THRIFT SHOPPING: A GUIDE

In honor of Earth Day, the Local IQ's top rated thrift store in the city had a massive sale every day for the entire week. Monday: Housewares & Appliances. Tuesday: Women's clothing. Wednesday: Men's clothing. Thursday: Shoes. Friday: Baby clothes & toys. I went Tuesday and Thursday and left both times empty-handed.

I have thrifting down to a science. There is a specific way I'll dress to go thrifting, a specific way of dividing up what I do when, and very strict dressing room courtesy. It goes like this:

What to Wear
From the bottom up: Comfy shoes you can slide on and off; nothing with lots of laces, buttons, zippers or knots you have to be constantly doing and undoing. Pants or skirt with an elastic waist (better yet an easy-in easy-out dress, if it's the right season; then you can just lift or drop). No zippers, draw strings, or (god forbid) a button fly. Something easy to get in and out of repeatedly, and nothing that requires a lot of adjusting once it's back on. A stretchy shirt goes without saying; a tshirt you can pull on and pull off without any effort or mess.
For undergarments: I have a go-to bra that I pretty much wear every single day. It's low-maint; beige; machine wash and dry and it looks just fine in everything. I also LIVE in cotton boyshorts. When I'm trying on a lot of clothes, I want to make sure I know how it looks in the undergarments I sport every day; it sucks to be trying on clothes the ONE day I leave the house in a string bikini and no bra (you can always take it OFF in the dressing room if it's that kind of a shirt).
Also: no fuss hair. Use an elastic band to hold it back from your face, or ponitail or just leave it down. Something so that it doesn't get caught in numerous shirt collars and it doesn't look any less messy on exiting the dressing room.

Dividing Tasks
I really only enjoy going shopping if there is something specific I'm looking for. Tuesday, I went because there was a sale and I could use more shorts and skirts for summer, and some stretchy pants professional to work in (or cropped slacks). Whenever I'm searching the whole store though, I do it like this:
Since pants are the biggest pain in the butt for me to try on, I start with pants. I always collect shit until I have the item limit for the dressing room (five or six at this place). If I can find five pairs of pants I want to try on, then I go straight to the dressing room, but if I only find one or two, I'll move on to shorts, then to skirts. Dresses come next, then shirts, and I usually do shoes last so I don't have to carry the ones I want back and forth to the dressing room. Tuesday I didn't bother, since I knew I'd be going back Thursday anyway.

Dressing Room Etiquette
There is a garment limit at pretty much every store everywhere. My biggest pet-peeve on going to the store on days like this are the people who do all their shopping at once, then park their cart in front of the dressing room and hog it for a solid forty minutes. I think there should be some kind of rotation rule at every place like this. Grab five items (or whatever the number is; make use of it). Go try them on; then get back to the end of the LINE if you have a cartful and give someone else a chance! It's annoying to be a person who's found maybe two items they'd like to try on and have every dressing room barricaded in.
On a day when the store isn't that busy and there isn't a huge demand for the dressing rooms sure; I've definitely been guilty of piling up a cart and enjoying it, but only when there is a huge bank of empty dressing rooms for anyone to use.
Additionally, I think using a big shopping cart in a crowded, narrow little store on a day like this (when it's a total zoo) is incredibly rude. Carry a basket, and pace yourself for god's sake.

Tuesday, I ended up making two trips to the dressing room, trying on maybe ten things, and leaving empty handed. To hell with waiting in that line so I can spend twelve bucks on more clothes I don't need! I figured I'd go back Thursday and if the couple of cute things were still there I'd get them, but Thursday I struck out too. Boo! Maybe next time... At least I've got it down to a science! If only everyone behaved the same way with the dressing rooms... I'd save hours...