– Now it’s full everywhere, says Torild Pettersen.
She is one of the volunteers at Ullensaker Red Cross’ thrift store and has been involved since the doors opened for the first time in 2006.
The second-hand shop, which is located in the old magazine camp at Jessheim, has over the years been appreciated by people living in and around the municipality, and every Thursday throughout the year there is a long queue of people who want to visit.
Got more space
Interest in the well-established store is constantly increasing, and the goods are flowing into the premises.
It can be goods from people who move from house to flat and no longer have room for everything they own and have, but also goods from estates.
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This has meant that they have had an increased need for more space, which in turn means that they find themselves having to close down for a couple of weeks.
– We’ve got a bit more space. That is what we are now going to start using. There are barracks from which we have to tear out furniture, and then we have gained access to the red house next door, says Pettersen.
She continues.
– It requires a bit of planning to reach the goal, because now there are boxes covered with bed linen around the shop that we have nowhere to put.
– Hope to arrive in port
Closing the doors in this way has hardly been done before.
But they now see themselves having to do this in order to reach the finish line.
– I guess we haven’t closed down on Thursdays before. All along, it has been Wednesdays that we have used to get the goods out to the store. We have two small rooms in the barrack itself, but there it is full all the way to the door. That is why we must now take action.
– We try not to be closed on Thursdays, but as there are red days now, we found out that we would have 14 days to get the job done. Then we hope that we can arrive in port.
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Volunteers
The sale of used items is mainly run by volunteers, who work every week to keep the doors open.
There are not many volunteers, which means that they have to put everyone to work when the expansion of the store is to take place.
– There has been a lot of illness and we have had a lot of holidays. Then there have been a little too few people left here during the weekdays. We are still only open one day a week, and there are many people who are only here to contribute on Thursdays. Then there will be too few of us to clean and that means we are constantly a little behind.
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In parallel with the second-hand shop increasing its storage capacity, there is also something else to be done in the coming weeks. The outdoor shop, which they usually have in the summer, will hopefully be left standing before too long.
– We will set it up, because we always have an outdoor shop all summer. We are now going to set up and assemble the shelves we have had down this winter, so if the weather stays stable there will be more outdoor shopping again.
