I had a super fun time the other day attending a Sneak Peek event for a new Saver’s Thrift Store in my area – the deals alone would have made it worth it, but they went all out and had treats, a juggler on stilts, cotton candy, etc. It was a party while you shopped! Every Savers store partners with a local nonprofit to benefit the community. The North Kansas City Savers will partner with the Epilepsy Foundation of Missouri & Kansas.
There are tons and tons of tips for shopping Thrift Stores, but I wanted to give you my quick, top 5, must-know tips. Savers has kept over 650 million pounds of reusable goods out of landfills. To put that into perspective, 650 million pounds is equivalent to more than 3,000 Boeing 737 airplanes or 100,000 elephants! So let’s go thrift store shopping!!
1. Go WITHOUT kids. Seriously, they ruin all the thrift-store fun 😉 It’s so much easier to dig and browse when you’re not taking care of kiddos at the same time. But I know, it’s not always possible. So be prepared if you do have tag-alongs – I recommend dum dum suckers and electronic devices. We’re not huge into electronics, so if I save our tablet for use during the store, my kids are glued! They would probably let me shop for hours while they rotted their mind away 😉 I’m sure you have tons of more productive tips for keeping kiddos entertained, but that’s what works for me.
2. Layers. Sometimes (especially at grand openings) the lines are long for the changing room. Sometimes you just don’t feel like trying something on. Whatever the case, you want to be able to try something on right there in the aisle. If you’re wearing layers, it’s possible. If I’ve got a tee on under a cardigan, I can pull the cardigan off and try things on. Also along these longs, I try to wear my favorite jeans, so that if I find tops that I like I can see how they’re wear with what I wear most often.
3. Master Items List. Know what you’re searching for at all times. (like I’m on the hunt for a card catalog). Also know what your friends are search for – a great example is that I mentioned I’m looking for Costco stools and several friends texted me from thrift stores when they found one to see if I wanted it.
4. Master Sizes List. You might know all this info, but I always forgot, so I want to have a list of all the sizes my kiddos wear. And their shoe sizes (that’s what I forget most!). That way when I find awesome things I know they’ll fit.
5. Repeat! Go again and again. Pop in all the time because there is new stuff all the time – you never know what you’ll find!!
A couple of the fun finds I came away with at the Savers Sneak Peek Event – –
the thrifting stars aligned and I found Teal Converse in my size – they were a little dirty (I think they had belonged to a kid?) but I threw them in the washer and they came out like new – score!!
And then of course there are those things that you find that aren’t on your list at all, but that you can’t pass up – – like pineapple purses 😉
It was fun to go with a couple blogging friends – if you have the option to thrift with friends, always take it!
Check out their Savers Experiences at BritneyDearest and FashionPlateKC!!
