#fashion – South Jersey Secondhand Style

Many times you pick up a hobby because you saw someone else doing it and you thought it might be fun. As a child some of my hobbies included playing soccer, scrapbooking, and helping my mom bake. My friends and family got me into hobbies where we shared the same interests. As the years have gone on my interest and hobbies have change. I now spend most of my free time crafting or thrifting.

In the past couple of years I have become greatly interested in thrift shopping. I love the thrill of finding something great at Goodwill. Though I have been highly influenced by others, I mainly credit my mom for getting me so interested in thrift shopping. For as long as I can remember my mom used to love taking my sister and I to garage sales on the weekends. I believe this is where my love for “finding treasure in someone else’s trash” began. My mom loved that we could find something cool and exciting at a garage sale because she would only have to spend some pocket change on it. For a while I forgot about garage saling with my mom and all of the great things we used to find. A couple years back she mentioned it and how much fun it would be to do again. This time instead of going to a garage sale, we decided to visit a couple local thrift stores. It was a blast! Though we didn’t find many things worth purchasing, it was all about the experience and memories. For me that is what thrifting is all about, the experience.

Know what you are coming for!
Walking into a thrift store can be overwhelming, especially if you are new to the scene. They tend to be a bit unorganized and all over the place. Unlike a department store, they don’t have a large quantity of the same merchandise. It is difficult to sort through and organize, this is where you come in. If you know exactly what you are looking for before entering, you wont get so lost in the chaos.

DON’T forget the little things
Make sure to check small details such as rips, zippers, and buttons. If you are not willing to repair them yourself than you might as well toss them back.

Be aware of further discounts
Most thrift stores offer sales on specific days. Goodwill has something called color days, where they offer 50% off items marked with the specified color tag.They also offer senior citizen and military discounts. Make sure you know what days they are running sales because these are the days that you can score some great finds.

DON’T be grossed out
A majority of the things you find at thrift stores have been used before. Whether it be clothes or a furniture piece, the point is to make use out of something someone else could not. No matter what you purchase it can be cleaned!

Have a lot of time and patience
You can spend hours just thumbing through the racks at your local Goodwill. Since there is so much to see make sure you leave yourself a lot of time, this is no place to rush. In order to find your best deals be patient and never get discouraged, there’s always something.

Money, money, money! It seems like everyone nowadays is watching how much money they spend and are trying to find ways to cut down on their spending. That’s one of the great things about thrift shopping, it’s cheap! Sharing your finds is a great way to get others in on the thrifting trend. There is no need for a fancy camera, it can be as simple as snapping a quick picture for your Instagram. In partner with this blog, we run a Instagram called @southjerseysecondhandstyle where we showcase some of our thrifted finds. Sydney, who runs the Instagram, does an amazing job of photographing the pieces for each post. In each post she shows the item and how it can be used in her own home. In one post she uses a cute duck mug (pictured above) that she purchased to hold her paintbrushes. It appears that the mug is placed on her desk with some books and bottles of paint. Showing her items in their simple everyday use makes it a lot more relatable for viewers. Make sure to give our Instagram a follow to see all of our amazing thrift store finds!

Tag: #fashion

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