Habitat ReStore New Castle County now selling on eBay

Often the ReStore gets in items that are difficult to sell in the store. These items are not the kind of thing our customers usually purchase. In order to reach a wider audience we have begun selling on eBay. For sometime we have been accumulating items that we think may sell better through eBay.

Since we have only started we have sold just one item this way. A Jacoby Ellsbury bobblehead doll sold last week. Among the items we will be selling in the future are lineman gloves. We have a few pairs in the store. These gloves are designed to protect against electrical shock. We don't tend to get linemen in the store so we would not be able to sell them here. Our next item for sale will be a pair of pegs for a Honda motorcycle.
This type of items is specialized enough that it is unlikely a Honda rider needing grips will happen to come in the store. Selling on eBay should greatly increase our chances of finding the right customer for these kind of items.



We will be announcing items on Twitter as we put them on sale. Please watch for us on eBay, habitatnccrestore, or our Twitter page, @HfHReStoreNCC, to see what we have for sale.

ReStore is hiring

The ReStore is, once again, in need of a part-time driver/assistant. The position is Tuesday-Friday from 9am-2pm. The person in this position will assist with pick-ups of donations using the ReStore truck as well as helping out in the store as needed.

The job requires a valid driver's license and the ability to do heavy lifting. Anyone interested in the position can contact the ReStore Manager, Joe Robertson, at jrobertson@habitatncc.org or (302) 652-5181.

Habitat ReStore preparing for Christmas

The ReStore has been decorated for Christmas. All of the holiday decorations are available for purchase. We have a number of items in the store now and usually get more items as we get closer to holiday. Items tend to sell fast also so the turnover happens very quick.

What is in the store at any time changes but we usually have a wide variety of decorations available. Lights, wreaths, lawn ornaments, artificial trees, and tree ornaments are almost always in stock until just after Christmas. Since we don't want to store a lot of items throughout the year we try to price things to sell fast.

Sobieski donates warehouse full of home improvement items

Sobieski Inc. recently contacted the Habitat ReStore to offer a huge donation. A warehouse in Elsmere owned by Sobieski was filled with doors, windows, cabinets and other home remodeling items. The ReStore could take everything we wanted out of the warehouse. This past Saturday we were at the warehouse and cleared out enough items to fill our ReStore truck and three trailers. Some doors, windows, and cabinets from this donation are on the sales floor now. More items will be taken from the trailers and put on the sales floor as room permits.

The Habitat for Humanity Chapter at the University of Delaware provided nine volunteers for the day. A group of ten Americorps volunteers came over from one of the construction sites at 1pm. They were a big help; especially with the large windows and the doors with sidelights. The Americorps group also went back with us to the Restore and helped unload the truck. Without the help of all these young volunteers we would have had to leave thousands of dollars of saleable items behind and these items would have become landfill.

Halloween decoration ideas at the ReStore

While the majority of our shoppers are buying home improvement items for the originally intended use we do get many creative people who come up with artistic things to do with items in the store. Beth, one of our regular volunteers, saw an article about using hardware to decorate pumpkins. She came up with the Jack O'Lantern pictured.

The pumpkin itself is made of styrofoam. For the eyes and mouth Beth used screws and nails, The hair is made of wire. A drawer pull is used for the nose and a piece of duct work became a hat.

We do not sell the pumpkins or the ReStore t-shirts but hardware, lumber, gloves, and wires are available in the store. The items used for the Jack O'Lantern Beth made would cost about $5.

If anyone has made creative use of items purchased at the New Castle County ReStore please send us pictures. We would enjoy showing off your creativity and giving our customers new ideas.

Door and Window Donation from P. J. Fitzpatrick

The ReStore has received a large donation of new doors and windows from P. J. Fitzpatrick. Not only did P. J. Fitzpatrick make this generous donation but also brought the items to the store and unloaded all of it into our receiving area.

We need to measure and price all of them before making them available on the sales floor. Due to the size of the donation, sorting through all of the doors and windows will take some time but we should have some of the windows available by the end of the day Friday (9/2). The doors should be on the sales floor early next week.

P.J. Fitzpatrick is a leading home remodeler specializing in replacement, installation and repair of windows, doors, siding, roofing, gutters, and insulation. The company has locations in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

Saying goodbye to two volunteers

Earlier this month our Lutheran Volunteer Corps member ended his year of service and one of our regular volunteers moved to North Carolina. Both will be greatly missed at the ReStore. We are very fortunate to have had them for the time they were here.

Chris Simon was willing and able to help in anyway he was asked. Most days he was on the truck picking up donatios for the first few hours of the day. While in the store in the afternoons Chris was a great asset with any computer question that might arise in the office. He set up this blog and put together a video that we now show on a flatscreen near the store register. Chris also helped set up our facebook page and twitter account. Most of the improvements to the ReStore website during this past year were done by Chris. The few changes that I made were a result of learning from Chris how to make those changes.

Alan started volunteering with us while searching for work. Having been in sales his whole life he was great with customers. Alan seemed to have an infinite amount of patience. He would happily spend a significant amount of time with a customer who wanted to go through every door in the store or every can of paint to, possibly, find the right one.

Alan was also a great help at offsite events that we attended. In trying to promote the store we go to many events such as the Delaware Home Show or to flea markets in the area. Alan's knack for starting a conversation with anyone was just what we needed at these events. He could draw people into a discussion of the store when those people were probably just going to pass right by us.

Chris will be getting his Master's degree in music. It seems unneccesary to wish him good luck. I can't imagine Chris not succeeding in anything he wants to accomplish.

Alan plans to volunteer with the Habitat where he is living now. They will soon wonder, as we do, how they got along without him.