Tossed and Found: Where Frugal is Chic
Tossed and Found: Where Frugal is Chic
Author: Barb Tobias
www.thrifttalkdiva.com
Reviewed by: Anne Holmes for the NABBW
Who hasn’t been to – or held — a garage sale? In the United States, they are a spring and summer tradition. They’re usually homespun events held on the weekends, with the homeowners merchandise laid out on tables in a yard, under a tent, or literally in a garage…
Sometimes whole neighborhoods will get into the act, banding together to hold a much larger sale with the hopes of attracting more buyers – and ending up with more profits for all involved.
Personally, I’ve attended only a handful of these sales, and held two of my own, both of which were only marginally successful. So before reading this book, I \’d never really considered thrifting as anything more than light summer entertainment.
This even though I used to have a neighbor who held monthly garage sales. Observing her, I realized that she couldn’t possibly be limiting herself to merely selling her personal cast-offs – she’d actually turned garage sale-ing into a backyard business. But I still didn\’t see the big picture…
In Tossed & Found, Barb Tobias takes you on an amazing journey, sharing tales of treasure; revealing how to clear the clutter from your home and resell it; and uncovering the secrets to decorating and dressing on the cheap — with fantastic results.
Whether you’re a transitioning Baby Boomer or a college student trying to figure out how to furnish your first apartment, you’ll find help in this book which is chock full of photos, lists and tips.
- You\’ll learn the differences between garage sales, estate sales, tag sales and demolition sales
- Not to mention discovering how to master buying and selling via flea markets, auctions, consignment stores, swap meets, thrift store chains, and eBay
- You\’ll find out how to use Craig\’s list and other online services to promote your sale
- And how to earn big bucks holding the best garage sale ever. (Hint: Barb calls her garage sales “Diva Sales,” and she treats all her customers accordingly.)
Best of all, Tobias shares how she’s learned to:
- Decorate a home in a manner that is worthy of a fashion mag layout –at little or no cost
- Build a fabulous wardrobe of designer duds – all purchased for a fraction of their original price
- Develop a system for selling unwanted items – fast
- Stage money-making Diva Sales that turn unwanted items into cash – and
- Live like royalty on a pauper’s budget
In Tossed and Found, author Tobias dishes up a generous plate of intriguing stories pulled from the frugal adventures of a newly thrift-conscious nation, and shows the adventurous reader how to find the treasures beneath the tarnish. Highly recommended.