Thrift Shop thoughts

Last week was as busy, as predicted. As one friend put it, you put your life on hold for four days when you work on the Thrift Shop committee. 

So, I walked away from my usual work, I organised a string of left-over meals for home, and paid less attention to my kids. Of course it was all waiting for me after Thrift Shop finished on Saturday. The dust bunnies are accumulating because I skipped my once a week vacuum on Wednesday. I'll get them this week! The emails and editing accumulated too, but I'm gradually tackling them today. In the weeks prior to Thrift Shop I said many "no"s, in an attempt to preserve space after Thrift Shop to catch-up.

It's tiring and stressful

What makes Thrift Shop extra tiring and stressful is that we're overseeing a huge amount of work in a very short time with a volunteer workforce of varying understanding of what they're supposed to do.

(Mostly) high school boys who helped us with the heavy lifting of
set-up. Most of the Thrift Shop infrastructure is stored under the cafeteria
in a poky basement accessed by steep stairs. Think: tables,
coat racks, coat hangers, shelving etc. We need these guys!

Thousands of second hand items come into our care in the first two days and then we sell the majority of it over just 10 hours over the next one and a half days and finally, after the shop is closed, we give away the remainder to a charity and second hand store then clean up and restore the gym to it's former state. It's a huge job that runs remarkably smoothly because we do it the same way every time, twice a year.

My view from behind the "register" before
the customers turned up.

I get people overload. One day I came home and hid in my bedroom for a while till I'd calmed down. On Friday in the middle of the day I "hid" in the workers room for a bit too. It induces visual overload and decision overload. 

Dust overload too! Many workers wear masks because they struggle with the dustiness. I'm okay, but my eyes were gritty by the end of the day and nose a bit itchy. I cleaned my glasses on Thursday at lunchtime and just a few hours later they were covered in dust again.

On Saturday I worked on the registers for four hours, about two hours in I was struggling with a furry head (possible headache plus fatigue) and then a stomach ache. It truly is exhausting. This morning I really struggled to wake up.

But it's worth it

However, despite all this, I continue to do this. There are a couple of reasons:

I laughed with a Japanese lady from church over these tags off things
she was buying. Most things are tagged with just a price and a PTA
number, but this artistic seller created art on hers. What was even more
special was that I got to have a conversation with someone I don't normally
connect with.

• It is a great way that I can support the school within the job that I do. My schedule is more flexible than many people's so I can make the time to do this. But it also is a job that only happens twice a year, so the commitment isn't so big that it stops me taking on other things. For most of fifty weeks in a year I can forget that I do this job.

• It is one of the key ways I've gotten to know people at school. I look at a number of friends that I have and realise that Thrift Shop was where I either first met them, or took big steps towards knowing them better. Working alongside people is a much less awkward way to get to know people, especially when there are cultural barriers. When I walked in on the first day to start work last week I was greeted like a long-lost friend by the key people who I do this with each time. Friendship is so important in sustaining us, and volunteering at Thrift Shop is a key way to invest in other people.

Another reason that I don't mind being on the Thrift Shop committee is that it gives me a defined job to do. I find that easier to manage, especially at the big set-up and take-down times.

Thrift Shop bargains

I've been away, buried amidst mounds of second-hand clothes and other things in the school's gym for the last four days. It was wonderful to take the scenic route home from church on my bike this morning with blue skies above and to see colourful flowers bursting forth all over the place. Truly a lovely sight after being in that dusty gym for four days!
I continue to be told that people love to see my posts about some of our acquisitions from Thrift Shop. Tomorrow I might have my head together enough to write a more reflective post. So here goes:


This boy, our youngest, is a genius at finding amazing things at Thrift Shop, especially brand name clothes (he's the only one of our three that has picked up that there are such things). The first photos are of some of his (better) finds.

Traditionally the middle school youth group that meets on Sunday afternoons has a "Thrift Shop find" costume competition the day after Thrift Shop. This Luiji costume is almost too small, but it did the trick.

A decorative boat (not one of his best finds) and some stretchy,  reusable textbook covers (they are required to cover the textbooks they borrow from the school).

He found an Under Armour jacket (and a t-shirt too), plus a sports bag to carry his gear for meets.

Another t-shirt. Up until recently our youngest is the only one who's been interested in clothes shopping.

This is a multi-game that he also found. I put my slipper next to it so you can see the scale. There are plastic inserts so that you can play nine other games, such as basketball, air hockey, darts. Both our youngest have been enjoying this.

More water bottles, also good sporting gear.

Our eldest surprised us this time by being keen to buy clothes, especially clothes that he's avoided in the past: jeans and button up shirts. He worked hard to find jeans. Not easy, as his figure around the waist isn't quite as skinny as many young men his age because of six years of wrestling.

Here are some shirts he found.

And the first of purchases that herald a boy who will move to Australia next year.

And books, his standard Thrift Shop purchase.

I found this book for the philosopher of the family, our middle son. The one who is always asking difficult questions.

Of course there is always food purchased at Thrift Shop. These are some kind of sweet cinnamon-flavoured roll. Not looking so pretty, but were tasty enough.

There were freebies: acquired during the free shopping time after the shop closed and prior to cleaning the gym out yesterday afternoon. New Ikea Christmas decorations and more tinsel for our sizeable Thrift Shop tree.

I found a new lunch box for our youngest son who is very hard wearing on lunch boxes. I thought the Gekko was a nice touch.

Two DVDs also found during free shopping time.

I've got a few bags of wool collecting in my crafting corner, gathering from my earlier enthusiasm to try out crochet. I'm no longer really pursuing crochet and wondering what to do with the wool. Here's one idea, try weaving. But looms are very expensive. This was a cheap plastic one for kids that I found and can try out.

Our camping trips has fuelled an interest in me in Japanese geography, especially learning different prefectures and places. So I'd been thinking for a while that a kids puzzle with Japanese prefectures would be a good learning tool. Now I'll need to learn to recognise the kanji (complicated characters) to go with the prefectures.

A fun jigsaw for holidays.

I found some books for me too, this is one of my favourite authors.

Thrift Shop is a fun place to pick up cheap jewellery. Here are some earrings I bought for about 60 cents. I'm not sure I'll wear all of them. The colour of this photo isn't good

A covering for an umbrella handle to help prevent your umbrella being mistaken for someone elses (a common problem at school). I'm not sure that anyone wants it, though.

More jewellery, Christmas earrings, gold chain earrings, and a green necklace, that I've already worn.

This was my most unexpected purchase. This amazing obi cost—the wide sash worn around the waist of a kimono. My flash of inspiration was to decorate my house with this, perhaps by hanging it in our entry.

It is quite long, though, four metres! And 1.2kg. Those elaborate kimonos aren't light. And it only cost 350 yen (AU$4.25).

Thrift shop fun

Here is my traditional post-Thrift shop post about some of the things we found to buy. At the end I've added some things I didn't buy, but were fun anyway.

Actually we didn't acquire as much as we might usually. Part of that is due to our kids getting older (most of the toys aren't so appealing), part is due to none of us being present during the "free shopping" time after Thrift Shop and just before packing up.

But we did find some useful stuff (which really should be the aim).

These aren't useful so much as whimsical. They've moved onto the window shelf in our downstairs toilet. The boys were mystified as to their purpose, but I explained that it was just a touch of decorating (something I haven't done a lot of in this house aside from pictures on the wall).

This has an amazing story. Literally the night before Thrift Shop our stick blender broke and I picked this up the next day for a pittance!

Already stowed on a high shelf—a puzzle for the Christmas break.

A pile I found in the corner of some things that our eldest bought. Seems as though he's planning to teach himself piano?

A picture frame for a certain graduation photo that's been lying around.

This was another huge bargain. Priced at something like 3,000 or more yen on Amazon, I bought a camera for our youngest son for 500 yen (AU$5.64). He's developed a recent interest in photography, what a great way to test and develop that interest!

That same lad explicitly told us what clothes he wanted, but not to buy them without his approval. Well, I didn't have a chance to get his approval on these before I bought them, but I scored approval later.

I found a new single self-inflating mat for camping. Practically new!

These I got for free in the five minutes of free shopping I had on Saturday. Three "new" shirts for winter. Skivvies are my staple clothing throughout the cold months of winter in Tokyo, I'm stoked.

Our eldest son bought this outfit (plus a "Sven" moose hat) for a dress up event at the middle school youth group he's a leader at! The boys could hardly stop laughing when he tried it on on Saturday night.

Our youngest son's purchases
Typically he found a brand name shirt!

This he bought for the family. I don't know how useful it will be...

Add this was his youth group dress up costume, complete with a leery wig and oversized sunglasses.

He also found Adidas pants!

This boy loves loud colours. Love the words on this.

And yet another shirt...

He's decided recently to collect key rings and Thrift Shop was a great place for finding them.

This kid is an artist and found some nice tools.

In case you're wondering, as far as I know our middle son didn't step inside the gym throughout the entire span of Thrift Shop. Too many people...hates shopping...and then he got a cold. But I did find him an insulated mug for hot chocolate consumption while camping (and any other time he might wish to use it).

Fun

The fun to be had at Thrift Shop is not just buying things cheaply, but having fun with people, particularly when you volunteer for hours and hours it's great to insert some fun into the time.  I enjoyed "modelling" a couple of fun hats on the two preparation days, call me an informal "moral booster" if you like.

Jessie from Toy Story. I wore her hat much of Thursday...it's been a long time since I've had a pigtail this long. It caused a little bit of an internal dilemma, though, when I had to go over to the school's business office to do some photocopying...should I wear it or take it off? I ended up wearing it over and got some giggles over there too.

These are the tireless workers of the Thrift Shop committee. Of course there were many other volunteers, but these are the ones who held most of the responsibility over the 4 ½ days we were in operation.

Thrift Shop Friday

Even tireder tonight but let's see how I go. Friday is my favourite day in the 4 1/2 days of Thrift Shop (including set-up and take-down, we actually only open for sales for 10 hours over two days unless you volunteer for more than four hours than you get to shop during the set-up days). But Friday has a pleasant community feel. Only PTA members can shop and it has a delightful carnival flavour. 

I took these two photos at 2pm, after the lunch rush. It was a perfect sunny spring day. The courtyard area provided mottled sunlight under a mixture of Sakura blossoms and vibrant green leaves.

 It was wonderful to stand to one side of the busyness for a short while while I ate some cherry pie and ice cream (fundraiser for our son's senior class ministry trip to Thailand next year). You can see there are various groups of people chatting, this is the hallmark of Thrift Shop Friday. It's a great opportunity for many missionaries who rarely get the opportunity to see one another to spend time together. I was very much on the business end of running the event inside the gym for most of the day, but the pace was mostly gentle and there were many conversations. 

School only goes till 12 on Thrift Shop Friday, then the kids come in to shop too. Many of them really look forward to this. 

Here we have some high schoolers who lead a middle school youth group trying on gear for their traditional post-Thrift Shop dress-up youth group on Sunday. You can see how much this event is part of the fabric of the lives of so many in the international community here, it's not just about raising money. 

One of our high school son's best friends. It took me a few moments to recognise him!

This is an interesting Japan-Western hybrid. Is there anywhere else in the world that Taco Rice is a dish? It has all the fixings for a taco plus crumbled taco shells or corn chips on top of rice. My lunch. Yum!  

Our eldest son unsuccessfully hiding from the camera. He, along with many of his classmates, were hard at work manning food stalls to raise money for their class ministry trip to Thailand next year. And no, his nose wasn't touching the sausages. 

Tomorrow is the business end of Thrift Shop as the local community invades our gym. It can be very intense. I'm a checkout chick for the whole four hours we're open and usually speak a lot of Japanese during that time. Then we get some free shopping on what's left (those who are staying for cleanup). After that we clear out the gym and put all the hardware away until we do it all over again in October!