Finding Some Gratitude for Dirt Cheap

Literally finding gratitude at Dirt Cheap!

If you were to ask me to plan my ideal day, it would most definitely, without question, include some bargain hunting. Nothing gets me going like the thrill of the hunt! And I’m pretty non-discriminating when it comes to methods. Coupons, negotiating, thrift stores, surplus stores, price matching- I’ll take it any way I can get it! But of all my strategies for finding a good deal, one rises above the rest: Dirt Cheap.

If you've never been to Dirt Cheap, allow me to give you some context. Dirt Cheap buys surplus goods from retailers, and allows consumers to purchase goods at a significant discount. Perhaps you are familiar with stores of this ilk. There are numerous retail chains of this nature. But I cannot emphasize enough that Dirt Cheap is a different bird all together. You won’t encounter organized shelving with impressive end caps or clothing racks arranged according to color and size. Nay, Dirt Cheap is like the Island of Misfit Toys! Mountains of broken, battered, and seemingly useless items. A saltshaker with no mate. A mason jar with no lid. A chair with no legs.

Some of my fav Dirt Cheap finds! Clockwise from top: Chicken footed home decor that was too weird for me to pass up. A t-shirt featuring a bear dressed as Mike Ditka. A funky hanging planter for some succulents that I will DEFINITELY keep alive. A diaper bag that I found for $100 off!

Shopping at Dirt Cheap requires careful maneuvering, concentrated effort and unyielding perseverance. It is no task for the faint of heart. Imagine, if you will, a lone shopper. She has spent hours pilfering though the mounds and meandering through aisles, wishing, hoping, praying that the item that she needs is somewhere to be found. She unassumingly approaches a shelf. She examines the home goods, school supplies and bottles of motor oil, scattered about in disarray. And then, like the sweet calls of the of Sirens to Ulysses, like a beacon in the darkest of nights, her eyes are met with the desire of her heart…a cool mist humidifier, 80% off. She examines the packaging. Unopened. Unbattered. She surveys the store, subtly yet intentionally peering into the carts of others. As far as the eye can see, she is first and only to discover such a gem! She clings tightly to the box, rejoicing silently, “Blessed am I among shoppers for having found this treasure beyond compare!”

I know what you are thinking. Sounds hyperbolic, right? IT’S NOT! It’s a natural high like no other! It’s true that the same goal can be accomplished much more efficiently. One could simply walk into Target, utilize the in-app map to locate the cool-mist humidifier, grab it, check-out and be on her merry way. But there is something truly amazing about the Dirt Cheap process. It is the act of finding something so gloriously amazing among a pile of refuse that makes the experience exponentially more rewarding!

Here’s the way I see it. When we walk into Dirt Cheap, we have two options:

1. We can observe all the broken, stained and tattered items surrounding us. We can allow ourselves to be overwhelmed with all the bad, surrender to this mindset, and head out the door.

2. Or, we take a chance. We cling tightly to our hope, trudge our way through the ugly and set our sights on greater things. It’s a risk, granted. But a risk worth taking when we find our reward!

You see where I’m going, right? We have these options in our daily lives as well! We often feel overwhelmed and overstimulated by all the bad, ugly and useless. It’s easy to look around our environment and notice what is broken and damaged. The world has no lack of such things! In fact, our brains are primed to look for threats to our happiness and well-being. Our minds prompt us to be hyper-vigilant, ruminating on unhelpful thoughts or problems. But this, my friends, is where we have a really amazing opportunity. Every day we have a new chance to set our intentions towards gratitude. We can actively choose to wade through the junk and change the focus of our heart.

Look for the blessings, friends. On some days, they will be harder to find but seek them out none the less. When we make this our daily intention, we begin to shift the sands of our mental processes. The dark, the ugly and the hurt will still be there. But the good, the lovely and the true will become increasingly evident.