Thrift

The Best Secondhand Stores in Indianapolis

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Thanks to everyone who came out to FairSwap15 last week! Check out the gallery of awesome photos by Abigail K Photography, and keep an eye on our new Events page to find out when the next swap will be.

Best Secondhand Stores in Indianapolis

Photo by Abigail K Photography

For the last seven years or so—ever since I learned that sweatshops and poor labor conditions in factories were not in fact eliminated in the 1990s and remain widespread today—I’ve done the majority of my shopping secondhand, which I consider to be an ethical choice for a variety of reasons. Thankfully, I live in Indianapolis, a city rich with excellent thrift, vintage and consignment shops. This Secondhand September, I wanted to share my picks for the best secondhand stores in Indianapolis.

Goodwill

I go to Goodwill like other people go to Target. It’s my first stop for almost any purchase. They have almost everything, I live right by the excellent N. Keystone location, and it’s reliably well-organized and clean.

  • 25+ locations in the Indy area
  • Price point: Most items under $10
  • Good for: Clothing and home items particularly, but they have virtually everything
  • Need to know: Hit a savings bonus by shopping their “color of the week” (not the actual color of the item—each item has a different colored plastic tag) for 50% off.

Vintage Vogue

Despite its unique name, Vintage Vogue is actually a Goodwill store with a twist. It stocks items from the Goodwill donation stream but is arranged and styled like a boutique to provide a more conventional shopping experience. The selection is curated to include higher quality, trendier items, which is great if you don’t have a lot of time to invest in sifting through the racks.

Sales floor of Vintage Vogue store

The boutique-y layout of Vintage Vogue

  • 2361 E 62nd Street
  • Price point: Slightly more expensive than a regular Goodwill store. I paid $10 for jeans and $8 for a shirt there once.
  • Good for: Women’s clothing
  • Need to know: Vintage Vogue is located close to the N. Keystone Goodwill location as well as The Toggery, making Glendale an efficient neighborhood for a big shopping trip.

Value World

I go to Value World when I’m shopping for costumes. The selection tends to be a little older and quirkier (though I’ve gotten some very wearable shirts there), but the super-low prices are perfect for buying something you plan to modify or wear infrequently. I also like to shop for shoes at Value World because they keep most of the shoes in one area instead of spreading them out a la Goodwill.

  • 4 locations around Indy
  • Price point: Generally very low. Some items are priced at $1-2.
  • Good for: Tops, shoes
  • Need to know: There are no fitting rooms at Value World, so don’t plan to buy anything there where the fit is really important.

Broad Ripple Vintage

Do you like The Doors? Good, because that’s pretty much all they play as the soundtrack at Broad Ripple Vintage, and it represents very well what you’ll find there.

  • 824 E 64th Street
  • Price point: Moderate
  • Good for: Men’s & women’s clothing
  • Need to know: The style at BRV skews toward the 60’s and 70’s hippie look, though there are outliers. They also have a great selection of 80’s prom dresses and women’s slips, crinolines and other retro undergarments.

The Toggery

I’m currently wearing my absolute favorite pair of black pants, which I bought at The Toggery. It’s a consignment store, meaning they only accept what they think will sell, which leads to higher prices than a thrift store but a much higher quality selection.

Rack of clothes at The Toggery

  • 1810 Broad Ripple Ave.
  • Price point: Moderate. I recall these black pants being $12, but they also sell designer items at a higher price point.
  • Good for: Stylish, work-appropriate clothing
  • Need to know: Make money on your own unwanted clothes, shoes and accessories by consigning them here.

Lux & Ivy

Lux & Ivy caters to the rock n’ rollers of Fountain Square, according to owner Sara Baldwin Schatz. The vintage selections at her shop inside the Murphy Building have a distinctly edgy flair.

  • 1043 Virgina Ave, Suite 209
  • Price point: From $5 – $100 depending on the era and condition of the item
  • Good for: Edgy vintage clothing
  • Need to know: The shop contains a mix of vintage and new items, so choose carefully if you’re aiming for a 100% secondhand haul.

Thrifty Threads

Thrifty Threads is a shop with a big heart. Clients from the Julian Center shop at Thrifty Threads for free to help get back on their feet. Proceeds from items sold to the public help underwrite Julian Center programs and services.

  • 1501 W 86th Street
  • Good for: Clothing, furniture
  • Need to know: The National Council of Jewish Women also operates a boutique within the thrift store selling second-hand designer clothing.

Do you have a favorite secondhand shop not listed here? Share it in the comments!

A Secondhand September

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This September is shaping up to be a secondhand-centric month. Not only is my very first clothing swap event tomorrow (!), but the Ethical Writers Coalition is leading a Secondhand Challenge. The EWC challenges you to rethink your attitudes toward secondhand shopping and begin to think secondhand first.

Ethical Writers Coalition Secondhand Challenge

Using secondhand items is ethical for a variety of reasons:

  1. It saves usable items from the landfill
  2. It doesn’t use the energy and materials required to produce new items
  3. It opposes cultural pressure to buy everything new
  4. It honors the people who make items by not treating their work as disposable

Secondhand items can be found at thrift shops and consignment stores or alternative channels like clothing swaps, Craigslist, Freecycle, neighborhood message boards, Yerdle, and more.

The flip side of the coin of secondhand shopping is putting our own unwanted items out into the secondhand market. This can be an ethical challenge in itself. According to the documentary The True Cost, only 10% of the clothes people donate to charity or thrift stores gets sold. The rest ends up in landfills or is shipped to developing countries where the flood of secondhand clothing can undermine local industry. That’s why the EWC challenge also includes an emphasis on finding the right channels for discarding your unwanted things (such as the alternative channels listed above).

Here are a few of my favorite posts collected by the EWC’s Secondhand Challenge so far:

Thrift shopping is how I get most things I need, but I’m excited to take another step in supporting secondhand culture with the clothing swap tomorrow. If you’re in the Indy area and haven’t signed up yet, join us!

Personal Shopper: Ethical Pants & Jeans

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Ethical Pants & Jeans

My dear friend and bandmate Bethany came to me recently with a plea for help finding ethical work pants and jeans. Specifically she requested that they be “fashionable and not super super expensive.” With those guidelines in mind, here are my recommendations:

Work Pants (i.e. business pants, slacks, etc.)

1. Consignment stores

As I wrote in my previous personal shopper post for Sarah, secondhand stores are my go-to solution for pants, primarily because I can try things on. If you’re looking for higher quality items, start with consignment stores. The prices will be higher than a typical thrift store but still less expensive than buying new, and the selection is curated so you don’t have to rifle through so much crap. It’s the dream intersection between thrift shopping and efficiency. The Toggery is an Indianapolis consignment store where I’ve had good luck in the past.

2. Thrift stores

If you don’t find something that works for you at a consignment store, try a regular thrift store. Plenty of people give away nice work pants, you just may have to spend more time looking. Bethany could also try Vintage Vogue, which is a boutique concept store run by Goodwill (just down the street from the Toggery, in fact). It’s like a consignment store in that its selection is curated, and the prices are somewhere between regular Goodwill and a consignment store. (If that doesn’t work out, there’s a regular Goodwill store around the corner. All of these are within 10 minutes of my house—I kind of live in the Mecca of thrift shopping in Indy.)

3. New options

The other main reason that I rely so heavily on thrift shopping for work pants is that I haven’t found a lot of newly made ethical options. In addition to the pants listed in my post for Sarah, these are a couple of new options that could work:

Fair Indigo Knit Pant and Monkee Genes Chino

1) Fair Indigo Knit Pant

  • Made fairly in Peru
  • Organic cotton
  • Look like work pants but sneakily feel like sweatpants
  • Also comes in a slim leg

2) Monkee Genes Chino

  • Produced without child labor or slave labor
  • Organic cotton
  • Monkee Genes is beginning an initiative to improve working conditions in fashion supply chains

Jeans

1. Consignment shops and thrift stores

I also go for secondhand when buying jeans, both so I can check the fit and because while there are many ethical jeans options, most are wicked expensive. Consignment shops are a great place to start if you’re looking for trendier jeans, and you never know what gems you’ll find in a regular thrift store.

2. New options

The going price for most new ethical jeans is between $200 and $300 a pair. I think that’s bananas, even for an ethically-made garment. The options below are still an investment but significantly less expensive than most ethical brands.

Ethical jeans from IOU, Monkee Genes and Howie's

1) IOU Slim Stretch Jean

  • Fabric made in Greece, assembled in Italy
  • Each IOU product has a distinct code that allows buyers to know exactly who wove their fabric and which artisan company assembled it

2) Monkee Genes Bamboo Dark Skinny Jeans

  • Produced without child labor or slave labor
  • Monkee Genes is beginning an initiative to improve working conditions in fashion supply chain

3) Howies Manon Stretch Skinny Jeans

  • Made in Portugal
  • Cotton-Tencel blend fabric uses less water than 100% cotton
  • Designed to be long-lasting with triple-stitching and other durable features

For a particularly inexpensive option, take a look at the Premium Women’s Stretch Jeans by Texas Jean sold at MadeInUSAForever.com. I bought a pair of these a couple years ago and was pleasantly surprised that they are more straight-legged than the photos suggest (unless they have changed the cut since then). They are made 100% in the USA from fabric to assembly.

Pants remain one of the most challenging purchases to make ethically, but the scene is constantly improving. A few years ago I wouldn’t have been able to find multiple mid-range jeans options, but now here we are!

Do you have any recommendations for ethical pants and jeans? Which brands have you tried and liked?

6 Myths About Buying Ethical Clothing

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The post below was originally published by Leah on Style Wise. It may challenge some of your viewpoints about ethical shopping, but it’s ultimately meant to empower you. You have more options for making a difference than you might think!

6 Myths About Buying Ethical Clothing

Far and away the most common negative comment I get on ethical fashion articles I’ve written for other sites is some variation of:

“Good for you for having enough money to buy expensive clothes. Some of us can’t afford to buy a closet full of ethical clothing and it’s classist for you to even mention it. Have you no pity on poor people in your own country? And have you considered the fact that people in foreign countries will lose their jobs if we stop buying from sweatshops? Better to have a lousy job than no job at all.”

Some of them are considerably less harsh and some are too horrific to repeat here, but it’s clear to me that the biggest deterrence to acquiring an ethical wardrobe is money. So let me clarify a few things.

Firstly, I absolutely do care about the plight of the poor in my own country. It’s despicable that, despite our national wealth, more than 45 million people live below the poverty line. And we’ve got a few social safety nets, but we haven’t really figured out how to help people get a leg up long term, and it’s only getting worse. And it’s just a matter of fact that low cost, sweatshop-sourced clothing may be the best financial option for a lot of people. If you live paycheck to paycheck and have trouble putting clothes on your back and the backs of your children, please know that I not only feel for you, but I think you need to make the best choice for your family, even if that means making the ethics of your clothing choices less of a priority, or not a priority at all. You are welcome to this conversation, of course, but you may have other things to worry about.

But I also know for a fact that a lot of you can afford to consider your purchases. You’re the ones I’m talking to (and I get the sense that, by and large, you’re also the ones making the most excuses). Reality check: I manage a local thrift shop and my husband is a grad student. We aren’t exactly making it rain over here. But we do benefit a lot from the knowledge that, if something were to happen to us, our parents would be able to step in to support us. We have a social network that makes us feel secure and that helps us make long term financial decisions we couldn’t make if we were going it completely alone. We also don’t have children to support, so our income stretches a bit further.

I am aware of my relative privilege, but I suspect there are a lot of you in my position who don’t realize that it is possible to change your spending habits without breaking the bank. If you can overcome a few prevalent myths, you’ll be on your way to making better choices in no time.

Myth 1: It’s a given that I will buy at least a dozen new items every season.

For many of us, it would be a financial disaster to buy more than a handful of fair trade clothing items every 6 months. But, if you’ve already built a basic wardrobe, you don’t need to buy more than a couple new things a year. Magazines and 5 week trend cycles make us feel obligated to keep up with every new fad on the market, but it isn’t necessary or even fulfilling. You may have to buy less if you’re purchasing from more ethical brands, but that probably won’t hurt you in the long run. Plus, in my own experience, fair trade and domestically produced items from small brands hold up better than fast fashion items anyway, so you won’t need to replace your staples as often.

Myth 2: I can’t dress well with secondhand items.

My go-to advice for people considering their purchases for the first time is to start with thrift shopping. The sticker shock of fair trade and sustainable items will wear off eventually, but in the meantime, try secondhand on for size. A lot of people insist that they can’t get high quality items at thrift shops, but I suspect they don’t regularly visit them. The thrift market is booming and it’s surprisingly easy to find something you like that’s in great condition.

And yes, thrift shopping is a more ethical option, even if you’re buying conventional brands there. Why? Because you’re not contributing to demand for new items and you’re ensuring that things don’t end up in the landfill so quickly. Additionally, money spent at thrift shops supports local charities.

Myth 3: My specific circumstances (size, profession, location) prevent me from buying from ethical retailers.

I feel you on this one. The ethical market is still growing and it’s not always easy – or possible – to find things that fit well or suit your lifestyle. To you, I’d suggest a few options:

  1. Buy from online consignment stores like thredUP and Twice. You may be able to find a greater variety of sizes and styles from secondhand sites online.
  2. Search ebay’s pre-owned section for brands you like.
  3. Buy well. If you can’t find ethical or secondhand options, try to buy things that will last. You’ll save money over time and you won’t contribute as heavily to demand for sweatshop goods. I do this with shoes, because it’s difficult to find well-made, comfortable shoes on the ethical market (though there are a growing number of companies filling the void).

Continue reading on Style Wise >>

Random Roundup: Inside a Sweatshop & Where Old Clothes Go

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It’s been a while since I’ve posted a roundup, but I found some great links recently and had to share!

Some of you may have already heard about the Norwegian web series Sweatshop. It sends three fashion-loving Norwegians in their late teens/early twenties to Cambodia to meet garment workers, experience factory conditions, and try to survive on their wages. Each episode is only about 12 minutes long; I highly recommend watching the full series.

The journey of your old clothes graphic

Do you ever wonder, where do your old clothes go? In this multimedia article from the BBC, the journey of donated clothing is traced from start to finish, sometimes ending in a local charity shop and sometimes in secondhand clothing markets in countries like Ghana and Pakistan. The economic benefits of the secondhand clothing industry are up for debate—clothing markets flourish in developing countries (and create interesting jobs like the personal shopper profiled in the article), but they have also contributed to a decline in textile employment.

Screenshot of AIGA sustainbility video

I was recently watching videos from the AIGA Design Conference from a few years ago and came across this gem about sustainability, presented by Leyla Acaroglu. The ideas she presents aren’t limited to design-specific issues, and she brings a lot of energy to the sometimes daunting goal of reducing environmental impact. My favorite takeaway from the video is that “sustainability is an opportunity, not a problem.”

Have you watched the Sweatshop series? What were your thoughts?

Thrift Store Score: All the Shirts

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Last weekend I was at Goodwill picking up a picture frame and decided to browse shirts on a whim to see if I could fill either of the holes I had previously identified in my wardrobe: blouses for work and casual-yet-stylish t-shirts for the weekend. (As I’ve mentioned before in my thrift shopping tips, it’s best to have something specific in mind when thrifting.)

I must have done something to please the thrift store gods, because I found five count ’em FIVE shirts and satisfied two wardrobe needs! Check and mate.

Photo of thrift store shirts hanging on clothes rack

I got two work blouses and three t-shirts. Picking out a shirt in the morning accounts for about 46% of my sartorial anxiety, so having these extra choices should reduce that dramatically (and enable me to part with some of the shirts I have that I don’t really like).

Julia in a purple thrift store t-shirt

The purple shirt in action! I’ve also already worn both of the work blouses. Coral and teal t-shirts: your time is coming soon.

For those of you who have jumped on board with the blog recently, here’s a recap of why thrift shopping is my absolute favorite way to buy clothing:

  • It eliminates waste. I haaaate waste, so I love the idea of diverting still-useful clothing to a new home instead of a landfill.
  • It’s economical. I got those five shirts for $22! Boom.
  • I get to try stuff on. I like looking at ethical clothing brands online and will occasionally make an online purchase, but sometimes you just need to know how something is going to fit.
  • It allows me to get some newer, on-trend styles without giving my money to brands with questionable manufacturing practices. (I realize this isn’t a perfectly ethical motivator, since the fast fashion cycle is one of the things that makes trendy items available in thrift stores, but if I’m being honest it’s still a reason I like thrifting. I would rather give those items a second life than reject them on principle.)

Have you had any good thrift finds lately? My next wardrobe holes to fill are black flats and a white cardigan, so hopefully I’ll have success stories about those soon.

Thrift Store Score

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A few weeks ago I was running errands in the Glendale area of Indianapolis and saw a billboard for a new store called Vintage Vogue just around the corner. I can rarely resist the urge to explore anything labeled “vintage,” so I immediately went to check it out:

Vintage Vogue exterior sign

Before I went in, I pulled up their website to check that they were open and see if they were truly a vintage store, as opposed to a boutique that sells 90% new stuff (which is an irritating trend I’ve seen lately—boutiques trying to bill themselves as vintage when they’re not). I was surprised to find that this particular shop wasn’t truly vintage, either, but not in a shady way—it’s actually a new concept from Goodwill. You could call it “Goodwill: Just the Good Stuff.”

Sales floor of Vintage Vogue store

The shop sells used clothing such as what you’d find at a regular Goodwill, plus accessories and a handful of home decor items, but it’s filtered to include only the more fashionable and high-quality items. As you can see, the store itself is designed like a boutique, in contrast to the bare-bones look of other Goodwill locations. The items are at a slightly higher price point than regular Goodwill, but that didn’t bother me, since I saved time by not having to sift through a lot of out-of-fashion or poor-quality items.

Sales floor of Vintage Vogue store

Following my thrift store shopping guidelines, I looked for a couple of specific items: versatile shirts I could wear to work and on the weekend, and black skinny pants. I found a White House Black Market shirt for $9 and black Forever 21 jeans for $7.50.

Photos of Julia in thrifted outfit

The top right photo is my “Yesssss I found what I wanted!” victory pose.

One concern that occurred to me as I shopped was whether this kind of store takes good items away from regular Goodwill stores. People who can’t afford the higher prices at Vintage Vogue should still have the opportunity to find high-quality items. My thought was that Goodwill’s donation volume is probably so high that pulling items for these stores wouldn’t make a huge difference in the overall selection. The Vintage Vogue website seems to confirm that assumption:

Vintage Vogue merchandise comes from select central Indiana Goodwill stores. These stores hand-pick a small portion of their upscale and vintage donations to send to Vintage Vogue. Special items and boutique merchandise can still be found at any of the more than 50 Goodwill locations in central Indiana.

It looks like Vintage Vogue is just a central Indiana concept right now, with this store in Indianapolis and another one in Bloomington. If you’re in the area and are looking for a gateway into shopping secondhand, I recommend checking it out!

Have you had any good thrift store finds lately? What are your favorite thrifting spots?

News Roundup: June 2014

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Conestoga wagon with post title

Circle the wagons, it’s roundup time! To be honest, I didn’t spend a ton of time reading this month. I was too busy trying to get outside as much as possible! However, the stuff I did read was top-notch quality. Check out the links below!

You Don’t Have to Feel It —This post blew my face off with truth. It explores our motivations for doing good, and how emotion can’t be the only motivator we have. (Style Wise)

Dov Charney: the man who put the sleaze factor into American Apparel — American Apparel founder and CEO Dov Charney was ousted this month in relation to alleged misconduct (he’s a notorious creeper, to say the least). I love the manufacturing ethics of American Apparel but have always felt weird supporting them because of their over-sexualized photography and Charney’s grossness. Hopefully his removal means the brand can move in a less offensive direction. (The Guardian)

Benefit Corporations Look Beyond The Profit Motive — Basic overview of the concept of “benefit corporations” (commonly known as B Corporations). The quote below addresses what I think is one of the keys for social enterprise to really take off. Profit isn’t everything! (NPR)

There are legal protections when a state signs on: A shareholder can’t sue a benefit corporation for valuing the environment as much as profit.
— Benefit Corporations Look Beyond The Profit Motive

Greenpeace Reviews Major Food Retailers for Sustainable Seafood Purchasing — One of the best and easiest-to-understand articles I’ve seen about sustainable seafood. (Triple Pundit)

2014 Trafficking in Persons Report — This annual report ranks countries into tiers based on their efforts toward combating human trafficking. (U.S. State Department)

Reader Request: Ethical Jeans — In my post of pants recommendations for Sarah, I noted that ethical high-end jeans being pretty widely available. And what do you know, Jamillah coincidentally just wrote a post with ethical jeans recommendations! (Made to Travel)

Host a Clothing Swap! — Dominique shares helpful step-by-step instructions for organizing a clothing swap with friends—a great way to give old clothes a new home! (Let’s Be Fair)

Top 3 Resale Sites — Elizabeth reviews her favorite apparel resale sites with helpful notes on return policies and how to sell. (The Note Passer)

Did you read the Style Wise link at the top? Go do that now. Then have a great week!

Personal Shopper: Ethical Work Clothes

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This is the first of a new kind of post that may become a periodic feature here on the Fair for All blog. It’s a foray into ethical “personal shopping,” meaning I take someone’s real-life need and try to find an ethical solution that works for them. It’s definitely an experiment, so I hope you enjoy the results!

My first personal shopping guinea pig is my friend Sarah. She’s a youth pastor and the mom of a very active toddler, and she is in need of new clothes for work, particularly pants. Her criteria for the pants were that they be a neutral color and have pockets. She also mentioned she could use some new tops.

Here are the recommendations I came up with for Sarah based on her needs:

Collage of recommended ethical work clothes

Pants

In my research I found that there are not a lot of ethically-produced, work-appropriate pants available currently. I found ethical yoga pants, leggings, pants in crazy patterns, and high-end jeans, but very little in the way of conservative-but-flattering slacks. As a result, my first recommendation was…

1. Thrift shopping

I recommended thrift shopping as the best way to purchase pants ethically for a couple of key reasons:

  • You get to try them on! Sarah expressed fit as a concern when we were talking, and with her busy schedule, she doesn’t have time to be shipping pants back and forth from the internet to find the right fit. (Pro tip: Make sure the thrift store you’re shopping at has fitting rooms before you start browsing.)
  • The selection at chain thrift stores like Goodwill is pretty broad, which means your chances of finding something in the right size and style are pretty decent. If you don’t find what you need at a basic thrift store, you can move up to consignment stores, which tend to carry higher-end merchandise.

I also sent Sarah the following online options in case she needed something brand new.

2. Fair Indigo Slim Leg Fair Trade Organic Pant

  • Made fairly in Lima, Peru, out of organic cotton
  • Machine-washable
  • Does not appear to have pockets

3. Halle Pant by prAna

  • Available in four different neutral colors and has pockets
  • Cannot find any ethical information about these pants specifically. (PrAna has a line of Fair Trade Certified clothing, but these pants are not part of that line.)

4. Eco-Couture Audrey Women’s Hemp Slacks from Rawganique

  • Made in a sweatshop-free facility in Europe
  • Have pockets and are machine-washable
  • Come in natural or black

Tops

Compared to pants, finding ethical tops was a breeze—I was able to actually take Sarah’s personal style into account instead of just scrounging for anything. Since her need for tops was secondary, I only sent her two online options:

5. Fair Indigo Circle Neck Organic Fair Trade T-shirt

  • Comes in several colors
  • Made fairly of organic cotton in Lima, Peru
  • Machine-washable
  • Site has several other tops that Sarah might like

6. Ellie Top by prAna

  • Part of prAna’s Fair Trade Certified collection
  • Made of organic cotton
  • Comes in four colors

I also recommended thrift shopping as a great source for tops. If you’re already out getting pants, why not?

The Verdict

I sent my recommendations to Sarah last week and asked for her feedback. Which options sounded like they would actually work? Her response:

“I’ve been wanting to get to Goodwill since you mentioned it! I’m really excited to get there after the mission trip and VBS.”

Thrift shopping was the option that Sarah thought made the most sense for her. I’ll be interested to see if she has success when she goes shopping later this month!

Are you interested in being an ethical personal shopping guinea pig? Leave a comment or send me an email at info@fairforallguide.com! I’m excited to help people find ways for ethical shopping to work in the real world.

My Top 3 Thrift Shopping Tips

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With all of the fair trade topics I have been covering lately, it’s been a while since I’ve mentioned my other approach to ethical consumerism: thrift shopping. While I tend to go fair trade when purchasing gifts for others, when I need something for myself the first stop is the thrift store. Thrift shopping reduces waste by giving old items a new life, and when you buy from a thrift shop, your money does not go to support the companies who produced the items using potentially exploitative practices.

Thrift shopping can be overwhelming, especially if you’re not used to the structure (or lack of structure) in your local resale shops. Here are my top three tips for finding items you will love and wear!

Infographic of top 3 thrift shopping tips

1. Have a specific item in mind

For several years, I viewed thrift stores as magical wonderlands full of treasures for me to discover, and I would go thrift shopping with no set agenda or list. This approach led to me having a closet full of interesting and eye-catching items that didn’t necessarily work together as outfits and weren’t practical for my everyday life.

Nowadays, when I hit the thrift store I look for one thing. Black pants. Comfortable flats. A tan cardigan. Having a specific item in mind helps me focus in the often overwhelming landscape. The time you save by not aimlessly wandering the aisles is time you can spend really evaluating at every available option that matches what you want.

2. Try things on

For me, one of the major benefits of thrift shopping over buying ethically-produced clothing online is the ability to try things on. I don’t have the patience for the song-and-dance of ordering something, it not fitting, and having to send it back. Thrift shopping is my answer to this problem. The clothes are right there! I can try on 10 pairs of pants immediately!

Before you start gathering things to try on, be sure to confirm that the store you’re at has a fitting room. Of the thrift stores near me, Goodwill has fitting rooms while Value World does not. If you’re at an independently-owned vintage or consignment shop, it could go either way, so be sure to look around or ask a clerk if you don’t immediately see one.

Stores without fitting rooms can still be worthwhile stops depending on what you are looking for. You can try on cardigans, jackets, shoes, and accessories without a fitting room, so if I’m looking for any of those things I include stores without fitting rooms in my lineup.

Rack of clothing at a thrift store

Photo credit: tome213 @ freeimages.com

3. If you don’t love it, don’t buy it

This is perhaps the hardest lesson to learn in thrift shopping. I used to buy anything that fit decently, regardless of whether I needed it or what condition it was in (other than major damage or holes). As a result I had a wardrobe that looked like it had already been through the wringer and again didn’t always cohere into good outfits.

Now I ask myself a series of questions before I buy something. Is it in like-new condition, or does it already look worn-out? (Cheap knit fabrics can wear out and pill easily, so check for wear even on current styles.) Do I feel good wearing it? Is it flattering on me? Would I buy this item new if I saw it in a regular store?

Those are my top three tips for successful thrift shopping. I’d love to hear yours—post ’em in the comments!