I've struggled with knowing when to disclose I'm wrapping up my time at Jubilee Furniture and this blog is also ending - but with only two more posts (after this one) until me and the blog are gone - it seems like the time.
Please allow me to pause and reflect back a bit...
It's June of 2009 and after sending out an email "newsletter" to customers who'd provided their email addresses and having at least a third of them bounce back - I began exploring what options were available for posting store updates online (and, of course, it had to be free since our marketing budget was almost nothing at the time). I somehow found blogspot and the rest - as they say - is history. Here's a link to that very first post! I've kept it all these years as a reminder of where I started (I've deleted most other posts though have kept all the Tuesday inspiration ones since you all are so creative and amazing!).
I'm not being modest when I say I had no idea what I was doing which is why I'm so very grateful for the help from a number of volunteers around the best way to upload photos and write content. There is one person I need to call out by name though and that's Barry Smith. Barry provided helpful feedback on the blog and he encouraged me to find my own voice. My writing style has always been "folksy" and I thought the blog should be more polished and professional. Barry felt that my let's-sit-down-over-a-cup-of-tea-and-chat style was perfect (which was a huge relief since I never could have pulled off polished and professional!). So you can thank Barry for the blog craziness all these years! Haha! How's that for showing my gratitude, Barry?!
So, week after week for the last 16+ years (approximately 900+ posts!) I've shared photos of whatever caught my eye from that week's pickups as well as snippets of my life. Here's a brief timeline of what you and I have been through together starting with when the store opened:
2006 - February - Jubilee Furniture opens it's doors in the Wheaton Christian Center building with the understanding we'd be open on Saturdays from 9 am to 4 pm through March. That October I'm hired as the full-time General Manager. I was brand new to the resale furniture business but, thankfully, there was an incredible volunteer board in place and each week we tried new things and when the store wasn't open I was at area resale stores trying to understand pricing and learning about furniture. It was both an exciting and overwhelming time
2007 - March - microburst damages building and we close our doors until September. I fill in the "down" time by taking an inventory of what was damaged for insurance and coordinate a "tent sale" at our Discoveries Resale store in Warrenville. My daughter graduates from high school and heads off to college in the fall
2008 - we're finding our stride and weekly sales continue to increase
2009 - June - I write my first blog post. This year we also begin picking up from Room & Board (and that fabulous relationship continues through today!). My son graduates high school and that fall heads off to college
2010 - Chicago Reader names Jubilee Furniture BEST THRIFT STORE much to our surprise and delight!
2011 & 2012 - things continue to hum along at the furniture store - at some point we add Friday hours and then Thursday hours and, I believe, when we move into our new space in 2014 we add Wednesday hours
2013 - we begin picking up at the Merchandise Mart from the casual furniture showrooms which is a huge deal and results in thousands of dollars worth of sales over the years. Son graduates from college and gets married, daughter receives her masters, we sell our house in south Wheaton and RENT a house in north Wheaton from some incredible Jubilee Furniture customers (and live there for two years and absolutely LOVE both the house and our landlords!)
2014 - Jubilee Furniture moves into our current space at 730 E. North Ave. (a stone's throw from our old location). The general manager role had grown too big for one person to do it all - so Bruce Kesler is hired as store manager and I move into the role of handling the donation side of things (and continue posting here every week)
2015 - Bruce moves onto a new job and Crista Olson is hired as store manager. We purchase a different house in north Wheaton ACROSS the street from another fantastic Jubilee Furniture customer (and we still live in this house and they still live across the street - Hey Angie! 😊😊)
2016 & 2017 - I'm sure lots happen during these years but nothing stands out to me! Here's a good spot to see if I can remember all of our warehouse managers over the years starting with Dave Buckson, then Dan Snyder, John Wasp, Joel Jara, and wrapping up with our current warehouse manager, Garrett Hillard. I swear I'm missing one but for the life of me can't remember his name! Another Dan Something?
2018 - Crista finds a new job and long time volunteer, Connie Kluckman (who's been involved with the store since it's inception!) moves into the store manager position (and is STILL our beloved store manager)
2019 - business as usual this year!
2020 - COVID! Entire country (entire world?) shuts down including Jubilee Furniture starting March 19th and we don't reopen until June 9th
2021 - feels like we're still cautiously coming out of the pandemic
2022 - Jubilee Resale at 240 E. Roosevelt Road in Lombard opens. A partnership between Outreach and Timothy Christian School
2023 & 2024 - instead of Jubilee Resale attracting new customers from east of Lombard - a number of Jubilee Furniture customers simply bounce between the two stores so not quite the increase in customer traffic (or sales) we were hoping but it's a work in progress!
2025 - FINALLY, after over 11 years of ongoing construction at Jubilee Furniture work wraps up and our Employment Opportunity Center opens on the second floor. The showroom is a bit of a meandering up ramp and down dale - but we love the space and, thankfully, have plenty of donations to fill it! End of April my mom died. Since then I've dreamt of her three or four times a week (and I normally never remember my dreams)! Is that normal?
2026 - end of January both me and the blog ride off into the sunset! 🌞👋 Everyone is encouraged to start following Jubilee Furniture (Carol Stream store) on either Instagram or Facebook (or both!) and Jubilee Resale (Lombard store) on Instagram and Facebook. February will mark the 20th anniversary of the store opening! 🎆🎆
One last thing before moving on, and it's something that comes up regularly, and that's if Connie writes the blog and if she doesn't who does? So, here's a selfie I snapped yesterday of me and Connie. We are different people with different roles (when I was more involved with the store end of things people often confused the two of us). One - of many - things I'll be sad about when I leave is not working with Connie. She's one of the most incredible people I know!
