Salvation Army - Lytton Springs Road - Healdsburg
Yesterday after Keiran and I dropped off my parents at the Santa Rosa Airport for their journey home to Seattle, we carried on north to a place that we call Thrift Land.
The Lytton Spring Road Salvation Army is an Adult Rehabilitation Center. It also is the largest thrifting center that I've ever come across. You can spend all day there moving from one building to the next.
The building above was built around 1921 and originally was an orphanage for children. You can see a vintage photo of the building here.
Below are three very large covered areas on the left which is where items go before they head to the dumpster. Broken, rejected and unsold items will head there. I tend to find the best finds there. It's my favorite spot in all of Thrift Land.
There's a gentleman that walks around the area with a small receipt book. He'll look in your shopping cart and give you a price. My cart yesterday included a vintage trunk, vintage Risk game pieces, wooden hangers, vintage Mikasa mugs, an envelope with unused stamps (42¢), some greeting cards, a 1940's scale and a few other things. He charged me $10.00 for all.
To the south of Thrift Land you'll find a small building with a snack bar, tables to enjoy your food and shelves of household items like glasses, dishes, appliances, knives, games and knickknacks.
The two tents below are the unsold clothing racks. Yesterday everything there was $1 each and buy one get one free. I usually can find some wool and cashmere sweaters to craft with but yesterday the clothes were pretty picked over.
The boats in front of the tents are also for sale.
The building on the left concists of their better furniture, CDs, DVDs, VHS, lamps and stereos. I never seem to find anything there but we check it out just in case.
The building on the right is called Sally's Attic and it's supposed to be the best of all of Thrift Land. Higher end clothing, pottery, china, jewelry and a few pieces of furniture.
The small Shed like building in the middle (you can just see the red roof line) is filled with worn but still nice furniture. I bought my mid century modern hutch there. They nearly always have that area on sale. Yesterday all furniture there was 50% off.
The white overhang which is in front of the small shed and Sally's Attic is the last chance furniture or over sized furniture. They are rather junky but there are still deals to be found on furniture that needs some TLC.
This is one of the largest buildings and is next to the Snack Bar. Our front they have milk crates full of books.
Below are the women's clothing and shoes with a little section for children. I took this photo from upstairs in their men's section and book area.
Bins and bins fill the outside yard sale area. Next stop for these items is the dumpster. Luckily by the time everyone goes through them there isn't much left except for broken items. It's wonderful that they give second hand items every chance to be purchased.
A sample of what you might find in a bin.
This was our find of the day. It's an old trunk that I purchased. I'm guessing he charged me around $5 for it since my entire cart was $10.
It it didn't have this decal on it, I probably would have left it.
When I opened it up I was delighted to see three keys to the lock and a large inner tray. It stinks of moth balls and will need some airing out but it is beautiful.
I never come away from Thrift Land with an entire car full of items (except for the Hutch purchase) but I always arrive home having had a great day there. I'd rather spend the day there than at the mall. Some of the online comments about the center mention negative views of the men who work there. I've only experienced very kind and warm people there. When I had to load my hutch they were very friendly and helpful in getting this large piece of furniture into my van.
Do you have a favorite Thrift center like this?
