I have been an avid thrift store shopper for as long as I can remember, pandas. My mother raised me taking me along to various secondhand shops, helping me find the best deals and instilling in me the importance of finding treasures that have been pre-loved. Gently used clothing items and household objects have much more character than something straight out of a factory, and they tend to be much more budget-friendly as well. Why wear the exact same clothes everyone else at school is bound to have when you could find a spectacular piece from the 80’s that will have you receiving compliments left and right?

And even if you’re not interested in purchasing anything at a thrift store, you might still want to visit one purely for entertainment purposes! Groups like Charity Shop [Stuff] show just how wild and amusing secondhand shops can be. This community, which was created in January 2022, has already amassed an impressive 20k members and has countless photos that might pique your curiosity. Who previously owned these things? Who decided to donate them? Will anyone else buy them? Strolling through a thrift store is like going on a treasure hunt, and lucky for us, the members of this group have already found some of the most intriguing pieces of gold! 

To learn more about thrifting from an expert, we reached out to Dina Younis of Dina’s Days, who was kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda. First, we wanted to know how Dina got into secondhand shopping. “My love for making old things new again started at an early age when I was living in Amman, Jordan,” she shared. “Not having access to many affordable malls or retail stores in Amman in the 1990s, I quickly learned that the best way to fulfill all of my pre-teen interests was to find a way to stretch my limited allowance.”

“I’d spend hours circling, highlighting, documenting, and caressing each page of the Delia’s catalog my cousin would mail us from the United States,” Dina explained. “Afterwards, I would budget my allowance and visit the thrift store to hunt for my favorite things, attempting to replicate the looks I’d dream about in the Delia’s catalog.This lifestyle continued with me as an adult. When I moved to the United States, I was really introduced to the world of thrifting. Places like Goodwill became my go-to destinations to spend my paycheck in high school. Today, nearly 95% of my wardrobe is secondhand. I believe in thrifting because it’s affordable, great for the environment, and promotes individuality and creativity.”

We also asked Dina why we should all be doing more of our shopping through secondhand sources. “It's sustainable, affordable, and promotes individuality and creativity,” she noted. “There is already SO MUCH stuff in circulation. If there's something you need, there's a pretty good chance you can find it secondhand - whether from a traditional thrift store, online thrift store or Facebook groups/Marketplace.” 

And when it comes to Dina's favorite things to thrift, she shared that she's partial to furniture and large home décor items like artwork. “One of my favorite recent finds is an Art Deco wood cabinet in excellent condition for $50!” she told Bored Panda.

If anyone out there is new to thrifting and needs some tips, Dina says, “Make a list, take it one section at a time, and GO OFTEN! Hands down, the number one reason I find great items is because I go often. Inventory changes daily, multiple times a day. If you're new to thrifting and want to make it more of a lifestyle, start small. Find yourself going to places like big box retail stores to browse on the weekend? Replace it with a visit to your local thrift store and see what you can find. Repeat this process and before you know it, you'll be a thrifting pro!”

“All thrifters love the thrill of the hunt and the element of surprise when treasure hunting, but I believe in the power of a thrift wish list!” Dina added. “To avoid feeling overwhelmed or tempted by inexpensive things you don't really need, try creating a thrift wish list. This will help you stay focused on what you're looking for. Just don't give up after the first try! Thrifting requires persistence and patience. Stick with it because there's nothing more rewarding than finding something on your thrift wish list!”

If you’d like to learn more tips and tricks from Dina or keep up with her best finds, be sure to visit her website Dina’s Days right here! 

We were lucky enough to get in touch with another secondhand expert, Jessica Potter, Co-Founder of Used & Loved, to hear her thoughts on the topic as well. “I got into secondhand mainly when I was pregnant with my first,” she shared with Bored Panda. “We were worried about the impact having a baby would have on the planet, with all the stuff we (thought) we needed, so we decided to try and only buy second-hand for him. It was a real struggle though, because I still loved buying new, I couldn’t switch off that feeling of being tempted by the ease and wider choices of buying new.”

“So I had to learn a few techniques and train my brain to say no to new, like if I saw something new I wanted, I’d try really hard to engage my brain, stop myself and thing, could I find this second-hand, and the answer was usually yes, so I’d put it down,” Jessica went on to explain. “Most of the time, I’d forget what it was I wanted anyway, so I saved myself buying crap/stuff on impulse that I didn’t need (or even want).”

“The biggest thing I love about secondhand is how much cheaper it is,” Jess noted. “I could never go back to buying everything new again, it just seems like such a huge waste of money now! And you can buy better quality things, better brands than you might have been able to if you bought new.”   

“The habit of buying new, is more about the experience/high of buying things, filling a need for us,” she explained. “But actually, that consumption doesn’t really make us happy, it can leave us feeling guilty for spending too much money, burdened with too much stuff that we didn’t really love all that much in the first place, and filling our time doing it, when we could spend that money and time doing something that really makes us happy (even if we need to discover what that is, it’s so worth it).”

Jessica also shared that, surprisingly, her best find was actually discovered at a recycling center. “Someone was throwing away a handmade wooden cabinet, so we rehomed it, which we just love,” she explained. “It was a bit rough around the edges, but we’ve given it a polish, and it’s beautiful now, and worth quite a bit of money. Another great find was a vintage Luxo Lamp L2 (a Pixar style lamp) which, again, is slightly rough around the edges, but it has so much character!”

As far as advice for those who want to get into thrifting, Jess recommends looking for inspiration for what you want to buy. “The thing with buying secondhand online is that it’s all so hidden behind a search bar, so you need to know what you’re looking for,” she explained. “This means so many amazing items go unseen, or a lucky person gets to grab a bargain. So be that lucky person, by looking for inspiration of what to buy, before you start looking. And for in-store thrift shopping, take your time. You need to look at everything in a shop to find the hidden gems. So go there when you have plenty of time, enjoy it and the thrift gods will give you something good.”

“Once you start buying things you like secondhand, something unlocks in your mind, and you realize how foolish you’ve been to spend all your money on following new fashion before,” Jessica added. “Play around with secondhand, work out your real personal style, and you can get so much confidence with your newfound identity! It takes some experimenting, but that’s all part of the fun!”

If you’d like to go on your own thrifting journey, be sure to check out Used & Loved right here!

Are you feeling inspired to take a trip to your local thrift shop, pandas? If the Macklemore song wasn’t enough to convince you how incredible (and bizarre) these stores can be, we hope this list was! Be sure to upvote the pics you find most amusing, and feel free to share in the comments what the most surprising objects you’ve ever found at thrift stores were. Then, if you’re interested in reading another Bored Panda article featuring a similarly strange group, we recommend checking out this piece next!