We have such a glut of stuff. Despite that, it’s hard to resist accumulating more.
As my sister used to say, « Things just glom onto me! »

Remember when « re-gifting » became a thing, especially around holidays where giving is one of the principal rituals? That was the beginning of our enlightenment, so to speak. We simply had too much stuff, and many of the items we could not use and maybe didn’t really like … but couldn’t bear to hurt the feelings of the giver. Re-gifting was a relief.

For me, this is personal. My mother was a teacher. Little treasures, little glass doodads, rained onto her desk every Christmas, and she kept them faithfully on display.

I had to dust them.
Then came the minimalist movement: get rid of everything and keep only the bare minimum needed for daily living.

« Comptoirs familials » are wonderful places to lighten our burden, bit by bit, by dropping off a box of things. They’re also great places to acquire more stuff, for bargain prices and for only a sliver of guilt.

Newcomers to our fair « forgotten » Townships―the Haut-Saint-François and points east―may not be familiar with our hidden economy. It’s not quite under the table; it’s on them.

I’m talking about the practice of « thrifting, » or shopping at thrift shops, flea markets, discount stores, and, most of all, comptoirs. Thrifters revel in the joy of the hunt, the triumph of getting something for almost nothing, finding something really unusual, and most of all, making short ends meet.

A relatively new Haut-Saint-Françisan, Xania, asked me where she could « thrift, » and I introduced her to the comptoir in Cookshire, in the basement of the big Catholic church just across the street from Korvette’s. That’s the Église Paroisse St-Camille, 170 Principale East.

Go down the hill, turn into the driveway just before the church building, I told her. Go around the back, and park along the right side of the church, near the front. The entrance to the comptoir is right there. It’s open Wednesdays from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. They’ve got everything―kitchen stuff, clothes, toys.

A little further east is a lesser known comptoir, at the Centre des Loisirs, 529 Main Street in Bury. It’s open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. They have everything too, but especially clothes―for men, children, babies, women. And linens―sheets, blankets, pillows, tablecloths.

They have doodads, too!
Do you know more great places to go thrifting in our area? Please let me know at rawrites@gmail.com.

Rachel Garber is editor of the Townships Sun magazine and writes from her home in the old hamlet of Maple Leaf, in Newport.