You know you want it.

Excellent things to thrift for:

1. Shoes. I always find great shoes (as you may have seen from my photos). A good pair of shoes lasts, and many quality shoes, even if they are damaged in some way, can be repaired. Also, this allows you to have a larger shoe collection without the guilt (or if you're like me, you'll still have guilt over the accumulation of earthly treasures because you were raised to be a biblical literalist and sometimes you can't quite shake it).

2. Books. Unless you're looking for something specific, one can find all of one's mindless beach reads (and a ton of Harlequins) at your nearest thrift store. When I go on vacation, I usually just pick up a few and then drop them off one by one as I go home. I don't know how this is working, but I imagine that the books are getting picked up and read by other people. I did leave them on the subway, after all.

3. Furniture. I have slowly been accumulating furniture for my new place, mostly small organizational pieces. I of course have my usual few pieces that I've had forever that always move with me, but when I move, it's not uncommon for me to donate a lot of what I own. I hate moving with a fiery passion, and the less I have to deal with the better. Also, I have the same stuff to put in/on the furniture, so my place usually looks the same anyway. When I have energy like a normal person, I'll even paint the furniture, which is super fun. My old house was so cute when I did this. But that was before graduate school. My life has only gone downhill from my early twenties. Don't let my ridiculously good looks fool you.

4. Linens. Hang with me for a minute, those of you who are easily grossed out. There's nothing a good heavy wash followed by a nice dry in the sunshine that can't renew that beautiful quilt. I have yet to purchase used towels, but I've definitely thought about it. I did find some lovely handmade washcloths the other day, and I did buy them, but they looked new, so that doesn't quite count. If you can't think sheets quite yet, start small: napkins, tablecloths, maybe even a nice afghan?

5. Kid stuff. Oh my goodness. The last thrift store I was at had toys all over the floor. There were too many to fit in their bins! And you could find yourself in a dump of a thrift store, but they'd have nice children's clothing. It doesn't get worn as long, plus children are typically very neat and tidy because they take all of their clothes off whenever they feel like it; you get my drift.

Hopefully soon, this post will be followed by a post on things not to thrift for. You can of course send suggestions at any time.