, my feet may hurt and I feel I've found nothing. Then suddenly out of no where I find the one small thing I can take home clean up and recycle, reuse or sell. I feel relieve but I don't show it. I just keep circling around each shelf of glassware, kitchen junk, pans, tins, pottery, mugs, plates and other bric brac.
Truthfully I'm on a high thrifting, it is a drug of sorts. It's the fun in the hunt, the thrill of spending pennies for something and getting a treasure from someone else's trash.
I bring my finds home and soak them in the sink to clean the dust away. I dry them, I polish them and I sit and look at them. I am a junkie of thrifting, a trash picker, a hoarder, lover of old things, queen of bargains and tainted in my dreams of all things old.
My plight is in all things old this is my drug of choice for I am a THRIFT SHOP JUNKIE!
Hey Kelly!
ReplyDeleteYou are not alone! Some say it is a disease but I say it is a passion. As far as a high? Oh definitely! The heart starts racing when I see something a little ways down the aisle. My feet want to run to it and snatch it up but my mind tells me to slow down, take it easy because your not 5 years old!
I hate walking the mall but give me a thrift store and I can putter for hours! I too will wind through the aisles looking high and low and then suddenly something pops out of nowhere begging for me to scoop it up and take it home. Sme as you, I clean it soak it do whatever it takes to find the beauty underneath. When I am finished and see the end result I almost have that guilty feeling of theft after I see that perfect piece of glass or knick knack I paid less than $2 for.
It has always amazed me how I can find a treasure in the same thing people have tossed aside and as I have read some blogs I find it happens everywhere. We are a special kind of people! I too buy it, use it for a while and then resell it to some other lover of all vintage. I guess if I kept everything I found that would be hoarding and we won't even get into that!
Anyway, love the blog so far. I will be a follower!