‘Garage sale junkie’ realizing her dream
For the past decade, opening her own business has been a dream for Shirley Gladis. That dream is soon to become a reality. Gladis is a self-professed “garage sale junkie”, proclaiming it to be “a passion of mine”.
She is now taking that passion and advancing it into a business called, “This and That Recreated”, a thrift-type store that will be housed on Jefferson Street located one building north of Fit24.
That building was the last one available for sale from Bill Ufkin's former Ufkin’s Furniture and Appliance Store.
Ufkin will retain ownership of one of his former buildings in order to have a place to service appliances, which he is continuing to provide to his customers after going out of the furniture business.
Gladis, a widow for the past 20 years who grew up five miles north of Minneota and now lives in Ghent, is planning to open her new business on Nov. 4 to coincide with the date of the annual North Pole Extravaganza in town.
Gladis purchases items at garage sales, thrift stores, Goodwill, and other places and then makes any necessary improvements or repairs to the items before re-selling them. “I'm a thrifty shopper and I only buy good stuff,” she insists.
“And I'll take it home and clean it up, repaint it, or fix it. I do it to make it better. It might buy something like a painting and paint the frame or put the picture in a better frame.
“I look for nice toys to buy and then I sanitize them all. If I wouldn't want my own grandchildren to have a particular toy, then I wouldn't get it to sell to someone else either. Some things are already good and don't need anything done except a good cleaning.”
Gladis has been collecting items and storing them in the garage at her home for “several” years, waiting for the day to come that she could have her own business place.
“I accredit my whole operation to God,” she said.
“Circumstances in my life journey didn't allow it to happen. I realized it was in God's hands. And about two months ago, He said 'It's time now'.”
Gladis began looking for a place to have her business, but was unable to locate anything in Ghent. Her other option was to start a website to sell her items.
“Then I thought about Bill (Ufkin) closing recently so I texted him to see if he had an available building and everything worked out,” she noted.
“Our closing day for the sale of the building was Oct. 9 and I gave the walls a new coat of paint and then started moving some things in shortly after that.”
Gladis thinks back to how her two children, now grown, used to rib her about collecting so many items and storing them.
“And then they would ask me if I had something they needed and I usually did,” she laughed.
And now her store is just a few days away from opening and others will also be looking for items they need.
“I'm really excited,” she said.
“And a lot of my friends are excited and keep asking me when I'm going to open. And now I can tell them it will be soon.”