A very interesting short movie was made called 'The Story of Stuff' that's had over 2 million views to date. Have you seen it? A recent convert to the idea of following 'The Compact' (see previous blog entry) this weekend told me about this little movie. Even if you don't agree with everything or every point of view expressed, it's well worth watching. Here's the YouTube short clip:  

To watch the movie and learn more about it just Click! 

On the days when I lean towards over-examining my life and the choice I've made of a career, watching this little movie again sure will be on the top of the list of things to do. It'll remind me that, small as my sister's and my impact may be on the world at large, in our own little corner of it we are doing what we can to do what we feel is important - and doing our share to help protect our natural world.

Go ahead, watch the movie! Read about 'The Compact'. Take your mind off your every day concerns for a little while and think about bigger things! 

Be sure to add WExchange Thrift Shop (http://www.wexthrift.com) to your list of go-to resources when your on the hunt for a good, used necessity item. All manner of useful things come and go there on a daily basis.

For those of you who'd like to learn more about this movement, started by a few friends in San Francisco (what doesn't start out there?) click here 

If you'd like to join the small group started in Virginia go here. 

Of course, you really don't need to join a 'group' or sign anything etc. to join 'The Compact' - all you have to do is make it a priority in your life and get on with it. And, when you're stumped and need to find something 'used' - pay us a visit or give us a call. We'll be glad to do what we can to help! Of course, consigning your clutter with us is the best first step in simplifying your life.

If you'd like to learn about 'regular' people trying the experiment, try visiting Bob and Lori's blog  - read and see pics about their paper bag floor project!

One In A Series of Short Tales by a Veteran Consignment Store Owner

'No act is an act in isolation. Good and bad acts have a ripple effect. They set off a chain reaction of consequences both positive and negative.' - Unknown

I found an assortment of things in the breast pockets of a man's suit when looking for size labels. A nail clipper, airline stubs, a couple of dollars and a few photographs. I sealed everything in a zip lock bag to return to the consignor.

When she came to collect a check for her husband's suits I produced the packet from a desk drawer, proud of myself for remembering. The Mrs. turned the bag over holding the photographs for a closer look. She literally swooned into a nearby chair.

Alarmed I ran around the desk. "Are you okay? Can I help you in anyway?" I thought she was having some kind of an attack.

Tears in her eyes, she looked at me, hands trembling. "That's my husband!" she cried pointing to a do-it-yourself, arms-length photo of a couple kissing. 

"Oh!", I said, not understanding the significance. Waving the picture in my face she yelled, "That's the master bedroom in our beach house!"

I still didn't make a connection.

The distraught woman poked the picture with a long, red nail. "That's not ME he's kissing! That b****!," she flared, "is...WAS...my best friend!"

-----

Note: We stopped taking men's suits on consignment about 18 years ago!  And,  it's always a good idea to check out the pockets and insides of purses and containers before consigning with us!

Click on the first picture and it will put the entire set into a gallery view. Better to see all the fabo merchandise up close!

Have YOU started your spring cleaning yet? No? What are you waiting for? Besides, who couldn't use some extra gas money?

We've customers especially looking for outdoor furniture and garden stuff as well as small chests, dressers, bookcases, loveseats and upholstered chairs and tables. We're overstocked (and currently not accepting) at both stores with indoor rocking chairs and dining tables. Have any you'd like to sell? We'll get you the best price possible! More than a garage sale. And, our service is so much easier than Craigs List or eBay! We'll see you soon!

It's tough to tell those who've never shopped our stores regularly just what this time of year is like. If we try to explain just how fast stuff comes and goes, people just think it's hype. Huh! 'Til they see it happening in front of their eyes! Come on down to our Warrenton store some Saturday afternoon and just watch. Pure, simple and FREE entertainment watching all the amazing stuff just come and go!

Here's a few of the new things spotted sliding out of the consignment room onto the sales floor yesterday: 

Lovely storage can be had if you purchase this perfectly sized, hand-painted, white armoire. Decorated with topiaries and florals on the front doors. The room accent you always needed. The organizational capacity you crave.

You can’t get better than this! A great little black, outdoor, faux cast-iron garden set. Round table and two chairs. It looks so real you’ll find yourself preparing to lift some heavy weight as you go to move a chair – but it’s light as a feather!

New, retro modern burnt two-toned orange, square leather chaise/sofa will add the punch of color you’ve been looking for in your living area, loft or office. Great, strong, clean lines! Well-priced. Take it home today!

Eco-trend style? This tall, two-panel, rice paper screen has a very slight wiff of the oriental about it but is hand-painted in modern ‘eco’ bamboo/natural scenery. A ‘goes anywhere’ piece.

Love rustic? Love ‘modern country’? We’ve some lovely accent pieces – many of them downright useful too! Long, wooden old trugs to tote all manner of stuff about and keep it organized while you’re at it. Old flour tins and cans. Tall or wide – we’ve several multi-mini drawer wall units to keep all those bits under control. Old kitchen tools. Crocks – many sizes. Find that special something you need to ‘finish’ a room or ‘finish’ a collection.

Just a traditionalist at heart? Great mahogany pieces await! Tall dressers, triple dressers, tallboys and desks. You choose! Fill up that empty guest room before summer and friends and family arrive!

A light golden brown, leather Pottery Barn sofa is calling your name! Do you hear it? Well-priced, like-new condition – you can have the PB look at a fraction of the price from The White Elephant!

Tropical jungle and/or animal prints a favorite look? Like a little spice in your life? Adore comfort? Pamper yourself and your family with this fantastic, like-new upholstered chaise lounge. Two arms. Very comfy! In light tan, subdued ‘cheetah-ish’ print. Relax after those long, hectic days!

Love to cook? Love to craft? Just need some work/table top space and some storage to keep things all together? How can you go wrong with this almost 5’ long, light beech colored work center that’s – on casters! Roll it here. Roll it there! A row of drawers and two rows of shelves below will keep everything you need right at your finger tips!

Got porch? Need seasonal seating? Don’t bust your budget or spend your government refund check dressing up your porches or acquiring seating for family and friends to gather ‘round. We’ve got you covered! A couple of cans of cheap spray paint and an hour of your time will turn any number of chairs we’ve got in into the perfect solution for you! Single chairs, chairs in pairs, sets of four and six – you name it we have it!

Organizing this spring? Where can’t you use this pair of light wood colored bookcases? They are simple. They are unadorned. But, my what they won’t hold and organize for you. In a closet, in a room. In a basement or garage. In a study in a kid’s room. Hurry! Bookcases are one of our hottest sellers.

Tiny tables . Odd little tables. Small tables and stands you can lift with one hand and move wherever you need it – any time! In wood, in metal. In rattan and bamboo. White, red, black, hunter green and hand-painted. Everybody has a place they need a little table! We’ve piled them all together to make it easy for you to pick!

Don’t bring your children to The White Elephant …..unless you’re prepared for them to bug you to buy them all manner of great stuff! Bratz dolls, games and accessories. Hanna Montana! Legos and doll houses. Riding toys and Fisher Price everything! Trikes, bikes and exer-saucers. Kites, books and DVD’s. The clothes? Whether for play or for school or church – we’ve got them covered with all the best name-brands they crave!

Flip for our flops! Low-rise wedge flip-flops have arrived in all the basic shades you need to carry your feet in style right through spring! At less than $5 bucks a pair buy several! You know you’ll need them. We know you’ll love them!

Passion for fashion? Hung up on clothes? A fast pass of the hand through any of our multitudinous racks will make you an addict to our way of shopping! Lilly dresses, skirts, shorts and halters for less than a Thomas Jefferson? Abercrombie and Hollister for the young people among you without a trip to the mall and a hole in your wallet? Fresh spring colored tops, tees, halters, shorts to fill in those missing bits from your wardrobe! It pays to shop at The White Elephant ‘cause you leave with piles of stuff and some money still left in your wallet!

We’re an eco-friendly, sustainable, planet conscious business that has offered you the best in experienced fashion and home goods for almost 20 years. We help meet your needs for goods in a smart, practical way that makes cents! Join the trend! Remember Earth Day April 22 and Arbor Day April 26^th. Come celebrate our mutual gifts with us and see what’s ‘in-store’ for you!

Just a few quick notes of intriguing new stuff I noticed as I chatted with friends and customers amid the hub-bub:

-Need glasses to read the time? Solve your problem at home and buy all three of the grandfather clocks in the store and spatter them in strategic places about the house! Problem solved!

-Love Prada? Who is going to be the lucky gal to snatch up this fabulous white Prada bag (such a baaaargain darlin') for spring?

-Paris Hilton fan? Love the look? Check out the rhinestone sparklies - all the 'rage' with many

-Wonderful art deco cedar chest - perfect to pack away those sweaters and winter woolies you're just oh so tired of!

-Tired of dusting? Purchase this small, very useful black and glass curio cabinet with mirrored back. double doors on top and bottom, both glass. Put those collectibles and whoosey-whatsits in this lovely piece and be done with the dust!

-Unique set of framed turn of the century children's, hand-colored alphabet cards - sets the little creative mind whirling!

-Love roosters? Haven't transitioned to owls yet? Cluck, cluck, cluck...they're everywhere you look -on every sorta thing!

-Love J Crew, Hollister, Abercrombie? Adore Lilly? Hustle your bustle on in 'cause new fresh batches hit the racks today - about 200 pieces as I estimate it...

-Tried bamboo ladders for displaying ooohhh...let's see? Magazines (draped over), vintage linens, throws you may still need on chilly spring eves? Hang framed photos, dried flower....let a plant climb away? Or, just plain cool mounted on the wall - up or down - two brackets and one turned sideways makes a unique kinda shelf!

-From Gumps a dramatic porcelain, lidded, black background patterned large tureenish (no spoon though) - it's a decorative - and definitely can stand alone to make that entryway make a statement! Or, a fab focus on shelves or sideboard and such.

-Happiness! From Gump's - you'll love scooping out the last of winter's ashes from your fireplace and dressing up that gaping hole with the special oriental round firescreen - round - the Chinese symbol for Happiness. Beautiful - as onyl Gump's can do. Perfect condition - never saw a flicker nor flame yet in it's life.

-Pottery barn 5 x 8 muted sage and cream oriental-ish, POttery Barn rug - 2 months old - roll up this quick remake for a room and take it home!

-Rare and old books. Check our downloads for a list. One set of books, in great condition, leather bound - are over 200 years old. Some signed by author/illustrator, like 'Goodbye Mr. Chips', limited edition of 600 Birthday Edition with special jacket.

Hope you enjoyed our little slide show. Stop by and let us take your pic! You'll be famous! 

Why not consider joining Earth Hour tommorrow, an event created by the World Wildlife Federation.  It's simple. You don't have to spend any money. Join millions of people in North America  that will be doing one simple thing tommorrow at 8PM - turning off the lights!

Visit the site for more information including some fun stuff to do ...when the lights go out!

You invested money in most of the stuff you are about to store when you bought it. It lost half it's value or more as soon as you walked out of the store with it. Now you are thinking about paying some one more money to store the stuff (no doubt along with stuff family and friends 'gifted' you with) - investing yet more money into it. This seems crazy to me! Unless you live in such a small house you have no other place to keep outdoor gear and large tools you actually use on a regular basis, why not just get organized, clear out the clutter and sell the better stuff through local consignment shops like The White Elephant and recoup part of your investment and donate the less desirable stuff to local thrifts like WExchange Thrift Shop for a donation receipt for your income tax purposes?

A long time customer and her husband hired me to help them this past weekend to get organized before they move. In essence, they felt they needed help on how to go about the process of moving - from a home they'd lived in for 50 years.  They had decided to downsize and move to be closer to the grandchildren.

Not only was the very sizeable house crammed with stuff top to bottom, but although they had a four car garage - only one could hold a car. After some number of hours just surveying the 'stuff' and talking with them about what they wanted to take with them and getting their imput on timetables and such I got up to leave. BUT WAIT! No, no....they weren't through, they still needed my help! They drove me 20 minutes to a commercial storage facility where they had four large storage units full of stuff. Yep, about $125/month for each unit.....for at least 8 or 10 years. Even if you had money, what could possibly be worth paying $6,000 a year or $48,000 over 8 years to store? Must be some kind of special stuff I thought to myself.

Wrong! They hadn't taken anything OUT of the units - ever. It was just a graveyard of common, everyday household stuff, clothes and furniture. Imagine the money they could have MADE by selling the stuff when most of it was still of value (old clothes that are stored away become damaged, smelly and have no value, furniture can become damaged, etc. ). Imagine what someone could do: invest, pay off debt, mortagages - or go on vacation - with the money these lovely people had spent storing this stuff over the years.

They are not alone either. Many of you probably pass these lovely folk on your way to stuff more stuff into your own units!

I understand that there is an illness people have called hoarding. I also know, through my 20 years in the consignment business, how hard it is for some people to let go of their attachment to 'things', even if they aren't technically 'hoarders'.  Fortunately, I don't have that problem. I don't let stuff own me, but rather choose to own and keep certain things only as long as they prove useful and necessary.

There are lots of books, web sites and blogs out there that specialize in helping people loosen their grip on their stuff...just 'because it's my stuff!' and helping people understand that they are actually allowing 'their stuff' to own and control them. If you have this problem I'd like to suggest you avail yourself of their help. Once you can achieve a healthier perspective about your material possessions you can tackle the job of learning how to organize yourself, actually clear all the unnecessary clutter from your life and breath much freer. You'll save time, it will be easy to maintain the stuff you do have; you'll  sleep better, feel better and free up some money you could probably use for other purposes: paying down debt, helping to ease your gas bill - and more!

Here are some useful links to get you started:

• www.ehow.com/how_3810_organized.html
• www.flylady.net/
• www.noclutterguy.com
• www.get-organized.com/
• www.getorganizednow.com/

And, when you're ready to clear out and convert your underloved 'white elephants' into cash - we'll be glad to help!