During my time off at the end of 2014 I did a good deal of purging, cleaning and reorganizing around the house. I eliminated many unnecessary, outdated, or too small/big clothes as well as many household items. It felt good to empty the closets and make room for new things. Another big push was eliminating paper unless imperative to keep originals leading to a lot of scanning and shredding. With all that going on I had piles of trash bags and donations to Savers to take away.
Once done I was able to finally look around my place and notice a few things that I either didn’t like or was missing. I figured I’d make a trip to Homegoods and see what might strike my fancy and make the return trip home with me.
The first section of the store was occasional furniture. They have some of the most unique and unusual items but I don’t have any room for any furniture so I tried to pass by. One item that caught my attention and drew me in was an office desk made of aluminum and looked like a vintage airplane wing. It wasn’t functional with all the rivets and would require a piece of glass cut but as cool as it was I didn’t need it so I pushed forward.
As I explored the abyss of home decor products the lighting section caught my eye. They had a pair of really cool Drexel Heritage desk lamps in the same George Kovacs Arc style as the lamp I had purchased to go next to my Eames Lounge Chair. One thing that has always annoyed me was the lack of light on my desk and this pair would certainly add light. At $49.99 a piece into the cart they went.
Next I set my sights on the center of the store where they have everything from floral arrangements to small decorative items. Some of the floral arrangements looked so believably real I just had to pick one up. I settled on two different arrangements. The first a small vase with 5 white roses and I thought it would be a perfect fit for the bathroom. At $24.99 why not do it and be able to claim my bathroom always smells like roses. I also set my sights on a large bouquet of peonies, roses and other flowers that I thought
would be a perfect fit for the coffee table. Big enough to be seen but not too big that the table is lost. I was in luck here since it had two price tags on it. One tag said $99.99 stuffed inside it and the other stuck on the outside very visible was $29.99. Not sure why it had two but I definitely wanted it at the $29.99 price and so into the cart it went.
I decided that it was time to check out and started making my way to the registers but not without one final stop by the clearance section. Strangely they had a pretty fantastic boat model of a vintage single mast sailboat with its stand. It was an imposing model and was easily 3 feet in length. Its front bowsprit was loose but looked like it just needed its screws tightened and was marked down from $99.99 to $29.99. I wasn’t going to pass on this model and into the cart it went alongside the lights and flowers.
As I made my way to the door the overflowing isles of goods kept me moving at a slow pace and one final item on an end cap had to be taken home. To be fair it was a pair of items. I have long has a fascination with Foo Dogs and they had a matched pair of Foo Dogs in a bluish green glaze with pretty awesome detail. Sadly they were $49.99 each. So another $100 if they were to make the trip home. I hesitated and looked at them for a good long time before deciding I would be angry at myself if I didn’t buy them. I wasn’t sure where they would go but I could always return them if I decided they just weren’t the right fit for my home.
While checking out I watched as the register total climbed to a final total of $284.93. That’s a lot of items for the cost. When I got home I immediately did some research on the items I bought.
The Sailboat is from Authentic Models and retails for $269.99 so at $29.99 I saved 89%. The Foo Dogs I discovered retail for $195 each at a local furniture store so a savings of 75% off. The lights were another great deal retailing for $350 a piece saving 86%. The floral arrangements had no definitive marking or maker so I wasn’t able to locate an exact match but a smaller arrangement of peonies on overstock.com was $189.00 so I can only assume at $29.99 I saves at least 84%. The roses I found another similar arrangement for $69.99 of similar quality for a 65% savings. Total retail cost of my purchases $1,618.98 for 284.93 for a savings of roughly 83%
