Is this love? Dos and Don'ts of Starting a New Relationship with a Thrift Store

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Diversifying your thrift route is one of the key elements to being a successful thrifter and for making secondhand become second nature. I attribute my thrifting success to the habit of regularly adding new-to-me stores into my rotation. These are some lessons I’ve learned along the way:

Dos and Don’ts of starting a new relationship with a thrift store:

• Do explore outside of your immediate area. We like to try one new store a month.

• Don’t judge the store based on the neighborhood or area. I’ve been to some of the worst stores in some of the most prestigious cities and neighborhoods.

• Do a quick five minute walkthrough of the store before you focus on one area.

• Do a search of the store on social media before stopping in to get a feel of the vibe, but keep an open mind and don’t base your judgement totally on what you see on their page.

• Don’t assume all major retail thrift stores are the same. For example, Goodwills are operated by territories so their pricing, layout, and inventory will be different from one city to another.

• Do explore beyond typical retail thrift stores and try other ways of shopping secondhand such as antique, consignment, online, and rummage stores.

Click here for a list of my favorite thrift stores in Northeast Ohio.

Thanks, it’s Thrifted is a podcast about secondhand shopping hosted by two treasure-hunting friends, Dina & Shannon. Subscribe today. Follow on Instagram @dinasdays and @thanksitsthrifted.pod. For more about the podcast visit dinasdays.com/podcast.