Treasure Chest Goodwill

Daughter Cindy went shopping yesterday at what she calls the "Treasure Chest Goodwill" on Milwaukee SE Portland area. It is a special clearance center for Goodwill where they sell all items by the pound.

The real trick is that the more pounds you get the cheaper it is. Cindy says the big cut is at 50 pounds. If you only get 49 pounds they are $1.00 per pound and once you are over 50 pounds it drops to 49 cents per pound. She usually takes other shoppers with her to combine volumes to make sure she goes over the 50 pound "break point". She told the story of one day adding a bowling ball to her cart to get her over the 50 pound mark and thereby overall paying less money. After she got through the checkstand she just donated the ball back to them. Yes, my daughter is one shrewd bargain hunter.

Yesterday she explained to 8 year old Sharey that they were on a special mission for Grandma to find clothes to take to the orphans in Vietnam. Shareya was a great help scouting out the bins and bins of clothes and they found lots of great "stuff". I am anxious to go there myself and see what "treasures" I can find. Right now, before I purchase any more I am awaiting some direction from our travel group leader. He has been on several trips to Vietnam and will know more what is needed as far as age groups, sizes, etc.

I have analyzed the baggage allowances on both airlines we are traveling (United and EVA) to make sure I max them out when we go. Both limit to 2 bags per passenger but United says not to exceed 50 pounds per bag, EVA allows 70. I have a phone number for United Airlines charitable causes/donations department. I am going to call them on Monday with two purposes, get them to match the 70 pound allowance that EVA gives us and then also see if there is a possibility they will waive their normal $80 fee for a third bag...in consideration of what we are trying to do...taking school supplies and clothing for the orphanages and schools over there. EVA charges $109 for an extra bag and they said that was not negotiable. So potentially it could cost us $189 to take an extra bag....and I had in mind each of us taking one...WOW, we will have to give that some thought and keep our fingers crossed that I can at least get United to "budge".

Gary was concerned that we already had far too much stuff. It looks like a lot when we listed it out for the group organizer but most of it is relatively small (pencils, erasers, rulers, sharpeners, hot wheel cars, toothbrushes, crayons, scissors, girl's hair clips, combs, and a few bears-of course!) So we weighed a large plastic trash bag, put a liner in it, filled with stuff and weighed it again. Good news, we have less than 50 pounds so far!

My heart is so big for this cause and I am really getting into this...do you think anyone would notice if I only took one outfit and wore it the whole time...maybe just take some extra undies...they don't take too much room. Thank goodness at least I wear smaller clothes now...that helps a little! Somehow, as I am thinking about it right now...um does it make sense for me to have an extra outfit to wear there or would it make more sense to be able in place of that to take an extra say 4 outfits for an orphan to wear over and over again and pass on to others as they grow out of them.

Boy, that is going to have me looking differently at everything I pack for us to use there! Maybe I could wear my couple changes of clothes in layers on the way over to make more room in my suitcase??? That could be pretty inconvenient when I need to use the restroom but some people will do anything for charity. I remember one of my best friends in Port Angeles used to put on a Turkey suit and parade up and down the highway each year to raise funds for the needy...what am I willing to do??? I guess we will see.