I don’t know what kinds of thrift stores these girls with hauls on my TikTok For You Page go to, but whatever they are have way better stuff than anywhere I go—I rarely have any luck. 

Occasionally, I will find a tennis skirt or a pair of pants, but never the major items that I see other people find. I know it can’t just be where I’m shopping or my clothing size because I have a friend—the same size as me—who got Lululemon Athletica pants at a thrift store we both go to. Meanwhile, my biggest thrift-store find is a pair of lime green pants from some obscure brand, and they’re about three sizes too big for me.

With this measly thrifting luck, it could be easy to assume that I gave up on it. I didn’t.

Shopping for sustainable clothing is something that is important to me. I take pride on staying away from companies that are largely known to be fast fashion. I know that buying secondhand is also great for the planet. So, rather than giving up, I found an alternative.

I found my biggest solution to my thrifting dilemma: an online consignment and thrift store known as thredUP.

My first purchase from thredUP was in March. I was desperately wanting a Lululemon Athletica jacket—which was totally worth it—and started scouring through both Poshmark and thredUP. I ended up finding way more options on Poshmark, but I was concerned about how reliable it was. Since sellers on Poshmark upload pictures of their own and do all the selling on their own, I was skeptical. thredUP was a much safer option.

All of the clothes on thredUP are examined and listed at their warehouses. The quality is inspected and listed on the post for buyers to see. Some of the quality descriptions, that are frequently on the website, describe how the item is in excellent condition with only light signs of wear. Also, some are in good condition with minor signs of wear on the fabric. 

In my case, these descriptions were nothing but reliable. It warned me of a minor stain on my jacket which was, in fact, quite minor and only visible from the inside. I’ve also seen photos of items with minor stains and those are mentioned in the quality description. 

Another great thing about thredUP is the sales that they’ll have. This past weekend, they had a Memorial Day sale that made many items up to 50 percent off. thredUP already has amazing prices for the quality of their clothes, so this was amazing. The only criteria that determined what was on sale were that it had to be saved to favorites by a few users before the sale began. My “Favorited” section was suddenly full of mark-downs when the sale began.

thredUP has been the only thrift store I’ve ever had luck with. I constantly see new deals that are gone in an instant. thredUP has a 24-hour cart timer that reserves items for that length of time, so that makes catching deals much easier.

As the biggest bad-luck, thrift store shopper, thredUP is seriously your best bet for whatever clothing item you’re looking for.