There’s a reason thrifting is so popular: It works

On YouTube, videos abound about thrifting. Although buying vintage and second-hand clothing has been around for a while, a lot of younger adults are starting to “thrift” to create a more unique and exclusive wardrobe. Perhaps best of all, thrifting is eco-friendly.

At first, I thought that thrifting was only possible in big cities like San Francisco or Los Angeles where  there are designated vintage and thrift stores. These stores house hand-picked secondhand clothes from notable labels like Chanel or Levi’s.

As I watched more videos, though, I realized that vloggers also go to their local Goodwill and find some great pieces.

So, I decided to try it out myself, choosing Savers in San Jose. Savers is a Goodwill-like store that sells tons of secondhand clothes. As soon as I walked in, I was overwhelmed by the large number of clothing racks in the store.

The layout reminded me a lot of Nordstrom Rack, with clothing organized by size and messily hung on metal racks.

For around 30 minutes, I looked through jackets, shirts, pants and other clothing. After browsing through every 15 or 20 pieces, I would find an item that I put in my basket to try on. Some clothes were $1, while others were $25. All the items I picked out were under $10.

After looking through all the women’s clothing racks, I found seven pieces of clothing I wanted to try on, and I ended up purchasing four of those items. I got a long sleeve shirt, a short sleeve striped tee, a red “The Hundreds” shirt and a fuzzy oversized zip up jacket.

The striped tee and long sleeve were a bit large, so I decided to crop them by cutting a bit of the fabric off at the bottom of the shirts. I didn’t mind the oversized fit because of how cheap the items were.

As I left the store, I was super happy with my purchase; all four items came out to a whopping total of just $20. Although it was exhausting to browse through the hundreds of clothes at Savers, it was super rewarding to find pieces and upcycle them. I found thrifting extremely satisfying and I will do it again.