HOW TO THRIFT like a pro all the thrifting tips tricks 360p

If you've ever walked into a thrift store, got overwhelmed and walked right back out, this video is for you. I'm sharing everything I wish I knew before I started thrifting. Hi you guys, what is up? Welcome back to my channel. Welcome to a new video. I am so excited for today's video. I have been working on it and curating all these tips and tricks for you guys for a little bit now. And this is one of the most common questions I get asked is how do I start thrifting? Do you have tips and tricks for beginner thrifters? And like, what do I look for? How do I get prepared? All those kinds of things. And so I wanted to put together a little bit of like a beginner's guide to thrifting and kind of like all the things I wish I knew before I started thrifting. And I'd like to acknowledge the fact that I am by no means like a professional thrifter. I'm just a girl who likes thrifting. I've been thrifting my whole life with my mom and I feel like she's passed down some really valuable information to me. I definitely think you can just go out into the world and thrift, but it can be really, really overwhelming and I just wanted to share some tips and tricks that I've kind of learned along the years that have helped me out a ton and just like share the wealth with you guys, share the knowledge. If you guys have any tips that I don't share in this video, comment them down below so that the comments can be, you know, a bunch of thrifting goodies and gems and all that stuff, but I'm really, really excited to jump into it. If you're new here, hi, my name's Carter. I'm 27. I talk all about getting through life in your 20s unfiltered and kind of do a little bit of everything on this channel. I try to film monthly thrift with mes. I also do them short form as well. Home projects for a renovated or a hundred-year-old fixer-upper home in the countryside. I'm a homebody. I love hobbies. I'm an introvert. We like to yap around here and vlog. So if that sounds fun to you, I'd love to have you in our little corner of the internet, but I'm gonna try and make this intro not super long because that is one of my weaknesses in life and just jump into it. Maybe you can have this on as like a podcast or just like listen to it on your way thrifting maybe. We've got lots of tips. So honestly, let's just jump into it. I am so excited. The first few tips kind of happen before you even get to the thrift store. And I'd say the first one, and these kind of like all go together in a sense, is to get inspiration. Have an idea of what you want. I don't really know what the phenomenon is called, but when you think of a red car and then you start seeing a red car, I feel like it's kind of like that with thrifting. If you kind of have an idea of what you want going into it, it's a little less overwhelming than let's say if you were to just walk into a thrift store and then be like, where do I start? What do I want? What am I looking for? I also think it helps save money and time in the long run where you're not just like picking up things, not knowing if you need them or not. So I love spending some time on Pinterest and just kind of curating, looking things up. Maybe you're taking a trip to Europe this summer and you're looking for some summer outfit inspiration and you can kind of also cross-reference with things you already have and things that you're missing in your closet. So also a great time to do like a closet declutter maybe and just kind of like see what is missing from your closet, where the gaps are and what you're looking for. I have two Pinterest boards. I have a thrifting for my home and then a thrifting clothing one and that just has a bunch of outfit inspiration with items I already have but then items I'm also looking for. I have to say too, if you're new to Pinterest, once you start looking things up, it'll kind of start to get to know you and be able to curate the feed to you a bit more. But I look up things like effortless, easy summer outfits or cozy cottage Nancy Meyers home and start to find things that I'm looking for and gaps in my wardrobe and in the house and I think getting inspiration just also gets you excited and helps you kind of like know what to look for when you get to the thrift store. Along with that, keeping a thrift list on your phone. I always have a thrifting wishlist in my notes app once I've kind of gotten inspiration and gotten organized. This helps you, I feel like not get so overwhelmed and know what areas to go to when you're going to the thrift store for the first few times. I also wanted to mention too, some easy items to look for that there kind of always is a lot of. So denim, graphic tees, hoodies, cardigans, button downs, books, homeware, mugs, et cetera. I also think too, setting yourself up for success is really important for your first few times thrifting. So going in with maybe one of those easier to find items. Maybe let's just say you're looking for a cute new mug. Maybe you moved out for the first time, you want some mugs. That's a good way to start, right? It's an area of the thrift store that there is a lot of and you're kind of setting yourself up for success. Next is going with a plan. I'm a planner, I'm type A. If you're type B watching this, you might just wanna go in and say F it. I'm just gonna meander and see where it takes me. By all means, go for it. But as a type A person, I need a plan. I think giving yourself lots of time. I wouldn't go thrifting for the first time when you have 20 minutes to kill before a doctor's appointment. I don't even like doing that now. Maybe go on a day off or on the weekend or in the evening. Give yourself time to peruse the store. I also recommend too, if it's your first time, I know that some of these US thrift stores can be massive from what I've seen in TikToks. Get a lay of the land. Just walk around the whole store. Maybe just take a visual inventory of where everything is and walk around the store to get a lay of the land first. That kinda helps you also not feel so overwhelmed because then after, if you wanna hit up the men's jackets, you kinda have a little bit of knowledge to where it is. I also think a really great tip with this is go in with three spots that you wanna tackle for your first few times thrifting. Helps keep it less overwhelming. And once again, kinda helps you go in with that plan of what you're looking for. So taking that thrifting wishlist and being like, okay, I'm looking for mugs, I'm looking for books, and I wanna go to the men's graphic tees. And that way, you're kinda going in with three categories in mind. I definitely think if you want, by all means walk around the whole store. But to make it less overwhelming, you don't have to shop the whole store first if you don't want to. I don't even do that as someone who goes thrifting often. I always go in with a few spots I wanna tackle. And it might change with different thrift stores too. Different thrift stores, you'll learn, have better items in different sections. The men's section is a gem, especially for the taller girlies like me. I also find there's more timeless pieces in the men's section. I think the women's section has a lot of fast fashion, a lot of she-in. Because the men's section tends to be a little bit smaller, it's also less overwhelming, so that's something to keep in mind too. The next tip, and my biggest tip, is it's gonna take trial and error. It is gonna take you some time to figure out the best locations to go to, the best time of day, the best day of the week. And you have to give yourself grace. And it's kind of fun to think the first few times you go, you're gonna wanna go at different times and different days of the week to see the best time to go. And every thrift store is gonna be so different, right? Try different areas in your city. Small towns, you guys, are where it's at. Everyone always asks me, why are the prices so good at your thrift store? It's because I live in a small town in the middle of nowhere. The best thrift stores are out of the city, in the suburbs, I fully believe that. And try different days, different times of days out to figure out the best time you like to go, and it's gonna be different, right? A lot of thrift stores, at least in my area, don't do color tags, but I know that that's a big thing, so knowing when they change the colors out. I personally find, from my local thrift stores, that going on a Tuesday is the best because a lot of people drop off their donations over the weekends, and then they kind of sift through the Monday, and I find the jackpot on Tuesday mornings. Mondays are also great. I mean, that doesn't mean you can't go any other day, but for me, I have the best luck on a Monday, or sorry, a Tuesday morning. Once again, depends on the thrift store. I know some of the chains in town restock every single day, so you might have luck even on a Thursday or Friday. Some thrift stores actually save their inventory to put out Thursday, Friday for the weekend crowd. Some people restock on midday Sunday. I also recommend, too, and it's kind of hard if you're an introvert like me, but to just talk to the staff and get to know them a little bit. Once you get to know these employees, they're a little bit more likely to tell you maybe when they restock things, when the good things go out, but every store is gonna be completely different. One near us restocks every single day. One of the value villages near me, the best is Tuesday. The other one, I find Thursday is the best because they save the good stuff to put out for the weekends. One thrift store, I think, is overpicked on the weekends, and everyone's gonna be a little bit different. Thrifting after a long weekend is also one of my favorite times to go. Thrifting after the new year, thrifting in the spring because people tend to do these big declutters, and also keeping things in mind, like is this a suburb, is it a student area, is this a fashionable area, and knowing that different areas are obviously, like I said, going to kind of excel in different areas of thrifting. I think it's really important to think about the people in that area and what they would be donating. So, for example, if I'm looking for very fashionable clothing, I might go to thrift stores that are near our university or our college campus, and if I'm looking for more vintage pieces, I may go to an area that's known for having maybe a bit of an older generation in it. You know, I have better luck with books in the suburbs versus the city, and just kind of getting to know different thrift stores and kind of what they're known for will really help you out in the long run. Now that we're in the thrift store, some of these tips are like a little bit all over the place. I personally, and some people are gonna disagree with me on this, and I think it's just the way that my brain works, I am a scan-first person. I don't have the time to be going through every single piece of clothing. I am not gonna lie to you guys. I don't wanna do that because I know what I'm looking for. I know what textures and fabrics and colors I'm looking for. I guess we can start with clothing first. When it comes to clothing, I will look at the rack, and I will just scan until a color or a texture or a pattern catches my eye. I don't wear yellow, orange, green, purple, so I'm not even gonna bother looking at those colors, which may seem silly to some people, but it kind of goes with the tip of buying things you're gonna get a lot of use out of. I wear a lot of black, gray, blue, pink, so my eyes automatically fixate on those colors, and for me, that just saves me some time. Some people love going through each individual item, and by no means am I against that, but I feel like no one talks about the other part, which is just scanning. I think, too, running your hand on the fabrics and getting a feel of what you're looking for. When I look for cardigans, I'm looking for those nice, thick knit ones and not those really thin ones that you kind of see sold at Old Navy and Gap right now, so I think knowing what fabrics you're looking for and what textures you're looking for is really, really important, but yeah, I'll basically do a scan first, and then when things start to kind of catch my eye and the alarm is going off in my head, I'll grab it and I'll put it in the cart. Same goes with the homeware, right? I kind of do a quick scan, and then anything that catches my eye color-wise with a mug maybe, I don't know, a cute white neutral mug, I'll grab it and I'll take it. Along with that, look high and low. As humans, we kind of automatically look at things that are eye-level right, and especially people who thrift under a time crunch, they're just gonna kind of look at things that they can see and move on. I have found some of my best treasures on the top and the bottom rack. It's also where people put things back because they don't want to put them back where they belong, and I think this is one of the most underrated thrifting strategies, honestly. You tend to, once again, scan at eye level and then keep moving, but I find that eye level is where those really overpicked items are. The good stuff is at the top and the bottom, and it's buried. See them restocking at the thrift store, especially in the home goods, they're always putting the new things at the front and pushing things back, and that doesn't mean the things in the back are overpicked, right? Sometimes you really gotta do some digging, and it really is the treasure hunt, especially for these thrift stores that are constantly restocking. They're always putting things out, pushing things, moving things around, and I find that the best treasures often get pushed to the back or to the side, and no one finds them. Don't get stuck on sizes. This one is a little bit controversial, and I just want to say, I think it is really, really important to be considerate of plus size and petite individuals, and just keeping sizing in mind, right? Oftentimes, we like things oversize and things that are different sizes, but those individuals who wear those sizes regularly are also trying to thrift, and I think it's really important to be considerate for those individuals as well. Clothing items, depending on the brand and even the decade, are gonna fit differently, and so I always try to go in my normal size, and then I usually go one up as well. I tend to not go one down just because I am also on the taller side, so let's say I normally wear a medium top. I don't tend to look in the small tops, but I will look in the large tops as well because vintage and older pieces tend to run smaller. With pant sizes, I tend to look one size down and one size up as well. If it looks like it's gonna fit, put it in the cart, and you can always try it on after before you leave. Next is thrifting for potential, and another way that I kind of prepare for this before I go to the thrift store is I love watching how I thrifted it versus how I styled it videos over on TikTok and Instagram. This really puts me in a creative mindset of knowing like, okay, I can look at something and not necessarily think of what it's currently serving a purpose as, but what I could turn it into, and so I think watching a lot of those videos kind of helps put you in a creative state of mind. For example, I saw someone take a napkin holder, use it as a sponge holder. I saw someone take napkin rings and use them to hold their curtains open. Fabric can be used to change your lampshade out, and I think when you see other people being creative and thrifting for potential, it also allows you to start getting creative with what you could use items for. When I'm looking at the prints and frames, for example, maybe I'll find a print that I really, really like, but I hate the frame. Guess what, you can take the frame out and you can put the print in something else, or vice versa, right? If you find a nice frame, run your hand along it for texture. Think of how it could look if you turned it gold or black or white, and you can always take the print out and just use the frame. Vases are really easy to paint. Furniture that's dinged up can be sanded down and painted or stained a different color. I love table linens. I love looking in the table, or sorry, no, the sheet section for tablecloths and curtains, and really just getting creative. And I feel like the more that you do it, almost the more creative you become, if that makes sense. Next is to dress smart. Not every thrift store is gonna have dressing rooms. Some of them do, some of them don't. Some of them never reopened after the pandemic. So I always try to dress smart so that I can try things on. So I always go either with leggings and a tight baby tee or shorts or something, depending on what I'm thrifting. If I'm looking for a lot of cardigans and dresses and tops, I'll typically do a more form-fitting top. That way I can slip it on easily and kind of know how it fits. If I'm looking for skirts and pants, I'll often do leggings. I know something fits with leggings on, it's gonna fit with a little bit of room when I wear it in my everyday life. So bringing socks for trying on shoes, and just making sure you're dressing smart so that you can maximize the things you can try on if there's no dressing room. My camera battery's dead. One second, I'll be back. But I forget what tip I was on because I got a little distracted, honestly, for a few minutes, giving some doggy snuggles. Okay, next one is don't get greedy. I think we're all a little guilty of this, honestly, especially when you start thrifting and if you have a thrift store near you that has great prices because you just kind of get on this high where you want to grab everything and then realize you have no use for it and then it's just like sitting in your closet. So try to remind myself that you don't always need something just because it's a good price. And I try to ask myself some questions when I'm thrifting to kind of help with the thrifting greed, if you will. Pies, I guess, for everything. Would I have paid full price for this? And then for clothing, I always ask myself, does this fit well and is this versatile with other pieces that I have? I'll also do the trick with clothing of not looking at a tag if I'm interested in a piece and then asking myself how much I would pay for this. I feel like it's so easy to just say yes to a lot of things and then they hoard up and take space in your closet. I'm guilty about this with home decor. I'm like, oh, one day I'll have a use for this. I'm trying to get out of that mindset and if I don't have a use for it now, I leave it behind for somebody else. For clothing, I also try to only buy items that I can make multiple outfits with and just try to be as sustainable as possible. I personally like having a wardrobe I can mix and match pieces with and a lot of neutrals. Another tip I have too is always try to imagine the item with pieces in your closet that you already know and love. So let's say you're trying to thrift like a nice cardigan. Does it go with pieces in your closet you already have? If it's a pair of pants, does it go with pieces in your closet that you already have? And then along with that, revisiting items before checkout because once again, we kind of get on this high when we're thrifting and for a lot of us, we'll put things in our cart even if we're unsure about them because then we'll try them all on and I always revisit my cart before I check out. I feel like this is a good way to kind of take the time to reflect and think on items and make sure that you really love them before checking out. I feel like you have to kind of almost wait for that high to wear off and then ask yourself like, okay, do I still really love this or did I just kind of love it in the moment because it was a good price? Do I have the need for it, et cetera? Next tip is bringing cash. I feel like whenever I thrift on a tighter budget or say like, okay, I have a $20 bill, let's see what it gets me. I'm a lot more picky with my items, of course, because you're kind of under that money constraint. I would rather have three to four items that I really, really love for $20 and that will wear a lot and get a lot of use out of versus maybe buying eight to 10 items just because they're a good price. And I also think it kind of creates a fun little challenge too of like, okay, what can I buy that I love for $20? And also know too that if you don't find anything, that is also okay. Not every thrift store trip is gonna be a success. Oftentimes on social media, of course, we just see the successful ones because who really wants to share the ones that aren't so successful, right? But there are so many thrift store trips that I take that I don't find anything and it is so normal. But I think when all you're seeing are the thrift store wins online, you kind of assume that you're always gonna find something. So keep that in mind too, is that not every trip is gonna be a success. And lastly, is to shop off season. Get your winter coats in the summer, get your rain jackets in the summer. You know, if you're looking for a barn coat, if you're looking for something that a lot of people want, those like brown, what are they called, like pea coats? The brown, you know, long fall coats. Look in the spring and summer. I have my best luck thrifting for off season, or sorry, I have my best luck thrifting for seasonal pieces when it's off season because there's less competition and obviously not everyone is looking for it. So I found a really great rain coat once in the middle of winter because most people in the winter are looking for winter things. I have found a really great pair of winter boots in the summer because most people aren't looking for winter things in the summer. And so be open to all seasons all year round, I think is a great way to also just like approach it. This time of year, I'm also looking for sweaters and knits and cardigans and long sleeves and pants and jackets and everything because right now people are thrifting for the summer and not for the fall winter. So it's less overpicked. And I think you should just go into it looking for all seasons kind of at once and don't restrict yourself. But anyways, those are all the tips that I have for thrifting, I hope this video was helpful. And like I said, if you have any tips that I didn't, you know, mention, let me know down below so we can kind of share the thrifting love and the thrifting knowledge. Do wanna also mention too that I think it is so important to leave a store better than you found it. If you are interested in something, just put it back in its original spot. I feel like it helps out employees so much. Please be kind to the employees. I think the thrill of thrifting is where the fun of it is. That's a tongue twister, the thrill of thrifting is just where the fun is. So know that not every trip is gonna be a success. And part of the fun is never knowing what you're gonna find. It does take practice, not every trip is gonna be a win. And I also want to mention too that the more people thrift, the more demand will create more supply between stores. And I feel like it's so important in the same age to encourage sustainable shopping. But I hope you guys enjoyed, I love you guys so much. And I'll talk to you in the next one, bye.