Target Training: Finding Everyday Items in the Holiday Clearance

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Since the holiday clearance gets marked down to 90% off, it is a great opportunity to pick up items that you can actually use year round.  Sometimes you will need to think outside of the box, but in some cases their is no extra thinking required.  I will go over a couple of the upcoming holidays so you can get some ideas of what you can do with clearance items.

Christmas:

I love the Christmas clearance!! You can find so many great things. First, I always search for Christmas ornaments, lights and decorations to use for next year. I even pick up Christmas cards for the following year. The Christmas items I pick up are always at 75-90% off. Not only do I pick up items for Christmas, but this is a holiday when you will find several items that you can use for year round. Here are some examples.

Wrapping Paper, Gift Bags and Bows: You can pick up Christmas paper for next year, but you can also find wrapping paper that will work year round. I always look for prints and patterns that will work for birthdays, I have been able to find something that fits the bill every single year. I always pick up solid red and green gift bags for birthday gifts too. This is also a great time to purchase bows for all those birthday presents.

Home Decor Items: Believe it or not, you can find several items that you can use to decorate your home. Three years ago we bought an entertainment center at Christmas time and we had lots of empty spaces on the shelves. I was able to fill it up with lots of Christmas decorations that I bought at 75% off. I bought both the glass hurricane vase and silver frame (pictured above) at 75% off.

Small Toys: They bring in lots of small toys to sell as stocking stuffers. Many of these small items are not specifically Christmasy and they make great little gifts. I often pick up some of these smaller items to use as Easter Basket fillers. I have found Legos, Polly Pockets, Littlest Pet Shop and many more.

Food Items: You will probably find cake mixes that have Christmas sprinkles that you can mix in. These are usually just white cake mixes and the sprinkles are separate, so if you can find some at 75% off it makes for some cheap cake mix. The also bring in several gift sets and specialty foods like Starbucks Coffee and Hickory Farms. Buy those gingerbread cookies and pack them in your kids lunches in January, trust me, they won’t care that they were Christmas cookies!

Tape: I use this time of year to stock up on tape. Target usually brings in extra tape and stocks it in the Christmas department, then all of it will go on clearance with the other Christmas items.

Items with Christmas Packaging: They will bring in so many items that have special packaging for Christmas like Kleenex, Paper Towels, Napkins, Soaps, Ziploc, containers and bags and so much more. Many of these items are things they we use everyday, they just happen to have a Christmas print on the product or packaging. I have no problem storing frozen meat in a bag with snowmen on it in the middle of July if it means I got them dirt cheap. Watch for these items!

There are so many options when it comes to Christmas clearance, here are a few more:

• Solid color cups, plates, napkins
• Clothing, Socks and PJ’s
• Bath & Body Sets
• Fragrance Sets
• Care Care Kits
• When Christmas cards go 90% off, I buy them specifically for the envelopes. My daughter and I like to make cards and these envelopes are the perfect size and they are so much cheaper than purchasing them at the craft store
• Your options are endless ~ use your imagination!

Halloween Clearance:

To demonstrate my point, let’s take these Halloween clearance items that I picked up at last year at 90% off as an example (ignore the dental floss, that wasn’t Halloween clearance, it was just FREE)

Purple Frame: The frame was part of last years Halloween inventory, they had several Halloween colors available (orange, black, lime green and purple) The purple color just happened to be one of the accent colors in my daughters room, so I picked it up for only $ .49. It’s not often you can find a frame for under $ .50.

Captain America Costume: If your kids are like mine, they love to dress up. My son just happens to love any of the Marvel Heroes or Star Wars characters. I knew this $2 costume would make for hours of entertainment for my son.

Since the Halloween clearance will be marked down this week, here are a few things to keep in mind when shopping:

• Think about buying costumes for year round dress up fun. Halloween Costumes can even make for great Christmas gifts. Does you daughter love to dress up like the Disney princesses? You can pick up several princess costumes and make your own dress up kit for much less than the Disney Princess Dress Up Trunk
  would cost.
• The clearance items will probably include more items than just “Halloween type” items, you may find solid color paper plates, frames, socks and more.
• The small packages of trick or treat items, like Play-Doh would make excellent stocking stuffers.
• Clearance candy will come in handy for your holiday baking. (Particularly, Hershey Kisses, Peanut Butter Cups, Rolos and M&M’s)

Watch the blog for examples of specific things you can do with holiday clearance for each holiday draws near (Valentines, Easter, etc).   I  would love to hear your ideas too!

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