Never Go Back to Retail

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Disclaimer: this post is not sponsored! I am not receiving any compensation from thredUP for this post. Just reporting on my experience and pushing everyone I know to give thrifting a go!

One of my colleagues in Italy recently told me I would have fun checking out the “saldi” since it’s that season in Milan right now…

But 1) nothing is on sale in Milan unless you got to Primark or H&M, and you will never catch me making purchases from those “fast fashion monsters” ever again and 2) I’d honestly rather thrift and feel good about doing my part to live sustainably.

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A few months back, I wrote about my journey with “fashion” and figuring out the best way to manage a tidy, sustainable closet. Definitely check out that post if you haven’t yet!

I was keeping the concept of “sustainability” in my mind even before the concept of “fast fashion” exploded in the media. To me, I could never fathom the idea of spending an irresponsible amount of money on piles of clothes I’d never wear.

I’m also very type-A, and an excel sheet is involved in my organization methods…

So that’s why I don’t go “shopping” anymore. Except maybe for essentials like running shoes, socks, and underwear…but even those are 1-2x a year purchases 😛.

When it comes to clothes? Ladies and gentleman, we have a dire problem on our hands. We need to start acting responsibly when it comes to our textile purchases.

And just in case you didn’t know—ya’ll, it’s okay to thrift.

One site I’ve grown fond of recently is thredUP. They’ve been around for a while, but I recently took advantage of them since I was trying to change up my wardrobe this year because of 1) a new job (no more lazy lab-researcher-at-the-bench looks!) and 2) a desire to change things up!

After selling locally at resell shops in Houston, I put together a collection of clothes and shoes I wasn’t able to sell, and packaged it for thredUP. thredUP is an online “thrift” site where you can send in clothes to try and sell, or buy clothes that have been sent in by others. You can filter out clothes by brand, size, and quality (brand new with tags all the way to “good” condition).

Even clothes that qualify as “good” condition are heavily vetted.

If any of your sent items are passed, they are responsibly recycled according to their FAQ.

They also give a very generous first-timers discount (about 50% off most listed items + free shipping). I took advantage of this code recently, and made way with some very snazzy items if I do say so myself…

I got all of this for around $50, free shipping with my first-order promo code.

This collection included:

✨ Guess Sleeveless Blouse (New with tags)

✨ Ivory Ella Long Sleeve T Shirt (tie-dye style, excellent used condition)

✨ Black Winter Hollister Cardigan (New with tags, uhm what?!)

✨ Billabong Summer Dress (New with tags, again…anyone who’s ever shopped at PacSun knows that these surfer brands have a rep for being expensive!!)

✨ Victoria’s Secret (VSX) Sports Bra (NEW WITH TAGS! For $7.80!!)

✨ “Vintage Y2K” (Oh boy, this is what the kids are calling my teenhood 😭😭😭) Abercrombie and Fitch Blue Khaki Shorts (good used condition)

✨ The same “Vintage Y2K” (🙄🤦🏽‍♀️) Abercrombie and Fitch Blue Khaki Shorts (good used condition)

It averages to about $8 an item—not bad given the brands I was able to find and the brand new with tags quality!

Take-aways:

🛍 Great for a buyer, okay for a seller – you’ll obviously find a lot more great bargains as a buyer, since the seller takes a brunt of the cost. After thredUP’s commission, you don’t get much for middle-of-the-road items. I recently sold a shirt from Old Navy for $0.39, but it was one I was not expecting to at all—in fact, I thought it was going to get recycled 😂!

🛍 Can save items over time, and make one purchase when you are ready – I’ve noticed that a lot of items have “likes” or are “sitting in someone’s cart”, but then they are still on the site for weeks. Just comes to show people love to browse passively but when it comes to buy time, most people don’t act! So this can be to your advantage, especially if you have a first-time code to use. You can browse for as long as you want, save items to your favorites, and buy everything together when you are ready (and take advantage of the FREE SHIPPING)!

🛍 Printable mail tag is useful whenever you want to ship out items that you’d otherwise donate or throw away – since January 2022, I’ve sent in three separate packages. Because of short-staffing issues, the shipments do take a while to sort through. For a package I sent in mid-February 2022, it didn’t get processed until end of May 2022! They did announce they are opening more facilities to help with processing incoming shipments, but this is something to be aware of in case you want cash fast.

🛍 Be aware of how sizing works – especially if you are interested in anything “used”. Because of wash and wear, fabric can stretch out and not really be true to tag.

This was the example with my shorts. One was tagged one size higher than the other, but the flat measurements ended up being the same! At least on thredUP, they measure things in a way that makes sense so it helps when deciding whether or not to purchase:

Also be aware of your item’s style—if it’s described high-waisted, the waist will be measured higher up.

Waist is one word that has thrown women off for centuries…

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If you want to give thredUP a try, click here for a $10 credit! Send some of your “old” stuff in, knowing it will end up in a new closet or responsibly recycled, and browse for “new” things for yourself while living sustainably 😉

Do you pay attention to your closet’s sustainability?