How to Shop at a Thrift Store - The Basics

Hi everyone! As the resident "thrifter" at fashion&flutes, I love going to second-hand shops and finding all the hidden treasures I can turn into new outfits. But one of the biggest questions is "How do you do that? How do you find all those cool things?" Well, I'm going to show you! In this 4-part series, I'm going to guide you through all the main points for shopping at a thrift store. We'll kick off the series with "How to Shop at a Thrift Store - The Basics!" Let's get started!

I'm just going to go over a few basic points for new and beginning thrifters. I'll also recap these tips for you on every part of the series.

First, the most obvious thing would be to find a thrift store. Personally I like to shop at privately operated thrift stores, rather than chains such as Goodwill, The Salvation Army, etc. I find that at the privately owned shops  the prices are better and quite frankly, the stuff is cooler. At least at all the Goodwills in my area, the prices are pretty high for the merchandise and it's always really "picked over." I've never found anything really EXCELLENT at a Goodwill, but that's just me.

Second, once you've found your thrift store, the key is to just KEEP GOING BACK. Seriously, there have been days when I've gone to the thrift store and I found so many good things, then there have been other days when I didn't buy one thing. DON'T GET DISCOURAGED! Especially if you don't find anything your first time, you just have to keep going.

Third, keep your eyes open. Look at each piece and think about all the possibilities. Whether it's a new piece of clothing for yourself, the perfect finishing touch to a costume, or a new possible "re-fashion," just keep your eyes open. Now, understand that I don't mean stare at each item for 10 minutes. That would be weird. Just as you're shopping, think of ALL the possibilities.

One thing about thrift stores is there is A LOT of junk. But there's a lot of treasure too. In this series I'm going to be teaching you how to shop for clothes, accessories, and things to refashion (for my crafting readers). Keep checking back for the continuations of this series. I'm going to try to post a new segment every Friday. Enjoy!

-Caitlin