Thrifting Tips from a Former Thrift Store Employee

So you want that collected vintage inspired home decor look that's trendy now, but you don't have the money to hit the antique stores and you're not finding what you need at the thrift stores. Let me show you how to thrift in 2026. Hey everyone, welcome back to Reissued. If you're new here, my name is Andrew. Over the past five years, I've filled my home with tons of vintage and antique thrifted home decor. I also worked at a thrift store for three of those years. So yeah, I know a lot about thrifting. So today I am taking you with me to two different thrift stores and an estate sale. And I'm going to be sharing my top insider tips to maximize your chances of finding the good finds and to help you identify the places where you might be going wrong. I'm also going to be sharing what I look for in items at the thrift store. And I'll also be sharing my list of foolproof thrifted decor items that I notice a lot in thrift stores near me and that are easy additions to elevate your home decor and give you that effortlessly eclectic look. Ready to turn your home from boring and basic to curated and collected? Let's go thrifting. Okay, so we're here at the Fulton Reiss store. And before we go in, two quick tips here. First of all, I know as a former thrift store employee that there's no set time that new items roll out to the floor. When I was working, we would just continue to put things out throughout the day. However, I think that early in the day is the best time to shop. So we're here just before they open. I want to see the freshest stuff as it goes out to the floor. And I think that's the best time to do that. And second tip here is have some idea of what you're looking for. Maybe you have a list of things that you need for your house, a list of future projects. I know that I do. And maybe you have no idea what you're looking for at all, which is where I will help you. I'll walk you through it and show you some things that you might be looking for. So let's go inside and see what they have. Okay, so I'm heading in and right away we're into my next tip here. Make a quick lap first. This is especially key in 2026. I feel like the thrift store used to be a pretty calm place. But now almost every time I go, there's a horde of people looking for things and snatching up items right out from under you. So I like to make a quick pass at the beginning for two types of items. One is what I call the low hanging fruit. These are items that are priced really well, that are kind of trendy. These are the things that everyone is going to want to jump on right away. So once again, we want to make that quick pass and snatch up those items first. And the second kind of item that I'm on the lookout for is anything that just really jumps out at me. Maybe it's something specific that I need. Maybe it's something that just speaks to me. Both of these things were embodied with this beautiful vintage sofa. Would this be cool for the bank cat in the conservatory? I don't think it's big enough, but this is kind of the vibe of what I'm wanting. It just feels so like grandma, vintage, warm, cozy vibes, right? With the mid-century sofa that I tried in there, it sat so low and so deep. And also the back was very angled, so it wouldn't push up against the wall. But I think this one might fit in there quite a bit better. This one is also a pink tag, 50% off. So that doesn't hurt either. Which brings me to my next tip here. Understand how the price structure works. A lot of people like to talk about how expensive thrift stores are these days. And yes, they are. So is everything else. But it's really important to understand how the price structure works because the price that you're seeing on the sticker might be a lot higher than the item actually costs on that day. So here at this restore, they have signs posted around with a different color discount system. If the ticket is a certain color, that item is discounted. We love that. The other really key thing here, and they have this on the sign in the store, which is really smart, but not every store does, is to know when their discounts drop. So at the restore where I used to work, our colors dropped monthly. So I would always tell customers at the start of every month is that you want to come in because that's when the items will first be discounted. Here at this store, they discount once a week. So, you know, if you're coming in on the first day of those discounts, you'll have the best chance of snatching up those items at a lower price before someone else does. One other thing that I want to add about pricing here, I am not much of a haggle kind of person. I'm a sticker price kind of person. I also personally, as someone that worked at a charity thrift store, found it a little bit tacky when customers would ask for discounts because ultimately the point of our store was to raise money to support the organization and the cause, right? Not every thrift store is that way. So that may not necessarily apply, but at places like the restore, Goodwill, depending on the region that you're in, prices are as marked. Color discount systems are in place and it's tacky to ask for discounts. I think, maybe you don't think so. Let me know in the comments. Maybe that's just me. However, big, however, here as someone that worked in a thrift store, when color discounts roll back, often that means that someone's having to run around the store and re-tag items. And when you have a lot of inventory, things fall through the cracks. So I know one time when I was shopping in this restore, there was a rug. I knew it had been discounted beforehand and then it was at full price again. And the key here, the question that you want to ask is, is this the correct price? Not, can I get a discount? Often when I worked through the thrift store, customers would bring things up to the register, the same item at two different price points. I never had a problem with price matching an item for a customer or honoring a discounted price that someone had forgotten to put on there. So I definitely think it's worth asking, is this the correct price? Now, one other vital piece of information here that you need to know about a store right away is if I want to purchase an item, a larger item that I can't carry with me, how do I purchase that item? And this is really important because every store works differently. This store here, you can see on a lot of the signs, they want you to contact a store associate. They will put a whole ticket on it for you. Then you'll check out and it'll get a sold ticket on it. At the restore where I worked, we had a policy where you do want to pull the ticket off the item and whoever has the ticket is the person that gets the item. So I remember back when I was a customer before I worked there, I had the ticket for an item and another customer had taken the item up to the register, trying to check out with it, but it was mine, baby. I had the ticket. So it's so important to know how the rules of the store work for larger items, or you could miss out on something really good. When in doubt, ask a store associate. They're usually always very helpful. So I've been looking for a different desk for the studio that's finished on the back, and that's more of the look that I'm going for. And this checks a couple boxes with how shallow it is. It's not super deep and it also has a place for the printer, which is great. However, I'm just not 100% on the look and I don't know, I need to stop buying things that are not exactly what I need and just wait it out. I don't know. All right, so we've made our first lap and we've snatched up all of the items that we know that we want. Now, I always think it's a good idea to make a second pass around the store to see if you miss anything. Sometimes things have been restocked in the wrong area. This store was very clean and very neat, so it wasn't the case here. But a lot of thrift stores are very chaotic and crazy, so you never know what you're going to find when you dig a little deeper. This is also your opportunity to take a second look at items that you kind of skipped over or made assumptions about. For instance, these two little nightstands, I just passed them over because they looked like cheap particle board. But when I looked more up close, these are actually solid wood and the style of these is really pretty, so these could be a great option for someone looking for nightstands. And the price is right. And on that note, let's talk about quality materials. I think this is the most important thing to consider if you're new to thrifting or if you're not sure what to pick up. Quality materials are always going to be my go-to starting point here. When in doubt, we're looking for leather, marble, solid wood, glass, and we're generally avoiding all of the things that pretend to be those things. That's definitely hollow. So with leather items, I like to check to see if they're real leather. Usually, I can do that by kind of pinching the fabric and feeling what the backing feels like. Often, faux leather will have kind of a grid texture on the back or kind of like a fuzzy texture or a really smooth texture, whereas real leather just has a certain feel to it. If you like pinch a real leather belt or jacket or something, it has kind of like a quality on the back of it. I'm not quite sure how to describe it. Other times, it's very obvious when the faux leather is peeling like crazy, which is the reason we don't want it in the first place. So that can be an obvious sign as well. Or if there's little areas of damage, like the corner of this headboard, you can kind of look at what the fiber structure looks like underneath. Again, you can see fibers here rather than natural leather, and that's going to be a telltale sign for me that this is faux leather. Similarly, when I'm checking to see if an item is solid wood, I want to try to find the underside of something, the over the top of something, the side of the wood is going to be really telling here. So if something is solid wood, like on this bookcase here, you can see at the top, you can see the end grain of the wood. So these supports do appear to be solid wood. However, these shelves where you see that little bit of damage, it's clear that this is peeling up a bit and you have a particle board or an MDF situation underneath. Often with dressers and cabinets, you can open up a drawer and take a look from the side. This first one, you can see these lines here on the side, that's going to be plywood, great quality. We also love these little dovetail joints here. Whereas this kitchen cabinet, you can see this kind of crinkly texture, that's going to be particle board. The drawers are an MDF particle board as well, lined with melamine. So this one is not solid wood. I'll go ahead and say here that I'm not too much of a snob when it comes to materials. I have particle board in my house, my kitchen cabinets have that, my living room cabinets have that. It's not the end of the world, but I think it's important to be informed about the materials as you're looking at price point and thinking about the application in your home. Particle board is terrible when it comes to moisture. So if you have it, you want to seal it really well. Otherwise, when in doubt, go for that solid wood or that plywood. So we know we're looking for quality materials. What's the next step here? Literally every single sofa in the store was genuine leather. So how are we narrowing this down? And this is where I feel like you can really veer off in two directions. If there's something that's super unique and off the wall and kind of bold, but it truly speaks to you, I think that's generally going to be your choice. However, if there isn't anything like that and you're looking to kind of play it safe, I think going for simple, clean lines is going to be your best bet. So there are a couple sofas here toward the front of the store. Are they a little boring and basic? Yes, but you're noticing these really straight kind of rectangular lines. These I think are going to age really nicely and go with literally everything. Any kind of style you want to throw at them, they can handle it. This large leather sectional is a good example of that. It's quite modern, but the color is really nice and warm and neutral. And I think the style of this, even though leaning modern, is going to be pretty transitional and pretty timeless. This other brown leather sofa next to it, the lines are a little bit more complicated. It does have a little bit of a 2000s McMansion feel to it. However, I think the leather color is really beautiful. The patina is there. And so this could be styled with some more modern pieces or with some really crazy eclectic pieces. And this really could work in the space as well. I think sometimes going in for that contrast is key here. The modern sectional I think would look amazing with something like this vintage trunk to give it character and warmth and interest. And I think the McMansion sofa would look better with something a little bit more clean and modern to freshen it up a bit. So my boyfriend, Matt, was here with me for a minute and we found a couple of things around the store that we liked. He found more of these little window mullions, like the ones that we used to build the Shoji screen in his bedroom. So he picked those up. He also found these really cool wood little stool things that I think he's going to use as plant stands. I love them. I think they're super cool. Now, my last little tip here at this store is to arrive with measurements in hand. I've been in a bad habit over the last couple of years of picking things up that I like that don't end up fitting in my house. So as much as I love this sofa, I'm going to grab a tape measure at the register and see if this will work. And after measuring this, I think it's a little bit shorter than it needs to be to fill that space and give the space that I want around the table. So I'm going to leave this here today. I think I have to leave it here today. I think it's not big enough. No. So I'm heading out empty-handed and we're on to Goodwill. As I continue to share my thrifting tips and secrets and finds, let me let you in on another amazing find from Suri, which is the sponsor of today's video. So let's be real. Most electric toothbrushes are really ugly and they need to be plugged in all the time, which is also ugly. But I mentioned to you last month that I'm using a beautiful new electric toothbrush from Suri. The slim aluminum design is so beautiful. It looks so nice in the little mug that I got in Japan. And I've been using this every day. And guess how many times I've charged it in the last month? Just the one time when I first got it. I haven't charged it since I've been using it. Isn't that crazy? So yeah, not only does this toothbrush have a really long battery life, but it gives such a nice clean, like fresh from the dentist feeling, which is great. But also the brush heads on this are plant-based and Suri will recycle them for free. So this is a super eco-friendly product as well, which we love. So if you're wanting that extra clean, fresh from the dentist feeling every day when you brush your teeth, but you're not wanting the cords and the mess and the ugly design, check out this toothbrush from Suri and use my code REISSUED15 to get an extra 15% off your purchase. You're going to see why I love this product so much and why it's been a game changer for me in form and function for my daily routine. Okay. Next up is Goodwill. Goodwill is a place that I can generally find a lot of my go-to items that are super easy and foolproof and go with everything. I'm going to hope that I find those inside and I can show you. Otherwise I'll show you at home things I've picked up in the past, but let's go in and see what we can find. Okay. So we're popping into a new store. First things to ask ourselves, what is the color discount price of the day? Yellow. Got it. How do I purchase something large? If I want to tear off the ticket and take it up to the register. Got it. Making a quick lap around the store before digging too much in any one place. I almost forgot this one, but people were snatching things right and left. So I got to get it together. So my next step here is to know kind of what kinds of things each store carries. Of course, you never know what you're going to find at any store, but most stores tend to carry the same types of items, depending on the donations that they accept. So here at Goodwill, I tend to find a lot of my foolproof go-to items that are not too hard to find, that go with everything, and that are easy to style. We have some wood picture frames, which are such a great way to add warm wood tones up onto the wall and make your space feel more lived in and eclectic. We have some really interesting vintage glassware. You know I love these little trays to put soap or scrubbers in. They're just so easy and so chic. Of course, when you're looking for glass, beware of plastic pretending to be glass. This is going to be a very technical demonstration. Plastic. Glass. And beautiful pottery is another thing that I come across pretty often, at least in my area. So on my second lap around the store, I dug a little deeper and found this little piece of pottery. This looks to be handmade to me. It's a little bit hard to tell. I flipped it over and looked at the bottom. We don't have a signature on this, but we also don't have like a brand label or anything. So I'm not really sure. It's a dollar. And so I decided that I really liked this and I wanted to carry it around. But just for good measure and curiosity, I decided to do a little Google Lens reverse search on it. So I opened up the Google app and took a photo and just saw what came up. It's not that I want to find that the item is really valuable or anything. I don't particularly care about that. I just want to know that this is not like currently retailing at Hobby Lobby or something, right? After my search, I think it's pretty safe to say that this is a pretty unique find. So I'm definitely going to pick this up. The other tip that came to mind here as I was shopping around the store and noticing other like cool young people putting stuff in their carts is that, as I mentioned at the last store, clean and simple is great. This piece of pottery that I have is going to be really classic. It's going to look great with a lot of things. I wouldn't say that it's necessarily the most unique or original, but it's pretty cool and it's going to be timeless and beautiful. But if clean and simple is a nice, safe baseline, bold and loud and crazy and eclectic are vital. That's why you're here at The Thrift Store. These things are unique and interesting and one-of-a-kind and make your home feel like you. That's what I've always loved about thrifting, and now everyone else seems to love that too. But that's important to keep in mind. You want your quality materials. You want things that are going to be really classy and clean and timeless, but you need some pieces that are loud and crazy and weird and so unique to you. So I didn't see anything bold and crazy that screamed Andrew today, so I'm heading out with just my simple little $1 vase. But I do want to mention a couple of items that I always look for that I didn't end up seeing today. One, vintage handmade rugs. That's a great place to add color in your home. That's obviously a very hot item, so that one falls in the category of low-hanging fruit for me. If you see it, run to it before someone else does. I picked up a really beautiful rug recently and I love that find, and you still can find those at thrift stores for affordable prices. Another big one is antique and vintage mirrors. In my primary bathroom, I have two vintage mirrors in there, and mirrors are one of those things that can look really off the rack, especially bathroom mirrors. So anytime I see a mirror that I think is really unique, I snap that one up as well. And the last item that I want you to pick up if you see in a thrift store, original art and sculpture that speaks to you. Again, I saw some things today in the store that were not for me, but they were for someone, but having original art in your home I think is so special and so beautiful, and I think that art is one of the best places to tell the story of you in your home. It's very subject to personal taste in terms of color and subject and style, but that's why it's yours. You chose it. It's in your home. It says something about you. All right, not a bad day of thrifting. We had some close calls and one $1 purchase. I'll see you tomorrow at the estate sale. All right, good morning. We're outside of an estate sale, and we're getting ready to go in. Estate sales are going to be a whole different game here, so two quick tips before we go in. First of all, bring cash. Not every sale takes cards, so you want to be prepared. And secondly, this is someone's home, so it's a good idea to be respectful of that. I don't usually film when I go to estate sales because I feel kind of weird about it, but we're going to try this out today because I really want to take you with me. Let's go on it. Okay, so let me just say here that I am not yet an expert when it comes to the world of estate sales. I'm still pretty new to them, so you and I are learning as we go a bit through this process. So the first thing that I learned here is that even though I arrived just before they opened at 9 a.m., that was too late. So I don't know how long these people have been lined up here, but there's like a crowd. This is crazy. I picked my number and I was 127th in line, which was crazy. I know that some people showed up really early, but I actually found out later when chatting with some other people is that this estate sale company opens up their number system the day before. So one person that arrived an hour beforehand was still number 70 in line. So it's worth looking up and knowing these things beforehand if you really have your eye on specific things. So once it's my turn, we can go on it. As I enter in here right away, I'm trying to make that quick lap to identify the low-hanging fruit, but also to kind of learn how the sale works. So as I went toward the back where the checkout tent was, I noticed a couple of hold tables here. Any items that you wanted to hold, you can just take to those table and no one else can take them. So good to keep in mind as we're shopping around here. As I was shopping around in the madness, I stumbled across these two metal nesting table, plant stand kind of things. The larger one was $8 and the smaller one was $4. I think these might be a good way to give height and variation to plants in the conservatory and on the back deck. So I'm going to go put these in the hold area while I keep shopping around. Now, I think it's a really good idea here when looking for estate sales. I found this one on estatesales.net, which is a really great resource to go online and see what kinds of items are going to be at this sale. A lot of companies will put up a lot of photos now so you can have a good idea of what you're in for. Of course, they're not going to take photos of everything, so there might be something that works for you, but this is someone's estate. This is their collection of items, so you can kind of get a sense of what you're getting into by looking at those photos online. So looking on the sale online, I saw a lot of vintage and antique rugs. I saw a lot of Asian antiques, maybe some interesting art. So I had a suspicion that this sale would be pretty good and I was not disappointed. There was a lot of really beautiful items here. I was chatting with someone else in line later and they said that the woman that owned this house used to be involved or run estate sales, so of course she had a really amazing collection. So not every estate sale is going to be this crazy, but apparently everyone knew that this one was going to have some good stuff, which is why it's so crazy. This sale had a lot of really good examples of what I was talking about yesterday. There's classic pieces that feel timeless and that have those quality materials, but we also have a lot of kind of weird and quirky art. These little mermaid sculptures kind of spoke to me. I have never talked about this before, but I really love mermaids. I don't have any of them in my house, but I feel like mermaids are just so cool. So I definitely thought about these. They're a little weird and creepy, but there was a lot of really cool stuff on this table. I'm really trying to limit myself right now to only buying things that are kind of functional or that are needed to finish the designs that I'm currently working on. I don't need just more beautiful stuff. I have a lot of that already. So even though a lot of these little sculptures and accessories were really cool, I'm going to pass on those today. Now I mentioned that I'm pretty new to estate sales. I went to a couple with Matt last year, but estate sales are going to be something that I start doing a lot more this year. One of my top tips for thrifting in 2026 is to diversify. I've always been a thrifting person. I hit Goodwill. I hit the Restore and that has worked for me. However, as those stores become more crowded with customers as the word gets out, and also as owners of items realize that their items have value, that antiques and vintage pieces are being valued, they're going to be more likely to try to sell them through estate sales or on Facebook marketplace and get some money for them rather than just donating them. At least that's what I'm finding right now. So yeah, a lot of the price points here are really high, especially on those really key items like the rugs and large furniture pieces. However, you can still get some really good deals here. And the key is that the fines are here. These are not heading to the thrift store and being donated. These are really unique items. So it really depends on what you're looking for. If you're looking for a deal, maybe the thrift store is still the place to go. But if you're looking for those really unique items, I think we're going to be looking to garage sales and estate sales and Facebook marketplace. One other thing that I noticed at the sale is how many shoppers were resellers. They have booths in antique markets. And so they're looking to get these items at the right price and then resell to make a profit, which is fine. It's not my thing, but I get it. There's a place for it, but this is why I'm not often going to antique stores because I feel like if I can go straight to the source, I'm going to get a better deal in the long run. So if I were looking for a specific piece or didn't have the time to go digging, I think an antique store is definitely a great place to go. Just know that you're going to get that markup. Even though we're seeing a lot of really high price points on these items, often estate sales will reduce the prices the longer the sale goes on. This one runs all weekend for three days. When we hit some of the estate sales last year, we hit them toward the end of the sale. So a lot of the good finds might've been gone, but they were slashing the prices to try to get rid of everything. So depending on your price point and what you're looking for, it might be a good idea to go toward the end of the sale for better price points. But if you're looking for specific finds, go as soon as possible. There were so many good items here. People were snagging great finds left and right. I'm heading to check out just with my two little plant stand table things. The line was very long here, so I waited around for a while, but was able to chat with some other people in line. As I got up to the front, I noticed that they take cash and card, but the card has a 3% surcharge. So I was really glad I brought that cash here to get the best deal. So with my little metal tables in hand for just over $12, I'm heading out. All right, everybody. Thank you so much for going thrifting with me. I hope these tips were helpful to you. The thrifting landscape is always changing and I want to keep you updated on how to find the best finds. So if you enjoyed this video and you want to see more content like this, be sure to hit the like button and hype this video. If you want to see how I style my finds and continue to grow my collection of beautiful things, be sure that you're subscribed. Thanks so much for watching. I'll see you guys soon.