Saturday, August 11th marked the Second Annual Resale Trail! We rose at 6:30 am and departed at 7 armed with a positive, adventurous attitude, a list of things for our apartment, and our friends: Jaron, Nicole, and Mara. We had good feelings, but no clue how great it would actually be. We were ready for anything.
This year, the sale included six vendors:
Hoosier to Hoosier - the H2H is an annual sale put on by Indiana University. Each year hundreds of thousands of things get left by students, and a lot of it is new or barely used. Desks, chairs, bookshelves, office supplies, clothes, shoes, you name it and you can probably find it there (like a paintball gun!) and it is all pretty darn cheap. It is so awesome they charge $5 admission before 9am because all the good stuff goes so quickly. We found a ton of stuff to cross off our list while also managing to keep focused and not unnecessary things (I didn't even look at clothes).
Unitarian Universalist Church garage sale -The next place on our list was a really good church garage sale just down the road from H2H. It had a very different feel. We found decorative containers to store beans and pasta, but Mara really made out with an adorable chest of drawers made to look like stacked luggage. She was even able to talk them down from $45 to $25!
Vintage Vogue (or AZ Vintage) - We didn't go to Vintage Vogue, the official Resale Trail stop, because we didn't want to tempt ourselves with clothes (Vintage Vogue is a branch of Goodwill, but with ... higher quality stuff?), but we did feel it was essential to expose Mara to our favorite store in Bloomington because she enjoys thrifting and vintage. Plus we are like super BFFs with the owner, Alison, Bloomington Bagel was next door and we need food like woah, and the farmer's market was hippity hoppitin' on the same block. Mara got an adorable dress and I may have gotten some freelance sewing work helping Alison alter/fix her vintage finds for the store, which has been my dream since the store opened in February.
Discardia - From AZ we walked along the B-line trail (a walk/jog/bike path that leads through Bloomington) to get to a brand new consignment/upcycle store called Discardia. It was a beautiful day and the walk was gorgeous.
The store wasn't my favorite but the building was adorable and they had the coolest window shades made from old picture slides the owner found behind the Salvation Army building.
Habitat for Humanity Restore - The Restore was probably the biggest surprise because we had no idea what to expect, but it is awesome! The Restore "accepts donations of new and gently-used building materials and household goods, sells those items to the public at a fraction of the retail prices, and uses the proceeds to achieve Habitat’s mission to build homes, communities, and hope." We didn't get anything that time around but later in the week we went back to get office chairs and a collapsible bookshelf. We were also inspired by the doors for a future bed headboard project!
IU Surplus Store - Our sixth and final stop was close to our apartment. We were actually introduced to this place by our new friend, Zilia, and we'd stopped in almost immediately. It is a strange place filled with old desks, chairs, bookshelves, filing cabinets, lockers, and other various things that IU replaced with newer versions. The building is also home to scenery from the Opera and Theatre. I wasn't super impressed during our first visit as we walked through aisles of old school stuff - it was frankly a little creepy. This time, however, I found it to be rather charming and we found a great desk and filing cabinet that together were cheaper than the desk we'd found at the H2H.
When all was said and done, we got everything for under $150! All that was left to get were the desk chairs and bookshelf that we ended up getting a couple days later, and a rack for our pots and pans. But that is another adventure for another post.
Our spoils: missing is the filing cabinet and rolling chair mat. Included are the four stack-able storage units in the back of the picture. I mean, we did super good, if I do say so myself.
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