I was really wiped out a couple of weekends back and had the house to myself. I still can’t bring myself to go shopping in person and have probably saved a little money the last couple of months because of it, but I got the itch to get some new things and have gone a little crazy online the last few weeks. Also, while I have every intention of losing weight, I’ve gone the other way and am at my heaviest ever. That means most of my clothes are a bit too snug and therefore I don’t feel comfortable and end up not wearing them. So what did this have to do with me being so wiped out that weekend? I spent an entire Sunday afternoon window shopping on my laptop while watching reruns of Downton Abbey. It was a great afternoon!
I love clothes and am really upset at myself that I have so many that can’t be used because I’m about 5-10 pounds too heavy for most of them. I am aware that the clothing industry, like the building industry, creates a lot of environmental waste and pollution. Because of that, I’ve been looking more and more into second-hand clothing. I’ve purchased from ebay and Poshmark with some success, as well as some local thrift and secondhand stores such as Goodwill.
I’ve been trying to be more aware of quality and therefore am, for the first time, paying more attention to brands. I think that quality can transcend a lot of different price points. I think that it’s possible to find a quality product at Loft as well as at Gucci. I wouldn’t really know about Gucci as I don’t own anything from them, but wanted to throw out a high end name as an example, assuming they are usually a higher quality.
I’ve been learning about brands and quality (mostly through trial and error and pinterest) and searching both Poshmark and ThredUp for items at a price I feel more comfortable with. ThredUp has thousands and thousands of pieces, and their sorting functions work pretty well when it comes to narrowing them down if you are looking for something specific. I found a pair of 100% cotton (yay!!) khakis from J. Peterman. I liked the shape of them in the picture, some measurements were provided and the price was great (under $20). I love 100% cotton casual pants and I’ve always liked the look of the clothes from J. Peterman, but hadn’t purchased any due to their prices. So this was a way for me to try them out. They arrived, exactly as pictured, but the fabric was a higher quality then I was expecting, which was a bonus! Clearly I’m not being honest with myself regarding measurements (yes, this is on my end, not ThredUp’s end). I could zip them up, but wouldn’t want to sit down in them. I’m going to keep them because 5-8 pounds less than what I am right now and I should be able to wear them. (This is an ongoing story I keep telling myself.) The fit appears to be great on me, just a half size too small. I know it’s silly to keep clothes that don’t fit, but I’m still hoping that it helps me eat less and workout more. I’ve been doing pretty good at that for about a week now so maybe it’s working.
With that success through ThredUp I decided to try a Goody Box. They have several different kinds to choose from and I felt safest ordering the one called Favorites. I favorite items under my account and they compile a box of items from it. It’s a $10 non-refundable deposit, which is supposed to be applied to my account for anything that I wish to keep. I got to select the price point I wanted to pay for each item, check boxes for my shape and my style (which I was very happy to see allowed me to check more than one box to best describe me), and I really liked that I could even paste in my fashion Pinterest board so my ThredUP stylist could get an idea of what I like. If I really do get only items from my favorites, then I’m not sure that my Pinterest board is needed, but if I were getting more of a mystery box, I would think that it would be very helpful for anyone picking out items for me.
After my order, I was able to somewhat get an idea of what I could expect in my Goody Box because items I had listed as some favorites were marked as sold. I started to see that my box was going to come from one warehouse location (ThredUp has several) which makes perfect sense. When it arrived, I was happy to see that there were 12 items in the box. Out of the 12, 10 of them came directly from my favorite list. The other two were skirts, one of which fit really well into my overall style, the other was out of left field but it was the same brand as the first skirt. Basically, the more items you favorite, the more chances you have that there will be a full box of favorites from one warehouse location. So with this type of box, I mostly got items that I was interested in seeing and trying. I would imagine this is different than a mystery box similar to some on ThredUP or even StitchFix.
All of the items that I received from my favorite list were exactly as pictured and described, if measurements were given, they were pretty spot on as well. Although I have to say that even within the same brands, sizes vary greatly. I have several Banana Republic sweaters in medium and thought I was somewhat safe ordering mediums in their sweaters again, however this is not true. In this photo, the tan sweater is a medium sized one I own and the navy sweater is a medium from ThredUp. Both Banana Republic, both similar materials. Needless to say, I did not keep the navy sweater because it was significantly too small!
Ultimately, I kept four of the items from the box. Three tops and one jacket (which was brand new with tags for under $20). I think that getting a goody box and paying the $10 deposit is pretty much paying to try something on, but I think that it was well worth it in this instance. I don’t have local access to some brands, and online only places like Boden would require me to pay at least $10 in shipping anyway if I have to buy and return something.
I’ve seen some comments online about ThredUp stating the prices are too high, but I disagree. I think there’s a big difference between buying a second hand item that’s been inspected, photographed and described versus buying something from Goodwill or a similar thrift store. I rarely find higher quality items at a thrift store and often times, items are rather worn. So if I’m looking for something in better condition, but not at a new price, I’ll continue to shop ThredUP as I’ve been pleased with everything so far. For me it’s similar to buying a used car. I think of ThredUP like the car lot that has a vehicle with 35,000 miles on it and is only a few years old. Goodwill is the bargain lot where something has over 100,000 miles on it and might be 10 or 15 years old. Both could work out really well, but the gently used one will probably last longer and will cost more than the older car.
The four items I kept had a total cost of about $72.00. I paid a $10.00 deposit up front and so my card was charged an additional $62.00 after I returned the unwanted items. Shipping items back is free, but it must be within a few days. If not, then you end up buying everything in the box. They did a nice job of sending reminder emails to me stating that I had a certain amount of days left to get my box shipped. It’s also nice that I only had to ship it back within that time. I am not responsible for the amount of time it takes from the shipper back to the warehouse.
Here are the items I received – all except one very cute pink polka dot skirt that I didn’t get a photo of. It was a size too big so I didn’t keep it. It wasn’t on my favorite list but they included it and it fit well within my style.
Given that most of the photos are of plain items, it probably looks like I’m rather boring in my style. Maybe I am, but I like classic, simple basic pieces that I can dress up with fun shoes, scarves, jewelry. I tend to layer items regardless of season. I will wear a sleeveless patterned top with a solid, classic cardigan. I have bright colored pants and even a few fun socks to add a splash of surprise. I’d like to add more patterned tops in these classic shapes, but they can be hard to find without them being dated so soon.
Regardless of my style, I’d certainly go for another Goody Box of favorites from ThredUP and have been scrolling their site adding items just so there’s a good list of things they can choose from for the next one. I’d recommend giving it a try!
