There are many benefits that come from thrift shopping. The most significant one is that thrift shopping is very environmentally friendly as it keeps the clothes from going to a landfill. Other benefits range from being much more affordable than buying new clothes to having just plain fun.
1. Good for the Environment
One easy way to go green is to shop at your local thrift store. Manufacturing clothes, along with packaging, and distributing it takes a lot of water and energy. To make things worse, disposing of used clothing is also really bad for the environment. It is estimated that in the United States that there are around 80 pounds of used clothing disposed of per capita. This makes thrift shopping a very green alternative to buying new clothes because it diminishes the energy and water consumed to mass-produce new clothes, and it also decreases the stress on the environment that comes from disposed clothes.
2. You Can Save Up a Lot of Money
The first benefit that comes to mind when talking about thrift shopping is the price. Clothes, furniture, shoes, books, or games in thrift stores go for a fraction of their original cost, making it more affordable to many people, and making it possible to save up some money. Another great aspect of thrift shopping is that you can find many quality, designer clothes that will pay off even more. Be sure to be thorough when going through many racks of clothing so you don’t miss them. If you’re not interested in wearing them, you can always sell to make a profit.
3. A Business Opportunity
If you have a good eye for good deals and if you have the patience for going through piles and piles of stuff, there may be some profit in store for you. When you find a quality item in a thrift store, be it a piece of clothing or a piece of vintage furniture that is worth way more than it’s being sold for, you can use that opportunity to buy and resell it, which can leave you with a hefty sum. Even if you don’t sell an item for a huge profit, a bunch of small profits can make up for it.
4. Gives a Unique Aesthetics
More often than not people find themselves in situations where they are wearing the same outfit or the same piece of clothing as other people, or they have the same sofa that their friends have. If you’re looking to create a unique look for yourself or your apartment, thrift stores are the way to go. Not only do they offer a very diverse set of clothing and furniture, but they also have many vintage pieces that have not been manufactured for years. This will guarantee that you maintain a unique esthetic, especially because new pieces arrive each week.
5. Treasure Hunting
Buying new clothes can become mundane after some time. It often leaves people feeling like shopping is some chore that they have to get over with. Especially with new designer stores where everything is neatly aligned and seems borderline sterile. This is where thrift stores swoop in to save the day. Shopping in thrift stores is mostly viewed as a personal treasure hunt. It lets you dig through the rack for a hidden gem and it also allows for a friendly competition with your friends, which can certainly add to the excitement of shopping.
6. You Can Shop Online
If you find yourself unwilling to go outside and rummage through many thrift stores and many more pieces of clothing because you have a strict list of items that you want to buy, check this site. With technology nowadays, all items of clothing are photographed and posted online where they can be seen and shopped online. It also allows for a significant time to be saved as you can shop from the comfort of your home. Another reason why online thrift stores are useful is that you can see what items they have in stock without going on a wild goose chase.
7. Great DIY Projects
Thrift stores hold a variety of different items. Things like old furniture, fabrics, appliances, and decor, offer a great possibility to be restored, remodeled, or reused to create better-looking pieces of furniture for your apartment. Most pieces often need just a fresh coat of paint or a few touch-ups to become a great piece of interior or exterior furniture. This is especially useful if you are just starting on your own or you have a very tight budget for refurbishing your home. Shopping for materials and good DIY materials at thrift stores will help you save up some money.
8. Charity
There are some overlaps between the definitions of thrift stores and charity stores. A thrift store is a generalized term for a store that re-sells donated and used pieces of clothing and they don’t necessarily need to be non-profit. Charity stores are essentially non-profit as they are run by non-profit organizations. The staff in charity stores is usually made up of volunteers. Non-profit thrift stores and charity stores operate in the same way, and the money spent on pieces of clothing or furniture bought goes through the organizations to people who need it the most. This makes thrift shopping even more beneficial.
9. Reliable Clothes
One of the advantages of buying clothes in thrift stores is that you know what to expect. In most cases, you won’t be caught off guard, as opposed to new clothes, when you find out that it has shrunk after you’ve washed it, or it has changed color and lost part of its ornament.
You’ll obviously want to avoid buying clothes that have visible damage like tears or stretched out necklines, but apart from those, thrift store clothes have already been through multiple washing cycles and dryers and you can handpick which ones have stood the test of time.
Be it the impact it has on the environment, the fun that comes with it, or the money that can be saved up, thrift shopping is without a doubt a very convenient and useful life hack. The listed benefits are just some in the sea of many to sustain that claim.
