Daffodils have poked their leaves up through the soil, the weekend will bring temps in the upper 50's and buds are forming on all the trees. Spring is on it's way! Thank goodness, right? It's been one heck of a depressing winter! With the media doing little but spreading gloom and doom hourly, the House and Senate refusing to act to amend the CPSIA (Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act) which has adversely affected so many businesses large and small engaged in selling stuff for kids under 12, spring for us couldn't come fast enough.
If you would like to support our industry's effort to ammend the law, to quickly and simply send letters to legislators: click on one or all of the following:
HR 1027
HR 968
S374
There are three separate bills that have been introduced, any one of which would help if we could just get support to get them out of committee and onto the floor to be voted upon.
Here at the stores we began accepting spring clothing consignments on March 1st! Our customers were thrilled. It was wonderful to see rack after rack of bright, cheerful clothing rolling onto the floor!
Savvy consumers have spent the time cooped up in their homes because of the cold weather wisely going through closets and such, making a clean sweep before spring and spring cleaning commences. Wow! The bargains, the cool, the unusual, the useful stuff that's been flowing is fun to see. Have you visited lately and watched the parade?
Here's a small taste of what you can find at the stores. Download a listing sheet, bring in your consignment to turn into cash, then take a few minutes and cruise around the floor. You'll simply just have some fun! We're sure of it.
Henckel Harris mahogany banquet table, double pedestal base with four leaves! Seats twelve comfortably. Set of (8) Chinese Chippendale chairs sold separately.
Pair of linen covered wing chairs. Go anywhere chairs!
Ultra suede, royal blue sofa. Excellent condition. Seats 4 comfortably!
Walnut, two glass door, library cabinet on legs. Great condition. Oh so useful to keep your collections and books dust free.
Herringbone tan and brown upholstered chair in excellent condition. Great price!
French provincial, pecan glass topped 5' buffet in excellent condition and matching oval dining table with leaf, sold separately. Set of (6) upholstered, oval back, French legged dining chairs with tapestry fabric. Also sold separately.
High end kitchenware for those back to cooking at home. Professional quality, normal size loaf bread maker, professional juicer with multitudinous attachments, huge deep fryer in excellent condition, stainless steel grinder and milling machine also professional quality!
10 x 13' wool Persian rug in excellent condition in traditional red/blue/creams - very well priced in like-new condition! More ugs to choose from.
Vera Bradley lover? Organizer wallets, totes and bags - oh my! Check out the new Coach bags too!
Tory Burch size 9 black ballet flats - new!
Beautiful, mint condition, Stieff stuffed elephant.
Check out our newly expanded plus size department for full-figured women. Many new Catalog overstocks at 80% or more off original retail from Silhouettes catalog.
Oh so much more.................... see you soon!
May 5, 2009 
The constantly dripping, cloudy skies over Northern Virginia; the economy, news media's determination to sound nothing but drumbeats of doom - whatever it is - many of our customers are vocalizing it! What happened to hope? What happened to cheerful? Or, as one customer put it, ' Where has all the 'happy' gone?'
What Does Your Stuff Say About You?
Twenty years of helping people deal with all the material stuff in their lives changes you. I reached a state best described as clinical dispassion some years ago. The days of 'Oooh, ahhh, look at this! Isn't that cool?' are but foggy memories. My sister, Leslie, and I are still often asked, 'Don't you just love going through all the stuff y'all get in? It must be like Christmas! So much fun!'
Not exactly. Not even close. It simply is what it is - stuff. More of the same. It comes - it goes. Hang it, tag it. Fold it, bag it. Move it here, move it there.
The accoutrements of life in endless parade.
After 20 or more years, Les and I find our interest in the 'stuff' that is the mainstay of our business is based far more on the speculative psychology of it all. Think about it. What does your stuff say about you?
Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You“Snoop isn’t conventional self-help. Instead, the psychology professor a the University of Texas-Austin draws on academic research to explain how to look at other people’s stuff – music, CD’s, books, personal websites, posters, email usernames – and figure out who they are in terms of five traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.”–USA Today
While I've personally become enured to the lure of hanging on to 'stuff'; and, therefore have a tougher time than I used to in understanding people's emotional attachments and difficulties in divesting themselves of it - I do find the psychology of 'stuff' fascinating!
If you are trying to simplify/downsize your life and de-clutter your spaces perhaps this book will be of more help than the standard 'how to simplify/de-clutter - get three boxes....' fare. If you haven't been successful in controlling your 'stuff', or letting some of it go, maybe the insights of this research will help. What do you want your stuff to say about you?