The art of thrifting
Marji Naaz presents a small stonewear pitcher she found in a thrift store that she uses for her coffee creamer. The pitcher was exactly what she was looking for and went perfectly with her style.
JOSA SNOW/Press
"Use your nice things, and enjoy them" Marji Naaz said, pointing to the Mexican glasses she's collected from thrift stores. "If something happens to it, it's just stuff."
An array of odds and ends that Marji Naaz found in a thrift store. The wooden vases were found in different stores, though they match her style perfectly.
An arrangement of a family of giraffes Marji Naaz found in a thrift store. They hide her dog door from sight and make her corner a little more homey.
A set of elephant wall hooks Marji Naaz found in a thrift store.
Neutral colors and animal prints are key staples to Marji Naaz's style. Certain elements are a guide when shopping for treasures in local thrift stores.
Marji Naaz laughs in her home in Jasper Falls. Nearly all of the decor in her home is from a thrift store, with the exception of most of the furniture.
RATHDRUM — Marji Naaz is a thrifting queen.
“She’s just a spitfire, and she’s a thrifter,” said Sheri Patik, a neighbor in Rathdrum in the Jasper Falls 55+ community where Naaz lives. “She’s a queen. And she’s so good at it.”
Naaz has been shopping in thrift stores since she was in fourth grade. She used to arrange little vignettes in the store while her mother shopped.
Now she enjoys tailoring her home to her distinct style and finding little things that bring her joy for a fraction of retail.
Naaz’s friends and neighbors at Jasper Falls love her style so much, they asked her to share tips in a presentation Sept. 26 at the community clubhouse.
It isn’t a free-for all, Naaz said. There are rules.
Naaz brought boxes of her favorite items to the clubhouse and arranged them to showcase her favorite thrifted things, like a leopard print throw, a family of tall wooden giraffes and a small elephant.
In her presentation, Naaz talked first about knowing what style she wants to achieve. For her, that’s natural materials, black and white color schemes, African or worldly elements, animal prints and plants.
A clear style choice guides the focus, she said.
Then, rule No. 1 is to pick a good thrift store. Naaz likes the Post Falls Goodwill and Real Life Ministries thrift stores because she’s had the best luck there. But she encourages people to find a store that speaks to them. She also conducted interviews to find out what a store does with its waste.
“By doing this, I feel like I’m helping the environment,” she said.
Rule No. 2 is to grab a cart. She advises people to take their time going down the aisles, looking at both sides, and then go back down the aisle the opposite direction.
“If you see something you like, put it in the cart,” she said.
Once the aisles have been covered in both directions, “Then you pull over to an area, and you look at the stuff,” Naaz said.
She suggests being extra-critical with everything in the cart.
“Mentally find a place for it, first,” she said. “Then what will you get rid of for it? I already know what I’m looking for, and then I narrow it down.”
If it doesn’t meet her standards, Naaz will put an item back. She’s even found treasures she missed when putting something back.
Naaz spends between one and two hours in a store.
“I tell my husband I’m going hunting,” Naaz said.
"What’d ya bag?" he’ll ask her when she returns.
Despite a love of shopping, Naaz’s home isn’t overcrowded, though she feels it’s getting close.
She is constantly assessing if she still needs or uses something. And, if not, she takes it to Swap ‘n’ Talk, a group she started that meets in the Jasper Falls clubhouse.
People in the community gather to exchange things for free. Everything that doesn’t find a home gets taken to a thrift store.
“Getting rid of stuff is cleansing,” Naaz said. “It’s Swedish death cleansing.”
Her parents owned so much stuff the furniture all touched, she said. Her childhood home was packed with odds and ends.
As her parents grew older, Naaz felt overwhelmed by their stuff.
She was also responsible for going through her mother’s collection of things when they moved her into a hospice facility.
At 103, Naaz’s mother is unable to enjoy her own things. The burden to distribute and deal with the collection fell to her family. And it doesn’t mean as much to Naaz.
Her memories are not ours, she said. And she doesn’t want to do that to her children.
“The gathering days are over,” Naaz said. “I’m more into enjoying the things I have. I don’t have a sentimental attachment to things. They’re objects.”
She has had her own collections before, though, and felt weighed down by them.
Her basement was where things went to disappear, but she got rid of those items when she moved.
Now, she enjoys her social life more than stuff — and having a pleasant place to invite her friends.
Naaz is activities director at Jasper Falls and loves every minute of it. She organized a weekly Sunday morning walk during which community members get coffee and chat, sometimes as far as 5 miles. She adjusted monthly potlucks to include a night out. One month, residents bring an entree, the other they get together over cocktails and bring hors d’oeuvres.
“I didn’t know it could be like this,” she said.
Now, she would never go back to any other way.
