As the saying goes, "One man's trash is another man's treasure." This couldn't be anymore true when it comes to shopping at Goodwill.Growing up, my grandma and I would scope out the newspaper for good garage sales and hit them up in hopes of finding some treasures. Before I even stepped foot on the A&M campus, I had the best vintage A&M collection. Of course, this got lost in the mix when I had my short love affair of the University of Texas.
When I got in college, I shopped the local Goodwill stores looking for vintage t-shirts. As I got older, my dad and I braved the county flea market in hopes of finding cast iron skillets and other goodies. Who am I kidding? We still do this. So it only made since that I would be a fan of Goodwill when I moved to Portland. And I have been.
My first purchases were kitchen items. It was plain white plates and bowls. Revere Ware pots and pans. Basically, your mom's kitchen items. I like copper bottom pots and pans for some reason. The look clean to me. So I bought them, cleaned* them up and proceeded to cook some delicious meals.Over time, I've bought glasses and pints of some of my favorite beers. Instead of paying $15 for my favorite pint glass, I can usually pick them up for no more than $1.99 around town.
Goodwill is great for making quick purchases. You can usually find a really nice casserole dish for the time you have to make dressing for Thanksgiving. There's usually a bunt cake pan or two. And for those who are more daring, they have a ton of flatware.
I've laid off the kitchen items until recently when I had to fully supply my kitchen. Once again, Goodwill has not let me down. Within the racks of Goodwill are items that have never been used. Take for instance, my IKEA dish rack. Another poor item bought from the store, never used and then taken to Goodwill when someone was either cleaning or moving. By purchasing it at Goodwill, I've saved some money and supported a great organization.
How do appliances hold up? Not too bad - if you really do your homework.
My mom recently told me how she bought a used George Foreman Grill in really good shape and that her and my dad had been cooking their chicken that way. A couple of weekends ago, I ran across a small GFGrill at Goodwill for $4.99 in amazing shape so I thought I would try it out. This has proven to be a great purchase. It cooks chicken cutlets in less than 5 minutes and still keeps your chicken juicy.
Other than my grill, I bought a paper towel holder that I installed on the inside of my cabinet door. Since it was so cheap, I don't mind leaving it behind when I finally move out (ha! yeah right!)
*A quick way to clean the copper of your copper bottom pots and pans is to cut a lemon in half and shake some salt on the meat of the lemon. Rub this on the copper part and it'll clean right up. This same method of cleaning works for several other things. Here are some of those methods.
Tonight for dinner:
- Chicken cooked on my George Foreman Grill and then smothered in Stubb's BBQ Sauce
- Corn on the cob boiled in a Revere Ware pot and then smothered in buttah
- Icy cold Dr. Pepper
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