Cindy grew up in Peoria and graduated from Bergan High School (Now Notre Dame) in 1973. She met her husband, Mike, in Peoria in 1974 and they married in 1976. They have been married for 50 years. They have four children; Mellissa, Michelle, Mike and Nicole.

After they married, they moved to Dunlap, where they still reside. Cindy has worked a few jobs during those years, one of them being the school secretary at St. Mary’s in Kickapoo.

Still collecting things or “picking” as she calls it, she realized her finds were taking over the house!  She needed an outlet for her treasures and began to look around for a store. She drove to the beautiful Chillicothe Historic District downtown and fell in love with it. She had been to Chillicothe many times and always found the people friendly, so she began stopping in the businesses downtown and telling them she was thinking about opening a shop to get their input. She got positive feedback from everyone she talked to. That day she met Rachel Parker, who was the city’s economic development director. She talked with Rachel and she told Cindy about the TIF money that was available to help new businesses start up. She and Mike talked and decided she would open a shop, then began looking at some empty buildings, but they were too small or had no back entrances or large opening as to get furniture in and out. In 2016 they opened a shop at 1017 N. 2nd St., but after a while found it was not big enough. In 2018 she went to look at the old Ben Franklin Store. She said she loved the ambiance of the old building and knew it was plenty big enough and had large openings to accommodate furniture.

The store was owned by John and Bernice Lee for many years, then in 1944 it was sold to Jerry and Alice Metcalf who ran it for 58 years. At the time Cindy looked at the building, it was owned by Mike Callahan. Cindy and Mike met with him, settled on a price and made a deal. With the TIF loan, some of their own money, and a bank loan, they bought the 1858 building. It was solid but needed a lot of remodeling and sweat equity put in it before it would be ready to open. The upstairs is used for storage. Although there is a lift in the building—it is not rated for public use (passengers). The whole family and friends worked on the store for a year and a half before it was ready to open. 

When asked about the name of the business, she replied. “My granddaughter and I were shopping one day and I had bought so many things, when she turned to me and said, “Nana, are you a hoarder?” I replied, “Well no, then thought for a moment and said....Am I?” Then it came to me that would be a good name for a shop—”Little Shop of Hoarders.”

The shop offers a wide range of mid-century, modern, and traditional furniture, home decor, sculptures, lamps, framed art work, over 2000 books and many more items too numerous to mention.

We are a sole proprietor, not a consignment shop, and became an LLC a couple of years ago. My daughters Missi and Nicole help run the shop as well as keeping the books and monitoring our online store. Although I am mostly at home for now, we all collaborate on merchandising, marketing, and promotions.

The store is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 10-4 at 941 Second St. The shop had always offered free coffee, tea, hot cocoa, and cookies before COVID hit, and are thinking of starting that up again for their shoppers. Cindy said they have many online shoppers and followers on Facebook. They send out fliers about their sales and specials. The last week of both February and August they have a semi-annual sale where the entire store is 50% off (Furniture 30% off).

The city of Chillicothe celebrates “2nd Saturdays” each month with participating shops/restaurants offering specials, discounts, or promotional deals, which Little House of Hoarders is part of. People come from all over to shop the bargains. You can visit them on Facebook at Little Shop of Hoarders, LLC or Shop and Buy online at Littleshopofhoardersclub.com.

We love our new community and feel blessed to have met so many new customers that have become good friends. We are a family run business with everyone helping. “It is a lot of work, but a labor of love,” Cindy tells us. Thank you Cindy for choosing Chillicothe to open your unique store and be such an asset to our town.