WHITELAND, Ind., -- A resale shop in Whiteland is helping to serve a growing community in more ways than one.
The Habitat for Humanity of Johnson County has been getting offers for household donations since first opening its doors of the little yellow house on Franklin College's campus. At the time, they didn't have much space to store appliances, furniture, and other big items. But the donations were in great shape, so the organizers of Habitat would take the items to nearby resale locations like Bloomington and Indianapolis.
"The concept has been around for about 15 to 20 years now," says Doug Grant with Habitat for Humanity of Johnson County. "And now it's really starting to take off."
Grant says instead of hauling away goods to nearby resale stores, they decided to create their own for residents of Johnson County. People in the area can donate goods and anyone can come shop at a discounted prices, and that money goes back into future builds and helps cover some of the overhead.
"We do all-women builds, church builds, corporate builds," Grant said. "So there is some overhead. We have to do real estate, social services, as well as building and construction, marketing. We need a staff to pull that off."
The Habitat for Humanity of Johnson County Restore is located in a visible, yet affordable location. They took over a space about two and a half years ago along U.S. 31 in Whiteland. The space used to house a church at one time and also a dealership. It's about 10,000 square feet and so they are able to lay out the goods for resale in an organized manner.
"As long as the items are in really good condition, and come from non-smoking homes, without pet hair we can take them," says Grant.
He says they get new items all the time so the selection is always changing.
"We charge 25 bucks for working toilets. You can't find anything that cheap at hardware stores," says Grant. "It keeps things out of landfills, people can shop for their projects on the cheap, and many supplies can be used in Habitat homes."
The restore is now open Thursday's, Friday's, and Saturday's every week. Grant says their busy days are really starting to take off, with the number of customers nearly doubling each month.
"I'm excited," says Grant. "We get new stuff in all the time. We are even getting a second box truck. The furniture is constantly changing."
Habitat for Humanity of Johnson County has completed 18 builds for families in the community, with more to come this year.
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