I Found It at Goodwill—and Now I Kinda Love It
April 23, 2025
Source: FB / Wesley Community Furniture
So I did not intend to fall in love with an old wooden magazine rack.) To be fair, I was kind of along for the ride at Goodwill as my spouse looked for a lamp or a chair or… I don’t know what, frankly. But then I really noticed this one. It had a sort of something you get with Grandma’s house — a little dusty, a little wobbly, but charming as hell.
I stopped, tilted my head and poked at it. My husband? Totally unconvinced. He guessed, “Is it a wine rack (a guess to be admired)” But me? I saw something familiar. My living room corner circa 1987 screeched.
You know what I mean, right?
It’s Not Just Furniture—It’s a Flashback
Let’s be real. The wooden magazine rack is not going to earn any awards for innovation. It’s very simple: shelves at angles, wooden spindles spun, and just the right amount of retro charm where you’d expect to pull a Reader’s Digest from a bookshelf and sip instant coffee from a ceramic cup with a faded cartoon duck on it.
But that is the very reason that I love it.
This little rack took me back to my grandparents’ house. They had one just like it, shoehorned into the available space next to the casket floral-print armchair my grandpa used to read the newspaper and fall asleep halfway through the article. The pages of the book crackled in my ear, and I could hear the raspy whisper of his soft snore in the thick air of a Sunday afternoon thunderstorm.
But Why Buy It? I Don’t Even Read Magazines…
Right? That was my thought, too. I mean, I’ve got a tablet. A phone. There’s already a stack of un-read books beside my bed. But the more I stared at that wooden magazine rack, the more I thought — it could be so much more.
And guess what? It is.
A Few Screws, a Little Polish, and She’s a Beaut
Yes, I took it home. Yes, I cleaned it. And yes, I might have overdone it a bit with the lemon oil polish. But I tell you, this thing glows now. It has that old-school coziness, as if it lives in a land of shag carpet and rotary phone. And yet it does fit in my house, mister.
Sometimes I believe we forgot how simple, well made, things was before. This rack doesn’t have Wi-Fi. It won’t work on your smart speaker. But it hauls stuff, it looks good doing it, and it has a backstory.
That’s more than a lot of things I bought on the internet in the past year can say.
In Conclusion (or: My Convincing You to Get One as Well)
So here’s the thing: If you see a wooden magazine rack at a thrift store or flea market, buy it and don’t overthink it. Grab it. Dust it off. Give it a second life. You’ll find it’s so satisfying to bring back something from the good old days.
