Trash or Treasure? The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Thrifting

Lalalala, discovering the thrift store sent me into a magical world! My first foray into a thrift store haul was at Plato's Closet near Florida Mall. I picked up two pairs of glorious heels, a Steve Madden purse and an Aldo hat for $40 bucks. I was hooked.

I later went to Plato's Closet's Grab Bag event, where you can have as much clothes that fits into a bag, all for $20! I got a ton of clothing and the value of it all came to about $1000 bucks. More hooked. With plenty of thrift shopping experience now, I can tell you the good, the bad and the ugly.


THE GOOD

You can save a ton of money. There are amazing finds to be had at thrift stores at phenomenal prices. Try finding a $200 blazer for $6! Yes, these are mostly used items but there are plenty of things in great condition. At places like Goodwill, there is a color-coded 50% discount every week. Try taking half off of $3.69 for any piece of quality clothing! While Goodwill takes most of the donated clothing to sell, other places actually buy-to-sell only gently used designer brands (consignment shops). While these types of places are usually more expensive, the quality of the clothing is also worth more and may last longer. Nevertheless, you can find great name-brands at Goodwill! Just by a look at threading and a touch for stronger material, you can pretty much tell the quality of a piece.

THE BAD

If you do not have patience, going through the racks to find hidden gems will be a pain. Check for missing pieces or do the "why did they give this piece of clothing away?" check. This involves looking at the piece in its entirety to see if you would be able to use it in its current condition.


THE UGLY

If you are going through clothing and you feel an itch, drop that clothing like a bad habit. I had the misfortune of going to a Goodwill Clearance center (as opposed to retail) in which everything that fails to sell in the retail store goes to the clearance center to be sold for $1 per pound. At first I thought it was an amazing deal until I saw the set up...literally tubs of clothing that you have to pull out and look at. The one I went to was dirty, filthy, musty, chaotic and....itchy. Bad, bad sign. Get out immediately.

Ever since that bad experience, I have been turned off to thrift stores. I want to stick to buying affordable *new* clothing. I think I had my fun thrift shopping for a while but that Goodwill scarred me and literally made me think of all that was bad about thrift stores....that I had not encountered up until that store.






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