How to Thrift like a Pro | Second Hand Shopping Tips + Haulternative 

Oh my gosh I needed this tip!!!

Submerged or spray?

What a great idea!!

Thank you so much! :)

Thank you!! Good luck finding your jacket! :)

It's the best! Thanks :)

Thank you so much! :)

That's exciting you found some jeans! Also great tip! The best things are often hiding behind the worst. In particular I find with prints - there will be a ton of terrible prints all together and then some beautiful ones in-between :)

Good find! White clothes especially can be tricky to find secondhand :)

You can also add some vinegar to the washing machine to save time.

Thanks! I'm hoping to wear it a lot this fall :)

That's really good to know, thanks! Also working in theatre seems like it would be so much fun!!

Thank you! I just generally try to stick with natural fabrics and avoid synthetics like acrylic, polyester, and nylon.

That's really good to know, thanks! I love being able to ask lots of questions :)

:D Have a great time!!

Good points! In terms of the seaming, I've never seen a cut-and-sew sweater without side seams (maybe a cardigan but it seems very rare) and they tend to be clearly sewn by a machine. It's probably not perfect, but I've found it to be a very reliable way to quickly tell machine made from hand-knit. I used to use Eucalan all the time, it's so great! Unfortunately I can't easily get it here. :( Also I had the tip about burning the fibre in the video but I edited it out, I decided it probably wasn't good to recommend lighting things on fire at a thrift store haha I've been really interested in unravelling sweaters, but it seems like a lot of work. It would be good to try though and see how easy it is. Have you ever done it? Those are really great video suggestions, I'll definitely write them down for the future, thanks!! :)

Ooo amazing find!

REALLY HOW?

Thank you :) That's awesome! Fashion and beauty hauls usually just make me kinda sad, it's basically promoting and celebrating mass-consumption. That's why I really like the #haulternative movement, we need more "hauls" of sustainable, secondhand, and DIY clothes! :D

I'd recommend first trying to slowly massage them back in if possible before pulling them.

Baking soda is so amazing :) I do knit, I'd like to do some socks this winter, I've never tried them, are they pretty easy to do? The heel has always seemed intimidating to me..

I thought you might 'cause I know you sew. They're not hard. I love knitting in the round, and they're small, so it's a pretty comfortable and ergonomic project. There are a bunch of ways to do the heal, but the socks I do are knit ankle-to-toe, and you just go back and forth on two needles to create a kind of rectangle for the back of your heal and then pick up the sides of it on your needles and join all three sides with the rest of the sock, decreasing to create triangles along the sides of your foot. It seems weird at first, but nothing about it is actually difficult.

Wow that's so lovely to hear!!

ok cool, Maybe we can see a future a video on how you film with camera, lighting etc..

+My Green Closet what kind of phone do you have ?

Thank you! I'm so happy you've found my videos helpful! :) I'm from Canada but moved to Germany a little over a year ago, I currently live in Cologne.

For many things ;)

I agree on the underwear but I find most secondhand shoes are barely worn so can't see that being a problem and if you are concerned you could just replace the insole! :)

It depends on the construction of the garment, for example in the back of a jacket you add extra lining so there is some ease across the back as the arms move. Often lining is a lot thinner and more delicate so not able to take the same stress as the fabric, like this skirt which has a very thin silk lining but is made from linen - the linen is much better at taking the stress. The lining should also never be pulling the outer fabric or constricting the wearer.

There's a huge Humana in Friedrichshain, the Mauerpark flea market has tons of stuff, Garments (vintage) and Made in Berlin are also good, just google "thrift stores Berlin" "secondhand clothing Berlin" or anything like that, there are tons of places! :)

+My Green Closet I recently found a white blazer with navy stripes and 3/4 sleeves originally from The Limited for only $16!

+My Green Closet I recently got this plaid shirt from Superdry. It's brand new with tags on, which shows the shirt was originally $80. I paid less then $20. On the other end of the spectrum, I got this black t-shirt for about 5 dollars. The tags have fallen off and I have no idea who made it, but it fits perfectly, as if it was made just for me. I love it. It's so versatile and comfortable. It can be dressed down for the weekend, or dressed up for work.

A $100 Calvin Klein dress for $8 at goodwill, tags still on!

+My Green Closet a grey vintage J Crew tshirt that is PERFECT. I also love all the scarves I have gotten second hand.

+My Green Closet A blue red Arizona jeans shirt. When I presented it to my mum, she was like I was wearing that same shirt 20 years ago!

Thrifting is amazing! I consider secondhand purchases to be shopping ethically since it's not supporting the original companies, not using new resources, and preventing something from possibly going into the landfill. However if you are concerned there are a few things I think it's good to be mindful of when shopping secondhand: - Visible/obvious logos- I buy all kinds of brands secondhand but no items with obvious logos, since wearing a big or noticeable logo is still helping promote and support that brand. - People who buy and re-sell- when shopping online be careful with trendy or luxury goods like handbags or anything that has a high re-sale value since some people buy those things only to use for a short time and sell, but this isn't a problem with thrift stores. :) - If you buy from charity shops it's also good to make sure that you agree with the causes they support. Also this is very rare, but I won't purchase anything where there are multiples of the same item in new condition in the store because this often means it was bought at a discount from a brand. If I see this I'll ask where those pieces came from and if they were bought I'll write to the store explaining why I shop second-hand and how I don't want to support a business that "helps" unethical brands by purchasing their leftover clothing. But again this is super rare... Hope that helps a bit with your dilemma! :)

Thank you so much for the reply!! Really appreciate it!! And I completely agree, this was the conclusion that I was more drawn to but still wasnt too sure. Thanks now I feel much more confident!

That's really great to hear! :)

Generally anything made more than 20 years ago is considered vintage so 90s and older. It's usually difficult to find anything made before the 50s though.

My Green Closet I see! Thanks for your reply

Have you tried shopping second hand online? On ebay, Etsy (vintage), and sites like ThredUP, Tradesy, and Threadflip (although I'm not sure if they ship outside the US) you can either search for or filter by different sizes.

Come to south Florida. Most of the stuff I see is L-XL.

No, I always wash them and I've never heard of that being an issue.

@@MyGreenCloset that's great!

It depends how you define handmade, the majority of clothes are sewn in a production line - lots of people each sewing a seam, which I don't see as falling into 'handmade'. For me handmade means that someone cut and sewed it all themselves and likely only made one of it. Sweaters are different, most store bought sweaters are knit with a machine and the seams sewn together after, whereas a hand-knit sweater was literally done by hand.

Well if synthetic materials ruin the planet where are the animals going to live? We are meant to be an interdependent system, nature provides. Using synthetic materials is more cruel than sheering an animal for wool.