Buyer Beware> I have bought items from Goodwill off and on for the past few years. We didn't have a store close by. One thing you need to check is the outrageous shipping charges and handling charges. I saw a lovely metal vintage style tea pot I would love to have....bid 3.00 reasonable............shipping 10.00........handling.....2.00. Hmmmmmmmmmm tea pot not so attractive at 15.00 and that's if you get it for the 3.00 bid. I love looking thru all the items Goodwill has but some of their shipping rates are way out of line. All these items are donated and I know for a fact it doesn't cost 10.00 to ship one tea pot. Don't want to rain on your parade just want to make you aware. I also bounce between goodwill and ebay and yes I am a wicked sniper...............LOL Does anyone remember Andy's Warehouse Auction? It was run by Fingerhut no less..........oooooooooh the bargains I got there and their shipping was reasonable. How i miss them. There were a couple others but I don't remember the names. Sigh! Hmmmmmmmmm maybe I should google. Then there's freecycle.............I can't begin to tell you all the goodies I have gotten off there. Ok so I belong to 5 different ones.............:) I subscribe to all that are within a 50 mile radius and try to pick up two or more items on one trip if possible. Anybody watch the Junk Brothers? Boy would I like to find some of the loot they find. And that Workshop............ ChelCass

This is an excerpt from Ki's blog. It explains it all. "It has been an incredible journey. As many already know, I have recently sold my JunkMarket stock to Taunton Publishing. Sue will remain with the JunkMarket and American Junk Club. I will continue with Country Home and the Junk Bonanza. I have started a new company, Junk Revolution, and you can follow the ins, outs, ups and downs, of starting over on this blogspot. It is bittersweet yet terribly exciting! I credit JunkMarket's success to all the people that shared their talents, energy and enthusiasm for junk." It's interesting how Sue's version of the History of JM leaves Ki completely out. Yet, if you read Ki's version, she credit's all the people who have helped from the beginning. I encourage you to hop over to JM site and read Sue's version and also Ki's version on her July blog posts. You can read her blog here. http://www.junkcamp.blogspot.com/ Here is a link that might be useful: Ki's Blog

momj47- One thing I should have mentioned in my original post is that although we plan to move, we will be keeping the home and renting it out, so I'd rather have something reliable as I'd be the one responsible for replacing it in the future if it fails. I do realize that there's been a fair bit of manufacturer consolidation (seems like GE and Whirlpool own almost the entire refrigerator market), so it may be a moot point. I don't know if these brands have been fully merged, and if they just maintain multiple brands in name only and share manufacturing processes, or if they're still very much separate and have unique failure rates. A trip to Consumer Reports would indicate that they're all pretty much the same in terms of failure rate. Think I might just have to buy the cheapest one I can find and hope it doesn't fail. I guess that the nasty reviews I've read will be common amongst all manufacturers, so I can just hope for the best.

I think the problem with dealing with junk drawers is the memorabilia, stuff you really don't want to throw away but has no real use any longer. The make it hard to make decisions on throwing out. Perhaps you could approach the problem with the attitude that you are going to do just a little compression and sorting, not a main cleanout. If it's a drawer, can't be too big so find a card board box (or two) and as quick as you can without giving yourself time to change your mind, hold your breath (kind of like jumping into cold water LOL) and dump that sucker totally out. Release your breath. Get a few gallon ziplock bags handy. I find them useful as sort of file folders for the drawer. eyeball the drawer and try to come up with some higher level categories. Turns out our junk drawer had a gazillion pens and pencils (one bag), a million rubber bands of various sizes (another bag), hundreds of small batteries (a little plastic tray I found) and a very large stack of owner's manuals/product info (perfect for a ziplock). Also, a curious assortment of memorabilia including old keys which I didn't want to throw out(a little box). Assign a zip lock bag to each category (if size works) or use box Now. just wipe off each item and put it in the appropriate ziplock bag or box (whatever). If it's a pencil or pen, make sure it writes before keeping it, else toss. If its an owners manual, make sure you still use the product. Else toss. Put the bags and/or little boxes back in the drawer. At least it will be sorted. You probably still need to do more declutering but at least now you know what decisions to think about regarding what to toss (I'm thinking there is no way we need that many batteries when we can buy them so cheap. I will probably toss many of them but haven't yet.) Don't put the bag of memorabilia back in the drawer. Put it somewhere else with other memorabilia, maybe where you store your photos, or in the attic or somewhere that it doesn't take up such precious real-estate. --Alice