I am an avid thrifter. I love to find great deals… maybe it’s the asian side of me, but I love me a bargain! I also love to decorate. I love to make things beautiful and make my surroundings as beautiful as possible. (Thats probably why I love being in the beauty industry) So I work with what I have and build on that. When we first got married 20 years ago, we were poor. Like so poor we had garage sales to pay our house payments. Ramen noodle poor. Can you relate to that? It was a little crazy, but we were completely happy and just figured it out as we went along. So needless to say we didn’t have super nice things. We had hand me downs and goodwill, thrift store, and garage sale finds. If I found something that I could work with, I would buy it and paint it to make it pretty and always took a ton of pride in my home and my creations. People are always saying how beautiful our home is was and nowadays the thrifty finds are a little higher end than the old days. However, the inner bargain hunter in me just cant stop. Plus I LOVE the hunt, and really get giddy when I find my sweet deals. I am going to share some tips on how I find all these amazing items and how a lot of the time it really doesn’t cost me a lot, sometimes nothing at all!

When I decide I want to redecorate or just upgrade, first I figure out what I want to do. Enter PINTEREST!! (I can get lost for hours on Pinterest, how about you? I think we need to start a support group for this! ) Then I decide what I need to get rid of and what I will want to replace it. If I have anything extra laying around I can get rid of, I put that aside to sell also. I typically use Craigslist, but lately I have been using Facebook Marketplace. That actually works a ton better and you get to see the peoples profile that you are messaging. (if they look creepy I don’t answer or I send them to my big hubby)

– Decide what you need to get rid of and stage it like you are staging a commercial for Better Homes & Gardens. (well not exactly) I have seen people post the ugliest photos of their stuff to sell and they cannot understand why people wont buy it! Make it look as pretty as you can & set a price. **Rule of thumb depending on the name brand etc, I usually price things for about 25% of the original purchase price if bought at full retail. And when you set the description, put the original price you paid for the item. People like to know they are getting a good deal!

Now its time to go hunting. I usually sell the items I want to get rid of first before I hunt but this last amazing find was completely by chance and I couldn’t pass it up. I have been looking at those gorgeous trestle dining room tables for a while now, and short of re-doing my whole house, I needed a dark wood colored one to go with the rest of my house. I came across a gorgeous set of chairs and beautiful table set (wrong color table, but perfect-exactly-what-I-was-looking-for chairs!) Oh be still my beating heart, the chairs were exactly what I wanted so of course I proceed to message this poor lady like a crazy stalker. I set up a time to go see the set, and find out its from a model home (never been used, BONUS) and needs to be moved ASAP. Ok, so I call the hubs and let him know we are picking up furniture. He had no idea I wanted to re-do the dining room… plus we still had our very very heavy large dining set to now get rid of. *Check out my page on Facebook to see the table transformation!

– Hunting tip: I always search Craigslist or the Marketplace with name brand names, like Restoration Hardware, or the higher end furniture stores we have locally, or even with key words like high end, etc. If I am looking for a particular brand I specifically search for that also. Now seriously people, patience is the key to this one. You must hunt regularly to find the good stuff. That table I bought was listed an hour before I saw it, & I just happened to scroll by that. So of course it was meant to be!!

– Auctions are also a great place to find amazing deals. Learn the art of bidding, and a lot of the time you can see what is going up for auction online! Just register with a credit card and you are good to go.

– Most furniture stores have a back warehouse room with sale items. Or if you are a real detective, you can find out what outlet or other warehouse buys up all their leftover stock and sells it for crazy discounts. It might have some imperfections or be last years styles, but whatever!! Easy to fix, and you save a ton of $$.

Don’t be afraid of paint. I have re-painted and re-purposed a ton of furniture. Some stuff seriously looked like garbage when I got it. You have to visualize the end result, and realize paint can hide a multitude of sins and wood putty is your BFF. I love to have a beautiful home, and I don’t want to spend all my money to do it. I can usually sell all the stuff I want to get rid of and it mostly pays for the new stuff if I am patient enough to hunt it down. Don’t get me wrong, I have bought a lot of things with absolutely NO idea where I was going to put it, and figured it out later. (Not a good plan, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do)

I have a lot of fun looking and finding and even selling my own stuff! Making old things new and finding the sweet deals should be a sport. I would be winning!! (I am NOT sporty, for those of you who couldn’t have guessed that one) As always, I would love to hear from you & what you have found in your bargain hunting!! Drop a comment below with what you have found and tag a friend that does this too or just wants to start.  I can’t wait to hear any other tips you guys have of how you find the best deals! Thanks for reading, and happy hunting!