You complete me: Matchmaking at Goodwill

I find that looking for Goodwill finds can be broken down into three categories.

First are the sought-afters: I’d like to replace a deck chair or two. I collect Candlewick dishware. I’m redoing a bedroom and will need a new lamp.

I always have my eyes peeled for the sought-afters when I scour the aisles of the Goodwill stores I frequent. Fair warning: Arguably the best part of Goodwill shopping, finding a sought-after is both brilliant and dispiriting at the same time. It’s best to always have another seek-out idea in your back pocket and always maintain a robust sought-after list to keep the thrill-of-the-hunt sizzling.

Next are the delights: Delights might be things you never thought you’d see. Like some oddball thing you can’t imagine dropping off for donation because who in their right mind would want it? (Someone always does, BTW. See previous blog regarding seashell collection in a chocolate covered raisin tub.) Delights can also be things that bring back memories. Like the tattered Mystery Date board game, or the ceramic hobo toothpick holder just like my grandmother helped me make.

No question, delights are be the best part of Goodwill shopping.

And then there’re the unsullied hole-fillers: The answers to questions you never knew you had. The missing piece you never knew was missing. The thing that makes the whole so much grander than its parts.

Unsullied hole-fillers can whack you in the head at any time with the perfect thing you never knew existed, and yet it perfectly fills a hole that opens up the moment you see it.

I never knew there was more to the set, but I found a little brown bowl that matches a brown ceramic serving tray I’ve had for many years. The bowl completes an ensemble that opens up a whole new list of things to serve: Now I can add olives to a cheese tray, salsa to a plate of chips, or even soy sauce packs to a tray of sushi rolls. Suddenly the brown tray with matching bowl is complete, and now my first-in-line go-to.

My Jerry McGuire found a Dorothy Boyd.

Unsullied hole-fillers: The best part of Goodwill shopping.

I use my brown rectangular tray for almost every party. But it was never anything too special until I found a matching bowl. The $1.99 add opens up a whole new world of hors d’oeuvres that will work on on the set: Salsa and chips, dip and crackers, even soy sauce packets in a weak stretch.