This post may contain affiliate links. Thank you for your support.
Mastering the art of consignment store shopping doesn’t have to be complicated. Knowing where to go and what to buy isn’t as daunting a task as you might think.
Consignment stores, secondhand shops, flea markets, and vintage store locations can be excellent places to find gently used, quality furniture and home decor at a bargain, but the experience might seem overwhelming and confusing if you’ve never tried thrift shopping for your home. Successfully outfitting your space with home-furnishings bought on consignment can save you a lot of money and allow you to create a charming, welcoming home at a fraction of regular retail price. We’ve developed a bit of a system to help us navigate where to look and what types of things to look for, and if you’d like to streamline your consignment shopping experience, too, the following tricks will get you set up for success.
Secondhand Shopping Part 1: Where to Go? Finding Your Happy Places
Your secondhand shopping journey begins where all great designers sink or swim: Sourcing. Research and find all the active consignment shop and resale store retailers in your local market, and possibly a nearby larger city, and then decide where the best items are likely to turn up. There will be no one-stop shop for consigning everything, so you’ll need to find the best for each of these three categories: large furnishing and architectural items, household goods, and curated vintage designer items.
Find a Local Retailer for Large Items and Architectural Salvage
Budget: Great Deals, DIYs & Rare Finds
Target: Furniture Pieces and Fixtures
The most common and accessible store for architectural and furniture salvage, the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, is a great place to start and will be easy to find. Also be on the lookout for independent salvage stores for more upscale consignment furniture and unique pieces. These can be donation-based locations for dropping off unwanted items like the ReStore, collectors, or even entrepreneurs who buy salvage rights from demolition companies and sweep doomed structures before they meet the wrecking ball and save all the best items for homeowners like you. Staying local for large items can save on shipping costs and reduce the common risks of over-handling large items, as well as allow you to find things for a great selling price.
Have a Favourite Store Stocked by Donated Household Goods
Budget: Great Deals, DIYs
Target: Small Household Decor Items
Between the big names like Value Village and Goodwill, as well as local independent boutique shops and charities, you probably won’t have the time to regularly check every store for great finds. Make note of where you found your favorite consigned finds and when you found them. Keeping a list and tracking notable visits in your Notes app is easy.
Shine your favorite finds: How to Easily Clean Heavily Tarnished Silver
Find a Like-Minded Curated Vintage Shop or Consignor
Budget: Worth It!
Target: Those Special Items
Mostly found in larger urban centers, curated shops take a lot of guesswork out of your search. The proprietors of these shops have style, know their stuff, do their research, and ensure the items they sell are inspected for quality. It may cost a bit more than if you’d found it yourself, but you know you’re dealing with quality, sought-after items. Find someone who shares your style, your thrifty kindred spirit, and stay in touch. If they see your smile as a shopper across the counter enough, they might even give you a heads-up when they find something they know you’d like or even cut you a deal.
Complete the look: 10-Minute DIY Pillow Covers
Second-Hand Shopping Part 2: What to Look For? Finding Your Style
To save on time and cut down on the uncertainty of impulse shopping, you’ll need to keep a couple of lists of items to keep an eye out for whether you’re shopping upscale antique markets, or just scouring local garage-sale tables full of things your neighbors have pulled out from the back of the closet: targeted items and automatic buys.
Keep and Maintain a List of Targeted Items
When you see someone else’s envy-worthy thrift store find and wish you had it for yourself, make a note. Do you have a favorite thrifty decorator whose style you crave? Discover the patterns in their style and add them to the list. Whether it’s curvy, organic-shaped vases, photo frames, coffee table books, or something else, look for it—every time.
Thrifting resources to check for ideas: What to Buy From the Habitat for Humanity ReStore
Keep and Maintain an Auto-Buy List for the Consignment Store
As your targeted items evolve, you’ll develop your can’t-miss items—the treasures you should never leave behind. These items will also give any home that classic, timeless look and take some of the guesswork out of your next thrifting adventure.
My thrift shopping list: Thrift Store Home Decor Finds You Should Never Pass Up
Second-Hand Shopping Part 3: Set-up For Success: Stay in Your Wheelhouse
When you’re buying well-used items in as-is condition, you’ll have to use your imagination a little. Ask yourself: Can a little TLC save this credenza? Or will a coat of paint elevate this perfectly curvy vase? Is this a lost cause? Too good to be true? Know what you are capable of, what you can learn, what can fit in your home, and what is appropriate for your style.
Easy thrift store upgrade project: How to Paint a Lampshade
Know Your Skill Set
Objective: From Dust to Dazzling
Many items in second-hand stores have seen better days, and it might even seem like their best days are behind them. Some, however, look primed to return to their former glory. But don’t be too ambitious. Make sure you have the means to restore the items you’re hoping to save and don’t waste time on a lost cause. The good news? Oftentimes, it’s as easy as a quick clean.
Learn the easy trick: How to Properly Clean Lampshades
Expand Your Skill Set
Objective: From Drab to Fab
Did I just say, “Don’t be too ambitious”? That might be true for a big restoration project that requires tools, shop space, and experience (unless you have all that), but what about smaller projects? How about that picture frame that’s the perfect profile but the wrong finish for today’s trend? A metal lamp that was always way too shiny? Expand your skills and learn techniques to revitalize old, once-amazing items, turn never-weres into classic beauties or re-purpose an item completely.
Get the how-to: The Top Secret Formula for the Perfect Painted Gold Frame
Your Personal Collection
I’m a sucker for the television show American Pickers. My favorite trick they pull is how they can make rooting through a dusty, soiled barn sound sophisticated by referring to the apparent junk within as ‘a collection’. It makes you forget the word hoarder even exists. Maybe don’t go that far, but there is nothing wrong with keeping a collection. Have a display area in your home where you’ll display the items you discover that you find appropriate for your collection.
More inspiration to help you decorate your home: Modern Thrift Store Home Decor Items I Always Look For
Stay Within Your Means at the Consignment Store
When we think of thrift stores, we think cheap. When we think of curated antiques we start talking about big money. When browsing Goodwill’s aisles, we might pick up a small vase. When we’re at the ReStore and that antique sideboard is calling your name we’re talking about big space. And your 1800’s farmhouse might not need that MCM credenza. So, whether it’s personal finances, square footage, or the architecture of your home, keep your search within your means and appropriate for your lifestyle.
Great ideas for beginners: A Beginner’s Guide to Transforming a Space
Happy Thrifting!
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.