It's not a steal, but it was cheap.
A couple weeks ago Ariel, the head of the empire, wrote an article on Offbeat Home about one of the most important tools she owns – a shopping basket a neighbor had given her ages ago. She talks about a number of the ways this little basket has been useful throughout the years. Clearly that planted a seed – It doesn’t matter if you have a kid or not, the home gets messy and you have to tidy. It was that point that got me thinking something like this would be great to have. Well this weekend we hit Borders because it’s going out of business (Chicago is losing every store but one). So we popped in after dinner and this is what we found.
$7 – A shopping basket
$20 – An elephant stool (one of those cool rolling step stools)
$60 – Two wooden high-chairs (now we don’t have to tow highchairs between homes for the nanny share)
There isn’t much time left to pick these things up at Borders, but if there’s one closing near you, it might be worth the trip. Maybe you’ll find a shopping basket for tiding up your home or as a beach tote. If you bike, maybe you can find a way to also rig it up on a rack on the back (my plan).
If they still have a highchair and you have a kid or you’re expecting one – you can probably get one of these for less than the $40 they have it listed for. While you can probably find some cheap highchairs, I doubt you’ll find a solid wooden one for less. Be sure to check them out. Double check the straps and make sure the buckles latch. If they’re broken, you might be able to replace them so investigate that and make a lower offer. You also want to make sure it’s solid with no cracks maybe you can fix that, maybe not.
If you aren’t near a closing Borders, or they’ve already sold them all, keep an eye out for any restaurants or even bars that are closing.
So here are my tips
Go check out store closing sales with an open mind and really look at what they have and think about how they might be used to solve your problems.
Read Offbeat Home if you haven’t checked it out yet, it just might inspire you.
