Here are the Top Ten facts you might not know about The House of Elements, David Letterman style.
- Elements is made up of 7 moms that work together to make this place awesome! Amber, Jill and Melissa work in the warehouse and cover books when needed. Chelsea, Meg, Michelle and Tammy cover books with fabric each week. Between the 7 of us, there are 17 children, 3 grandchildren, 3 dogs, 1 cat, and 2 guinea pigs.
- The most frequently purchased item for the warehouse is shelves! Rolling shelves, free standing shelves, wire, plastic, we use them all! We will soon run out of room for said shelves.
- Our current warehouse project is a new shipping station. We are way more excited about this than is probably warranted but we live for finding new ways to improve productivity.
- The official footwear of Elements is Hey Dudes. Have you tried these? They are lightweight and comfortable and perfect for being on your feet! Also, they are adorable. This is not a paid endorsement, we just want to tell the world.
- Most of us have come from the corporate world. We’ve traded our power suits for leggings, and our male supervisors for an amazing female leader who values our opinion and actually seeks it out! We are valued and are so fulfilled by the work we do. Now what to do with all those dress pants and heels…
- If you’ve been following along, we love to thrift! One thing we never pass up at a thrift store is tea cups. Our sister shop offers a mystery gift box which includes a set of books, a hot beverage, a candle or wax melts or essential oil, and a tea cup.
- Like many small businesses, House of Elements started in a basement! Amber ran this thing out of her basement and garage before taking the plunge to move to our current 4200 sq. ft. location.
- Books are heavy! We all have gotten considerably stronger arms since starting here. The women who cover the books lug boxes of books from warehouse to car to home and back again each week. And the women of the warehouse are just moving books all the time! We should find an arm wrestling competition to enter.
- We have a giant paper cutter that can cut through a whole book. This blew my mind when I first started!
- The unsung hero of the warehouse is the blue little tree air freshener! We source a lot of books from estate sales and as you can imagine, they can get a little musty. We have tricks to get the stink off, but the blue air fresheners can be found on every shelf in this warehouse, just to make sure all our books smell like a fresh summer breeze!