SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good afternoon, Bluffs Country. I'm Peggy Sweet, and this is Belonging in the Bluffs, brought to you by the Iowa West Foundation. I'm joined in studio today with my really good friend David Clitz. He's the director of sales and marketing for Habitat for Humanity, as well as the fabulous Restore. Welcome. Well, hello. How are you? I'm fabulous now that you're here.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Oh, it's gonna be a love fest. I feel it.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

It is, especially, you know, uh so much is always happening. It's spring over well, it's spring everywhere, but it's always a lot of stuff happening at the restore. People are um getting ready for projects, and they are cleaning out their closets, making room for new stuff, all the things. And as I recall, David, I think now you are the only restore in our area.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

We are, yeah, we are we are the only restore in in the Omaha Metro, yeah. Uh the two uh two restores in Omaha sold out to um a uh a different thrift store organization. And so yeah, we're the only restore in uh in Omaha and Council Bluffs. You gotta go to either Des Moines or Lincoln uh in order to uh to get to another one that's closer.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

And so now you're gonna have all of the great stuff, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:05

I mean Yeah, and when you said spring has sprung, spring has sprung. I mean we yeah, we're we're just uh we're we've got man, we've got great stuff coming in every day. You know, we've got our uh uh our our little cargo van that cruises out and uh and picks up donations from here in Calza Bluffs, and we're starting to kind of venture a little bit into Omaha for those folks that give us a call. Um, and yeah, and folks dropping off stuff at the dock, and we are just going bananas. It's been fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

I don't know how you guys keep up because I every time I turn around, there's new pictures on Facebook.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Yeah. So, you know, my my Saturday Facebook post has become kind of a thing, right? So I've got like, you know, sometimes I'll have 10,000 views. I'm like, what did I do? I just put put a put a picture of, you know, something old and I said something sassy, right? Yeah. And uh and and next thing I know, I've got people calling or coming in wanting that piece. Uh so it's um I I tell you what, the the community has been just absolutely amazing and so supportive of us. Um and more we've got new folks coming in every single day. It's just it's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

So well, it happens because I see something that I think is really cool that my daughter might like. And so I share it with her, and then she looks at it and she's like, hey, you know, like we got wardrobes from you. And there was more than one. So she had another friend look at it, and that's just how it goes.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Absolutely. And you know, and the the cool thing about you know, about what we do and how we do it is well, first of all, it's you know, we take in those donations of new use, surplus building materials, furniture, home decor items, right? We stay away from like the you know, the plates and dishes and stuff like that. That's that's tough. We let other folks who do it better, you know, handle that. But you know, we take those items in and we price them at 50 to 70 percent off new retail based on age and condition. Now, a lot of what I show on on Facebook is like the sweet stuff, right? Yeah I don't show the you know the perfectly good, awesome, you know, lock sets or the doors that come in, you know. Yeah, it's just I I I do the social media thing. I I put the pretty stuff on it. Yeah, you do drag people in. Um but we have so much inventory. It's just it and and so much good stuff that can be used for your project, whether you're whether you're renovating, whether you're decorating, where you whether you're repairing your own house. Um it's just it's a good spot to start. And the prices are fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

You get anywhere uh I've been there and I've seen beautiful tile.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

And I've also seen the perfect door.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

If I needed a door or the a beautiful light.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

Yeah, it's just it's it's you know, if you're looking for, you know, maybe a shade to match a ceiling light fixture, or if you just want to replace a light fixture, we've got, you know, we we've got all the things that you see at you know at the big box stores. Um just not in that quantity. And if you want seven of the same thing, I can't always guarantee I've got seven of the same thing. But you know, the you know, the doors and the windows and ceiling fans and hardware and tools and plumbing and I mean you name it.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

And inventory changes daily. Every 10 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

So we I say every 10 minutes.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Every 10 minutes. Every 10 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Something's coming in, something's going out. Yeah, 10 minutes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

That's awesome. What are the hours if we want to uh check it out?

SPEAKER_01 4:06

Yeah, so um Tuesday through Friday from 9 30 until 5 30. Um so we are open to the public. Come on in anytime during that time frame. If you want to drop your donation off to our back dock on the west side of the building, uh, we just like taking that last donation about 15 or 20 minutes before we close. Sure. Right. Saturdays then are kind of the rocking and rolling day. We're shorter hours, we're nine to three on Saturday. Um, and it's just that's you know, that for me, that's the fun day. That's my favorite day of the week. It's just it's it's action-packed.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Yeah. Well, there's a lot of people that are working throughout the week that decide, hey, I've got my project started. I'm going to the restore to see what I can find to figure out how I want to finish my project.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

That's right. That's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

Um, and then Facebook.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Yeah, so Facebook, uh Habitat, uh the I think it's I can't even remember how we have it listed, but it's if you search the uh the restore in Council Bluffs, uh, it'll pop up. And again, we're the only one now in the Metro, so it'll be easy to find the one in your area. Um follow us on Facebook every Saturday morning, somewhere between probably 8 30 and 9 30. I usually get that post out there and it shows all the cool stuff that came in for the week.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

And your website is habitatcb.org.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

You got it.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

Which you'll always be able to find information on. And what I one of the things I love about um the restore is the funds stay in our area.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

Yeah, they absolutely do. So they are they are saying 100% uh the proceeds from the sale of those items that you come in and purchase uh at the restore stays right here and it helps goes right to our uh right to our um, you know, basically to cover our expenses, right? So that way that the money that folks donate to build more habitat houses or support our homeownership program, um, we can the restore can kind of take care of the gas for our construction trucks or you know, the light bill for the building or you know, postage for the postage meter when we're sending out mailings. So um it just it stays here, it supports an amazing cause. I've been doing it for holy buckets, a long time now.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Oh no. Yeah, we were talking about that earlier.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

Yeah, like 19, I think I'm coming up on 19 years with Habitat. So it's uh it's a great organization, um, and and we do great stuff.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

So and again, if you want to check things out, it's habitatcb.org. Uh if you're looking for homeownership, you guys will have classes and things that you can find there. Uh Kim comes in and talks about it.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

She does, yeah. And if you want to just kind of know what's going on kind of in general with where we are and what we're doing right now, especially the information sessions for home ownership. If you just go to the habitatcb.org, go to our events page, our events calendar, and then just take a look at the uh, you know, usually we've got it posted um, you know, about a month in advance. So you'll be able to see that. And also other places that we are in uh uh hanging out in Council Bluffs, going and meeting and greeting and shaking of hands.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Yeah, you guys are everywhere. We are all right, fantastic, David. I look forward to seeing what you post on Saturday.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

You got it.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

And I will see you back here next month.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

Sounds great.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

This has been Belonging in the Bluffs, brought to you by the Iowa West Foundation.