by Maria C Collins

Created on: November 24, 2010   Last Updated: December 21, 2010

Whether you call them charity shops or thrift shops, you can buy bargains in them. If you are discerning, find the treasure and avoid the trash. Going to a thrift or charity shop is exciting, you never know what you are going to find, and there is always a chance that you might find something valuable. On an antiques programme recently the expert told a woman that the item she had paid pennies for in the charity shop was worth five hundred pounds.

The thrill of the hunt is amazing. Thrift shops are a wonderful source of used clothing, furniture, glass, ceramics, crockery, books, toys, and linens. Some offer baby clothes and baby equipment very useful if you are hard up, or you are a grandmother looking for baby chairs or buggies to keep at your house for when that beloved grandchild stays with you.

You will never find what you want on a single visit to one thrift shop. However, if you know a long time in advance that you are going to need something. For example, if you are looking for an outfit for a friend’s wedding in a few months, and you can visit several thrift shops several times, you may well pick up a complete ensemble, including hat and shoes, in time for the wedding.

Look for the quality in thrift shops you can often see named brands of items that you cannot afford to buy at new prices. C once bought a pair of shoes, unworn, still with all the price and care labels on for five pounds, had she bought them new, they would have cost her a hundred pounds. You can often find shoes, in a new or virtually new state, in charity shops. People buy shoes, realize that they are uncomfortable and never wear them, or to match an outfit for a particular occasion and wear them once, then they donate them to the thrift shop.

Occasionally you see designer label garments in thrift shops. They are a fraction of the price that you would pay for that same item new.

Always examine a prospective purchase carefully, look for chips, cracks, loose stitching rips et cetera, then you will not get the item home and be disappointed.

Remember to look with your creative eye. For example, S bought quilted men’s waterproof coat from a thrift shop, and used it to make a lovely waterproof coat for a friend’s little dog. Nice buttons are very expensive these days, but older garments in charity shops often bear beautiful buttons. M, a home dressmaker, often finds it cheaper to buy a garment in the thrift shop just for a good set of buttons, for something she is making, than to go to a high class department store and buy them new.

B’s young daughter was going on a skiing trip with her school. At ten, she was growing fast, and B did not want to spend a great deal of money on skiwear that her daughter would never wear again. B bought her daughter all the ski clothing that she needed from a thrift shop.

You can make some wonderful purchases in thrift shops. Be aware exactly what you are buying, and the shop’s returns policy. Think creatively, old duvets can line the cat or dog’s basket, old tee shirts make great floor cloths, dusters or rag rugs, old hand knitted sweaters, providing they have not shrunk, can be unpicked and the yarn washed and used again. If you keep your wits about you, you can find treasure, and avoid the trash, in your local thrift store.

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