I’ve been going to thrift stores a lot.

Press 1 to read my long-winded and over-thought words about thrift shopping.

Press 2 to check out some of the stuff I’ve thrifted.

SIKE here’s both:

This thrifting thing is a couple of months old now, but before that, I hadn’t thrifted since I was around 12. It was mostly a lack of opportunity, but when I started to become interested in wearing clothing that didn’t match**, I realized there was no point: nothing in my size. It was trendy to wear oversized stuff, so anything that wasn’t stained or just plain hideous had long since been picked over, and what was left was just nasty.

I’m really bored, and there’s only so much time I can spend in the community pool, so I’ve been going thrifting and finding the coolest shit. Apparently, it’s relatively easy to find amazing clothes that fit you and are cool and $3 when you are small. I sincerely hope that I’ve done my part to fix that at least in the Lower Mainland because you legitimately do not want to know how much plus-sized clothing I’ve donated into the wild over the last 10 years, but the fact remains that right now I am Thrift Store Sized and I am having FUN. I’m buying exclusively second hand clothing and housewares these days, and I’ve never been so happy to have somewhat eclectic tastes: I will take that purple herringbone jacket, please. Sequins? Hell yes. Coastal Grandma dresses? Bring it the fuck on. All the Le Château clothing that I coveted so hard as a teen but was too big to wear*? Oh my god. For the first time ever (not really but kinda), I have to show some restraint: I don’t need to get everything that fits me; I’m allowed to be picky. I don’t need to purchase every hilarious thing I see, no matter how funny. Put down some of the sequins, maybe. It is GREAT.

And! Since the world is collapsing, we have been doing our best to keep everything close to home. I haven’t been buying anything online. Things we’d normally have bought from Amazon is now a trip to a local shop. I need new clothes that don’t fall off, and buying second hand not only keeps the money local, my very favourite thrift shops support area hospitals, the SPCA, and other charities. I’m building an internal database of clothing brands to seek out or avoid, driving topless in gorgeous spring weather, and generally just amusing myself in between job rejections.

Also, just LOOK at the cool shit I’ve found!

I hadn’t made many posts about my finds because I only wanted to deal with photos when I felt cute, which is maybe once a week if I’m lucky. To resolve this, I bought a dress form off Facebook Marketplace so now you get pictures of cute things without my stupid face in it, and also my humble disco disaster of an office. Enjoy.

• The orange cat is probably my favourite item to date. I found it in Cloverdale at a technically-not-open antique store and did a dance when they let me buy it (for $20). It’s missing the original parts that made it a functional lamp, but I have ten thousand things that light up and can be used in lieu. And I do. It’s in the living room and it’s now part of the family.
• Olive green quilted jacket with puffed sleeves and fancy jewel buttons: I found myself inside a Value Village yesterday and couldn’t leave this surprisingly well-priced coat behind. I feel guilty about shopping at the dreaded VV, but I’m also amused as fuck because research tells me this is a Peter Nygård piece (Canadian designer slash sex trafficker) that has had the labels removed (very helpful!), so it’s tainted all over the place with for-profit-sex-trafficking vibes. It was also $12.99 (compared to everything else priced at $28 or more, VV is so gross), so not even VV got to enjoy much money out of it.
• The green polo shirt with embroidered flowers is either a weird knock-off or a kid’s shirt. It’s labeled as Abercrombie (keeps with the sex offender theme), but sized as an XXL. That might fly in an Abercrombie store for ANTS, but the shirt is only-wear-during-sexy-times tiny. It was also $2 and it’s super cute in a way only Ed gets to see. Win?
• The purple sweater is some serious winter wear I found for $12 at a hospital thrift, in their “boutique” section. I am eagerly awaiting the return of fall so I can wear it.
• Weird lace vest dress found in Richmond for $3. I put it over a dress I already owned, which provided some excellent pockets and a complete weird old lady vibe especially when paired with the (unfortunately but aptly named) Pookake Necklace (thrifted from South Surrey).
• I had picked up the Every Asian shirt for Ed, but he refuses to wear it. Lucky for me – it fits. I will wear this kinda ridiculous, found at a mega Christian thrift store, $4, dragon-tiger-Hokusai-wave-cherry-blossom-Kanji thing with PRID.

Will attempt to share the things I’ve thrifted recently, mostly to document where they came from. I also have several things I’m going to re-thrift, mostly from my earlier days of BUY ALL THE THINGS – I’m trying to be selective, okay. I just really like paying $5 for incredible clothing I’d never have thought to look for or wear. Time to maybe implement a 1-in-1-out system? I love do systems.