Ask Dali Mama

DEAR DALI MAMA:

My wife likes to buy everything at thrift stores and garage stores and she even picks up junk she finds on the street but it grosses me out to use stuff like that. What do you think about garage sales and thrift stores and stuff?

–Grossed Out (United States)

DEAR G.O.:

Validate your wife’s thrift. Thriftiness is actually a trait many men are looking for in potential mates these days. In actual mates too! Ha ha.

Certain things I wouldn’t buy used—underwear, shoes, mattresses or bedding, and other stuff like that. But sometimes you can get great deals at garage sales and thrift stores and  it’s fine as long as they’re things that can be washed and cleaned. It’s a great way to keep the energy of objects moving and the ultimate in recycling for the good of the planet and the people on it.

Sometimes you can even find clothes with tags on them at garage sales or thrift shops. If you think about it, it’s likely that even if you buy your clothes at a department store, someone probably tried those clothes on before you, so there’s not much difference.

As far as stuff from the street, it depends. Sometimes people throw out great stuff. Sometimes they throw out things because they’re gross. Like maybe they’re getting rid of that couch because their dog threw up on it or maybe they had an outbreak of bedbugs, which can infest all kinds of objects, including clothes. And clothes need to be washed in hot water and dried at a certain temperature to actually eradicate bed bugs, should there be anything like that.

One thing you might want to do, though, is clean the objects you buy used—both physically and energetically. If they can be washed, do so. Even wipe down any furniture or clean plastic toys with a nontoxic cleaning solution. To clean the energy from an object, imagine a grounding cord going from the object into the center of the earth, allowing any energy that no longer belongs there to be cleaned out. Then reset the object to your vibration and reset it to support you and give you joy.

Sometimes when we have a negative reaction to used stuff, what we’re actually responding to (whether we know it or not) is the energy of the previous owner that’s still in the object.

As far as you and your wife, maybe you can sit down together and make an agreement about what kinds of thing come (and don’t come) into the house. Because you both share the living space, of course you should feel completely comfortable with the things in your home as well and of course only objects that have a use in your home should be brought in. Free junk is still junk. But validate your wife and her thriftiness and reset the space of what comes into the home at an energy of smart and resourceful prosperity.