Before I Go Thrifting, I Seek Inspiration
The art and science of how I approach a day spent thrifting. Plus: how to recycle your old clothes and tech devices
Any time I share a really valuable find on Instagram, the comments pile up: “Wow, lucky you.” “Oh my gosh, you should buy a lottery ticket.” Etc.
I think maybe there’s a little bit of luck in my back pocket but the truth is, there’s an art and a science to hunting for vintage — particularly at thrift stores, where merchandise usually isn’t well-styled. You have to use your imagination.
But you also need to have a knowledge base, and that’s what this issue is all about: How to cultivate your knowledge about design and vintage so that you, too, can find amazing things at thrift stores.
A standard morning before I go thrifting/estate-saleing/flea market hunting looks something like this:
Wake up, make my coffee
Sit on the couch with coffee in hand and fire up the ol’ laptop
Immediately scroll my Pinterest and Instagram saves to spark inspiration. This helps spark ideas — what colors am I drawn to lately? How are designers styling things in unique ways?
Hop over to Chairish and 1st Dibs to get ideas of items I would love to find in the wild or, at the very least, familiarize myself with makers and labels (so that when I see them in the wild, I know what they are).
This little routine has worked for me so well. I once went to a thrift store in Daytona Beach and spotted this Chapman lamp from across the store. It was on a high shelf, but I knew immediately what it was. When I tell you I flew across that store… I asked someone with a ladder to grab it for me and, lo and behold, the Chapman sticker was still on the bottom, along with the date and the price tag ($3!)
More recently, at a Goodwill, I found a Vallauris plate. I thought it was stunning to begin with but when I saw the Vallauris signature I knew it was mid-century and produced in a region known for ceramics (the same region Picasso’s ceramics were made, in fact).
Let’s delve more into how I use sites like Pinterest, Instagram, Chairish and 1st Dibs to my advantage.
Pinterest is arguably the best source of interior design inspiration on the internet and the algorithm is great — the more you save, the more it learns you and serves you exactly the type of aesthetic you like. On my own Pinterest, I have folders dedicated to interiors that inspire me as well as folders dedicated to styling — which give me ideas on how to place things in my own home.
I save a lot of images and videos on Instagram and I organize them by category — Food to Make, Interior Inspiration, Home… I also have a “Thriftspiration” folder, which is full of images of items that I hope to one day find in a thrift store or estate sale (typically saved from high-end vintage dealers or even auction houses). Sometimes I even save images from museum Instagram accounts, if it’s a photo of a painting or ceramic that I want to remember (or even an artist signature — I try to burn those in my mind, in case I find a really special piece in the wild).
Saving images on Instagram always allows me to have ideas in my head before I go thrifting. Take this image, via interior designer Ryan Clawson, which I recently saved. I see interesting armoires/television cabinets like this fairly frequently but I love how he has styled this one — and I love the pop of color from the collection of turquoise vases up top. Now, when I see an armoire like this at Goodwill, I might think twice when I would have otherwise passed it by — maybe this is just the thing for that empty wall in my living room, and perhaps I could showcase all my vintage ceramics on top of it.
The Editor’s Picks page on 1st Dibs is a good one to bookmark. Reviewing this page as often as possible clues me in to three things: 1. What’s trending. The editors are 1st Dibs are selecting items based on what they like, yes, but also based on what’s selling. Getting an idea for what’s selling and what’s trending helps me with my own buy. 2. Makers and designers and regions. The more I study this page, the more I start to familiarize myself with makers and labels that I didn’t know about before. This way, when I’m at a thrift store and I see the word “Vallauris” signed on an item, I know that it’s probably a mid-century piece made in the French region, Vallauris (like the piece I mentioned above, that I found in Goodwill). 3. How to make over an item. The pieces on sites like 1st Dibs and Chairish are typically sold by high-end, professional antiques dealers. Many have been reupholstered, or restored or, in the case of art, reframed. I love getting an idea for how others have reimagined some of the vintage pieces I’ve found in the wild.
Similarly to 1st Dibs, the Chairish team knows how to showcase their merchandise. On Chairish, the New Arrivals hub isn’t just a page of all the latest pieces listed in the order in which they go live on the site — instead, it’s automatically organized in a “curated” view (you can use the drop-down menu to see the newer items first, but I prefer to view it this way, so I know what the team is eyeing and what’s selling). Honestly, seeing all the merchandise against a white background is so easy on the eyes. This is what sets these sites apart from Etsy and eBay — which are great, but items are often shot against busy backgrounds, making it difficult to see them for what they are.
Stuff I’m Into At the Moment:
So this is pretty genius: if you order this Take Back bag (it’s $20 plus a 10% discount with the code VIRGINIA10) you can stick up to 15 pounds of your old clothes in it, throw it in the mail, and they’ll do the recycling for you. Plus, you’ll be rewarded with discounts on things like movie tickets, coffee orders, food delivery, and the like (Sephora, UberEats, Wal-Mart and tons of other big brands are all among those that offer discounts through the program). Think of it as a way to get rid of that pile of clothes you’ve had sitting in your trunk for three months, earmarked for Goodwill (or the stained/damaged clothing that really shouldn’t go to a thrift store, but also shouldn’t be thrown away). I used my bag to send in about 20 old pieces of clothing and I was rewarded with 50% off AMC tickets, among other coupons and points. They also have a box specifically for old tech devices ($25, plus you can use the VIRGINIA10 code). Who among us doesn’t have a drawer full of old chargers, phones, etc.? They accept any brand, and any device (even broken ones) and shipping is free, no matter how heavy your old stuff is.
One thing I will not be recycling any time soon? My new laptop/travel bag. I could not be more in love with it. The padding, the color, the zip-top — it looks like a Moncler puffer coat but in tote form. That it comes with an interior laptop sleeve and is roomy enough for both my computers (I have a personal and a work laptop); a book; and all the other travel necessities (hand cream, lip balm, moisturizer, eye mask) is all the better. I have the biggest version but they also make a slightly smaller size, and it still fits a standard-sized laptop! The company behind this bag is also B-Corp certified, making it among the most sustainable companies.
Visa has a new debit card that gives you cash back when you spend on anything eco-friendly. And that includes thrift stores! It functions on a points system and you can redeem your points for cash back (10% cash back by shopping at thrift stores, which is kind of crazy) or things like gift cards to The RealReal or discounts on travel. I already use a Visa debit card so switching to this one was a no-brainer for me.
And I’ll leave you with this…
Thank you, this is fantastic!
I love this - it’s like learning + manifesting!