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One of the most meaningful parts of Netflix’s Tidying Up with Marie Kondo for me was hearing a couple with young kids talk about the stress having a disorganized, messy home puts on their relationship.

Talk about a shot to the heart.

In my household, we don’t argue about many things, but cleaning and household chores are near the top of the list (right below finances). My husband and I both tend toward messiness (and so do our children!), so our weekends are often spent trying to get our house presentable — rather than spending quality time with each other or the kids.

This isn’t to say we have a bad marriage, but with Valentine’s Day coming up, I’ve been thinking about ways for us to have more time with each other, and I know implementing even a few of the tips from Tidying Up could help.

I picked three pointers from Marie’s Netflix series and implemented them, and I think most families could probably make use of these tips right away.

• Use what you have to make your house neater

Something I found interesting in Tidying Up (and something that has honestly been a point of criticism from some folks) was the use of storage items people already had in their homes to organize smaller items. Some families even used shoe boxes or bankers’ boxes that they already had.

Honest confession time: Off the top of my head, I could think of at least 4 plastic storage containers that weren’t even being used in my

house. I could think of several more that were storing items that needed to be put in their proper place (e.g., a big box of decorative items that I’ve been intending to hang on our walls for months).

Simply making better use of these items I already had (without having to spend extra money on fancy organizational systems) made a noticeable impact on general household clutter.

• Change the way you fold your clothes

When I saw Marie’s method of folding clothes, my initial reaction was, “That’s smart, but it looks like it would take FOREVER.”

The more I thought about it, the more I realized how frustrated I get when someone-who-shall-remain-nameless unfolds half the T-shirts

in his drawer trying to find the one he wants — because they all look the same when they’re folded the way we’ve always folded them. Guess who ends up re-folding them 90% of the time?

Marie’s folding method not only makes more space but allows you to see what you’re pulling out of the drawer without having to unfold it. So we are giving it a shot. Eventually, I hope we’ll get around to discarding more of the T-shirts that are never worn (that’s a whole different battle), but for now, we are tackling one drawer at a time.

If it doesn’t work for us, it’s easy enough to change it back.

• Start dealing with paper — in a timely way

I have a legitimate problem with letting papers pile up for weeks on end. We get tons of junk mail, and I tend to ignore it until it gets overwhelming. But even when I do go through it, I end up with piles of papers that I don’t want to just throw in the garbage (bills that have account numbers on them, for example).

Beyond that, I also have completely disorganized papers that we actually need to keep — some random file folders with things like kids’ birth certificates, our mortgage, insurance information, tax papers.

Marie recommends piling all your papers into one spot so you can sort through them, discard what you don’t need and effectively organize what you do need. Her categories include paper that needs attention (like bills), paper you need to keep for a little while (current insurance documents with a set expiration) and paper you need to keep long-term (like your mortgage or birth certificates).

Beyond simply organizing the papers we already have laying around the house (there are so many), I’m going to work on immediately sorting papers as they come into the house so that we don’t find ourselves in the same situation again in a few months.

• Making it work for you

Perhaps the biggest lesson I’ve taken away from Tidying Up and the Konmari method is figuring out how to make it work for you and your household — just like pretty much any other trendy self-help method. Our house may not be transformed overnight, but we have some new tools to help us along the way.

Written by Misty Matthews

I don’t know about you, but I just can’t stomach paying $30 for a pair of jeans or a t-shirt my child will wear for maybe three months before they outgrow it.

And even the items my rough-and-tumble boys don’t outgrow may end up with holes or stains, and even though they might still wear these clothes from time to time (especially for playing in the backyard)— I hate the thought of throwing down a good chunk of change for something that they will basically destroy in less than five wears.

It’s also actually pretty amazing how fast kids grow (hello, three shoe sizes in four months!), but it’s not so amazing for our family’s budget. I look for ways to cut corners wherever I can without skimping too much on quality. Here are my top five tips for saving money on kids’ clothes.

• Go to the thrift store. OK, yes, this is a thrift store blog, but I’m almost always impressed at the variety and quality of clothing at America’s Thrift Stores. At a recent trip to the Huffman store, I picked up a North Face fleece jacket for my older son for $2.99 (TWO NINETY-NINE! Do you have any idea how outrageously great that is?!) and a Columbia half-zip fleece for my younger son for $3.99. I also got them jeans, button-down shirts and T-shirts from name brands like Children’s Place, Old Navy, Gymboree and Wrangler. All total, for two jackets, a fleece, four pairs of jeans and four shirts, I spent about $30 — which is less than the retail price of the North Face jacket alone.

• Shop off-season. This one’s a little trickier, because you have to be pretty good at predicting what size your child will be in the following year. Many retail stores discount their clothes heavily at the end of the season; this is actually one of my favorite ways to buy more expensive brands. Pro Tip: The thrift store even discounts items on a rotating basis, so be sure to look for which color tags get an extra percentage discount. 

• Learn the sale cycle. Retailers often put items on sales in a specific cycle, so if you pay attention, you will rarely have to shell out the full retail price for most items. This is also where it pays to plan ahead. If your child waits until the last minute to tell you they need a very specific item for their school dress-up day (we just finished Red Ribbon Week and Halloween, so there have been a lot of themed days lately for us), you are at the mercy of the store and whatever price that item happens to be. On the other hand, if you’re able to wait a week or two for it to go on sale, you’ll definitely get a better bargain. Also, don’t assume the most heavily advertised sales mean the best prices. Sometimes you can find items cheaper on a random Tuesday than you can on a holiday weekend or back-to-school time.

• Shop online. Even if you are going to pick up items locally, use the Internet to comparison shop, especially for bigger-ticket items (like shoes or jackets). It takes a lot of time to drive from store to store, but you can find the information you need in a few minutes with the power of Google. Pro Tip: Avoid paying for shipping when possible. Many retailers give you the option to ship to the store for free, and some even offer free shipping with no minimum purchase.

• Embrace the power of hand-me-downs. With two boys, I take advantage of hand-me-downs as often as I can, and it saves us a lot of money. This also is my best argument for seeking out high-quality items whenever possible, because they are more durable and actually last through two kids.

Altogether, like so many things, it’s all about balance — knowing what you’re comfortable spending and what you need and figuring out how to get the best items for that price.

Written by Misty Mathews

One of the things I love about my neighborhood is that everyone decorates for Halloween. 

We’re not just talking a wreath and some pumpkins here. There are inflatables, skeletons, gigantic homemade spiderwebs and even a full-blown haunted house–literally inside someone’s house.

I’ve always loved Christmas decorations, but it had never occurred to me that I could have the same amount of fun with my Halloween decor until I moved to Bluff Park. We had just moved into our new home last Halloween,so there wasn’t much time,  but this year I was ready to jump in with some SPOOKY spirit.

I suspect it will take me years to get to the level of some of the folks in our neighborhood, because unfortunately I can’t spend 100’s of dollars on inflatables and lights. But I have started a nice collection of items that I really like and that I can build on!

One of my favorite ways to find funky (and sometimes unexpected) items is hitting up the thrift store. This year, I spent about 30 minutes at a America’s Thrift Store’s Huffman location and I found a couple of sparkly skull tealight holders, jingly spider bells to decorate a wreath, a cute new basket to hold candy for our trick-or-treaters, a spooky cat-and-bat wind chime, some sparkly pumpkins, and a wooden jack-o-lantern statue all for just $15!

Another great way to save on seasonal items is to hit the thrift store or local retailers the day after the holiday. I’ve found a lot of items (including the great black wreath pictured) for up to 90% off the original price. With a little planning ahead, you can be better prepared for next year!

I bought several items last year after Halloween including a few festive pumpkins, so when I combined those with my thrift store treasures it made for a pretty cute little front stoop display that wasn’t overly expensive and didn’t take tons of time to put together!

Halloween decorations are fun, they make me happy, and my kids love them, and they let me tap into my creative side! What fun things is your family doing to celebrate this Halloween?

Written by Misty Mathews

When I was a kid, my family didn’t celebrate Halloween for religious reasons, but we did participate in church and school ‘Fall Festivals.’ I remember my mom making me my own costume every year. I

actually thought it was super cool, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget the amazing Disney Princess costume she made when I was an elementary student.

Now that I have kids of my own, we do celebrate Halloween, and it’s a lot of fun to think about costumes for our whole family. Since I didn’t trick or treat as a kid, it’s something I look forward to e

very year now.

At the same time, I have a hard time justifying paying $25-35 per costume for something we’ll all probably only wear once or twice! Sadly, I’m not nearly as creative and cr

afty as my mom, so extravagant homemade costumes are out of the question. But I knew I could come up with something that would be fun for the family, less expensive than full-price costumes and not too difficult or time-intensive for me.

We saw Pixar’s The Incredibles earlier this year and loved it, so I thought the Incredibles would be a fun and pretty easy option. I was able to find some red shirts for all fou

r of us at America’s Thrift Stores, plus some black pants for the kids (Bobby and I already had some). I was also able to find some black costume masks at the thrift store!

From there, all I needed was a few pieces of felt and some craft glue. I grabbed these at a local craft store and used a mobile coupon. All total, I spent less than $20 for four costumes, and we’ll all have a costume for trick-or-treating, and it only took me a couple of hours to put them all together.

Here’s a quick tutorial in case you’re interested in making your own Incredibles costumes.

Materials (for 1 costume):

Red T-shirt

1 sheet of red or orange felt

1 sheet of black felt

1 sheet of yellow felt

1 sheet of white felt

Black maker or ink pen

Scissors

Instructions:

Fold the black felt in half and cut out a large circle (it’s OK if it’s slightly oval shaped). Cut the black circle in half. Trace the shape of an ‘i’ on the yellow felt and cut it out, then trace and cut a smaller circle for the center of the dot from the white felt. Glue the black pieces to the red or orange felt, with one piece about 1 inch lower than the other (see photos). Glue the yellow ‘i’ on top of the black pieces, slightly overlapping, and glue the white circle onto the dot of the ‘i.’ Once you have this part together, cut out an oval out of the red felt, around the pieces you’ve glued on. Once you’ve done this, use a sufficient amount of glue to paste the logo to your shirt.

If you decide to make your own costume, whether it’s Incredibles or something even more fun, we’d love to see it during the month of October!

Written by Misty Mathews

For some people, Fall means pumpkin spice, leggings, or maybe just a lot of raking. For our family? It means it’s time for college football!

One of the most fun parts of football season is having people over to watch the game. But tailgating, even in your own backyard and home, can easily get expensive and overwhelming. It doesn’t have to be!

I recently took a trip to the America’s Thrift Store location in Gardendale to find some items I could jazz up for a tailgate party without breaking the bank. As a working mom, I don’t have a lot of spare time, and I am not one of those super-crafty moms (who are amazing, by the way!), so I was looking for stuff I knew I could handle.

I found a couple of food containers that would be awesome for a party. A chip-and-dip is a great go-to for a variety of small food items, and a red one is perfect for us Crimson Tide fans. I also picked up some Mason jars (because who doesn’t love a good Mason jar?) and some coordinating table cloths.

I think my favorite piece was a plain, white ceramic serving bowl. I had some ideas for how to liven it up, including adding some decorative ribbon or painting it. I ran by a nearby craft store and grabbed some paint, paintbrushes and stencils (and used a mobile coupon for 40% off!).

It only took me about 20 minutes total to use the stencils to paint elephants on the jars and the serving bowl, but that short time took them from plain to festive. One of the great things is that it doesn’t matter which team you root for — you can take this same concept and create something fun, easy and inexpensive!

Of course, if you’re having a tailgate party, you gotta have food. My favorite way to handle food is potluck, because then you don’t have to have the burden

of hosting and preparing a multi-course meal for your guests.

Here’s a go-to recipe that my family loves and that’s always a big hit with a crowd, without a lot of fuss or prep time:

Bacon Cheddar Ranch Dip

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 30 minutes at 400F

Ingredients:

1 package of real bacon bits

8 oz. of cream cheese, at room temperature

16 oz. of sour cream

2 cups of shredded cheddar

⅓ cup of sliced, green onions

1 package of ranch seasoning mix

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients together until they are well combined. Put the mixture into an oven-safe dish and heat at 400F until the mixture is bubbly and beginning to brown on top. Remove from the oven and serve with chips, veggies or crackers.

Of course, you’ll need to plan a quick grocery run to grab all the ingredients, but you can find just about everything else you’ll need (including awesome team gear, — I grabbed four new-to-us Bama shirts for my husband, my sons and me) all at the thrift store.

Hope you all enjoy this recipe and that you’re able to spend some time with your friends and family this football season!

Written by Misty Mathews 

The average family spends somewhere between $662 – $1,489 on back-to-school shopping and activity fees, and about 20percent of families spend more than $2,000 (USA Today).

While it’s certainly fine to spend any amount you’re comfortable with for your child’s supplies and clothes, many families have budget constraints to work within. I know my family does!

Here are a few tips I’ve found useful for saving money and time on back-to-school shopping.

Set your budget and determine what you need

I’m shopping for an upcoming 2nd-grade boy (Noah) and a pre-school boy (Spenser), so my process looks something like this:

• Make a list of the different types of items each boy needs for the first half of the school year and how many of each item I think they need (socks, jeans, shirts, etc.).
• Go through each boy’s closets and weed out anything that has too many holes or stains (because boys).
• Move anything that doesn’t fit but is still in good shape from Noah’s closet to storage in Spenser’s closet, because they will be used as hand-me-downs. Place outgrown items from Spenser’s closet into a donate/yard-sale pile.

This will give me an idea of what each boy needs and help me determine a realistic budget. The process takes some time on the front end but will save time and money once I start shopping.

A great way to set your budget is to go back to the master list and write down an amount you want to spend for each type of item.

Click here to download a starter list.

Decide what you will buy new vs. used

Figuring out what I’ll buy new versus used also helps determine where to shop for different items and how much to budget for each. The largest single item on my kids’ clothing budget is typically shoes because I prefer to buy those new. The keys to saving on new items, of course, are finding a good sale, shopping around (online if possible, to save time), using a coupon, and being willing to compromise (maybe he could get the $20 Nikes from last season instead of the $40 Nikes from this season).

For most of my kids’ items, the thrift store and consignment sales are a great place to start. I also consider the quality of clothing and have a mental list of preferred brands (Old Navy, Gap and Children’s Place are good, especially for play clothes, and if I can find Mini Boden or Hanna Andersson at a good price, I will snag those, because they are great quality — and some of their pants have double-reinforced knees).

Make a shopping game plan

Here’s where all your prep work hopefully pays off. Once you know what you need, pick out where you’ll shop for it.

1.     Start by scoping out your local thrift store. Carry your list with you so you can stick to the script as far as needs and cost. Keep a running total of what you spend.

2.     Check online to see when your local consignment sales are being held. I know our local sale is near the beginning of September, which means I can stand to wait a few weeks after school actually starts to get some good deals.

3.     Finally, once you’ve exhausted thrift and consignment options, finish out your shopping (and purchase any new items) online or in retail stores.

Saving money doesn’t have to make you lose your sanity!

Organization is the key to staying on budget with your back-to-school shopping. It’s incredibly easy for the costs to add up quickly and for a quick trip to the mall to turn into a miserable all-day event. But if you’ll put a little time and effort into creating a list of your needs and putting a dollar amount with each of those items, you’ll save time, money and sanity.

Written by Misty Mathews 

I remember my older sister telling me stories of when my mom was in her couponing heyday, where my sister swears there were times that the grocery store actually paid her money to take groceries home.

Probably hyperbole, but my mom’s thriftiness has stuck with me over the years. My mom was a mother of three who stayed at home after the birth of her youngest (that’s me), and she was the master accountant in our household. No matter the ups and downs of my dad’s job as a roofing contractor, my mom always found ways to make ends meet, and I can honestly say I never lacked anything.

Now I’m married and have two kids of my own, and with these two rough-and-tumble, eat-everything-in-sight boys, I understand better than ever the need to save a few dollars when I can.

At the same time, budgeting and finding ways to save were more like a part of my mom’s job as a stay-at-home mom. I don’t have the time to coupon and thrift the way she did because I work full-time, so I find ways to save where I can.

I’m excited to join the America’s Thrift Store team as a thrift blogger so I can share my family’s journey with you. Regardless of your personal circumstances, I think everyone can stand to save money, and I also think it’s just good sense to reuse and recycle whenever you can.

I think I will offer especially helpful advice for those who are trying to save money with limited time, like others who work full-time or work more than one job. In my day job, I’m a communications professional, and my husband (Bobby) is a repo agent. I also do writing and consulting on the side. My boys, Noah and Spenser, are 7 and 4. We bought a house a year ago in Bluff Park, a great little area of Hoover.

I’ll be sharing tips on how to save and stretch your budget further in smart ways so you can make the most out of the money and time you have to work with. I’m also happy to take suggestions on topics to cover or questions, so feel free to email me at mistymath@gmail.com.

Hope you’ll join me on my thrift journey!

With the heat rising, as well as the kids’ boredom threshold, parents need something indoors to keep them active and me air conditioned.  So, after visiting all the indoor activity places in town you need something else to occupy their time.

Solution: A Thrift Store Scavenger Hunt!

1. Print this list (found on projectophile.net) or make your own. Make sure you print enough copies for each team or person playing. You can do this with one person or even twenty; divide in teams or every man for themselves.

2. Visit America’s Thrift Stores (Alabaster is one of the largest locations and has the best selection for this activity) but any of their store locations would do. Make sure you have everyone meet at the front so you can go over the rules:

1. Time limit?
2. Is there anything off limits? Can they ask for help?
3. Where to meet when time is up?

3. And off they go.  You can of course play, or spend some time looking at clothing, knick knacks and accessories.  Or check out the books and find a chair to read while they play.  Summer is for relaxing, after all!

Also, if your family or friends participate in a scavenger hunt in one of our stores, send us pics (marketing@americasthrift.com or tag us on Facebook or Instagram (/americasthrift.com)!  We’d love to see what you find.  We may even share your findings!

It’s summer and it’s just a matter of time before your kids say the “b” word— Bored. Give them a project that will keep them from being “bored” and help you organize the house as well as teach them a valuable lesson about giving to those in need. Here’s some tips on how to get your little one to help fill their donation box with gently used toys and clothing:

1. Your turn to ask the questions While they’re beginning to tackle their room, ask them these questions:
 •   Did you know you had this?
 •   When was the last time you played with this?
If the answers are no and more than 6 months ago, encourage them to place it in the donations pile.

2. Make it a game – It’s a fact. Games are more fun than cleaning and organizing. Why not make it a game? Ask your child how quickly they can fill the box? Or let them compete against you! See who can fill it the fastest. Winner gets ice cream!

3. Be a part of the action – Let them see you donate.  The old adage “Monkey see, Monkey do” is true.  Kids who have seen their parents donate often grow up giving back themselves.  Once you’ve finished gathering your donation, make sure you take the kids with you to the donation box, trailer or one of our stores. As always, if you don’t want to pack your car, we’ll come pick it up for FREE. Call us at 1-800-964-4567 (Georgia residents 1-844-411-2462) or request a pick up online.  Let your kids watch the big ruck come and take your donations away.  Now, they’ve seen the process from start to finish.