Oh so tidy!

Garage sales are interesting and can offer untold bargains.  Garage sales are slightly addictive! 

For some untold reason visits to a certain craft store mean that fabrics fall into my shopping trolley.  [These trolleys line up in anticipation outside the store door; all that is required is that the shopper uses a $2 to unlock the holding chain ... a $2 coin is always available in the little purse that lives in the depths of my handbag.]

Of course these essential purchases multiply; after all some fabrics are chosen for their delightful colour/pattern with no particular project in mind.  Frequently when a project does present itself the 'stash' of fabric simply does not extend to the particular colour necessary for its completion, which in turn means another trip to the store.

Over a period of two, or is it three, years my fabric stash has grown ... almost faster than a mushroom farm.  The number of plastic boxes required to accommodate this material began to take over the space in our small home.  A solution was required, but what?

Yesterday we attended two garage sales.  The first had nothing of particular interest on the tables though we did manage to spend the princely sum of 60c on three items; a CD holder, a leather wallet and an ice bucket, none of which we needed but thought might come in handy one day. 

Garage sale number two yielded a real treasure.  Lined up against the wall were several large pieces of furniture: a huge metal filing cabinet that would have easily graced the wall of a modern office, a wardrobe with drawers beneath ... painted white with garish blue trim, a couple of sets of drawers, and at the end stood what at first glance looked like a two-door wardrobe.  I opened the doors and instead of a rail for hangers it sported rows of shelves.  Mmmm ... I wonder?  I looked around at what else was on offer ... a huge bundle of books by an author I have never heard of, and by the speed the stack was going down no one else had either, a microwave ... we have a perfectly good one, a wok, and other interesting kitchen equipment with reasonable price stickers attached.

The cupboard with the shelves still beckoned.  I wandered back again and Significant Other, noticing my attraction helped with the sales talk!  [He likes buying from garage sales ... hence the three not really needed items at the previous one.]  I decided!  A deal was made and S.O. brought the vehicle closer to enable easy loading.

Once home we manouvered the cupboards into place [not easy on a hot morning when the temperature already sat above 30°C and rising].  Several hours later all the fabric and other bits and pieces essential to anyone seriously engaged in using fabric were transferred.  Empty plastic containers now need a new home!

There is one downside to this tale.  Already the cupboard is full [one could almost say overflowing] which makes the immediate purchase of more absolutely essential fabric null and void!