Photos by: Oscar Herrera
Thrift shopping has to be the best way to spend your time, but not your money if you’re lucky. You can spend $20 on a few outfits or end up paying over $100. It all comes down to your self-control and your own sense of style.
I’m here, however, to let you know how to get the best bang for your buck and not overfill your closet with clothes you’ll never wear. Here are my tips and tricks on how to thrift.
Have A Plan
Whenever you go thrift shopping, make sure you have a budget and an idea of what you’re looking for. If you’re in search of a jean jacket, make sure that’s the only thing you’re coming out of the store with. Unless you find some rare limited edition item that hasn’t been sold anywhere for over a decade.
Limiting yourself might take the fun out of thrifting for some, so if that’s the case, make a broad plan! Set yourself up with a $20 budget and only buy enough things that take up those $20. It’s all about compromise.
One Thrift Store Only
My all-time favorite thrift shops are Family Thrift Center and Family Thrift Outlet. They’re all less than a 10-minute drive away from me and the warehouses are always stocked with so many gems.
I say go to one store per trip so you don’t go wild with all the different options they have. One thing about thrifting is that you will always find something you weren’t looking for, therefore, if you’re on a budget or looking for something specific, it’s best to stay in one place so you don’t do yourself any disfavors.
Search Every Aisle
Once you choose that one store, go through it like it’s the last chance you’ll be able to buy clothes.
Go through every aisle and flip through every hanger because the best clothes I’ve ever found were hidden in between two ugly ones. This might take a few hours so make sure you’re not in a rush.
Thrifting is a time-consuming skill that cannot be achieved in an hour unless you’ve hit the jackpot and happen to be the only customer in the store.
Go With Friends
If you feel like it’s impossible to go through the store on your own, bring some friends! Hopefully, your friends know your sense of style enough to pick up on clothes they’d think you’d like.
Make sure you’re also doing your friends a favor by picking up clothes they’d like as well. I feel like this method would also fend off those feelings of wanting to overspend because even though it feels like you’re picking up a lot of clothes, you’re only taking home a handful of the full cart.
All in all, there are several ways to thrift but these are the tips I use whenever I go thrifting. There have been too many times when I’ve bought clothes from the thrift store but never ended up wearing them because I was impulsive. Don’t even get me started on thrift flipping and how annoying that is in the long run. I wrote an article about that a while back if you want to know more about where I stand on that.
Regardless, have fun when you thrift! Not only are you helping the environment, but you’re finding a new way to make use of clothes that could have ended up in landfills. Happy thrifting!
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