My new life (and closet) changing secret

We are celebrating over here because a new way to purge, sell, and shop for second hand clothes has entered my life and you all should know about it (many of you already do). It’s called thredUP and it’s life-and-closet changing. It’s a partnership that came about organically, meaning that I contacted them and said we really should work together to purge, sell, buy, and style second hand clothes. They were into it.

Here’s the story: When we bought the new house I knew that I had to downsize my clothes. Our new 100 year old house has small closets and while I’m not a total clothes horse, I am like most of us where unless I’m forced to purge I’ll just keep adding and adding. So one Saturday I turned on the Hamilton soundtrack, grabbed some coffee and started pulling things down, trying them on and looking at them objectively. Many pieces were either ‘cool’ or ‘flattering’ but not both.

The pile started. Many pieces were also dated – I was hanging on to my late 20’s HARD. Many pieces were too small for me after 2 kids, and it was time to release that insidious form of torture. The pile grew and grew. There were a lot of items that were barely worn, and some not at all. There were some that were worn but just really, really good. The idea of sending them all to a thrift store seemed wasteful. Birdie agreed.

A good friend of mine had just told me about thredUP so I figured I’d try this magical service and go on the site. I ordered a Clean Out Bag to get started. But I loved the service so much that I emailed them with a pitch to partner on my purge and some lovely holiday content for you all.  As someone who grew up thrifting for need and fun, I have become rather disillusioned with the chain thrift stores out there now. They are expensive and picked over. Rarely do you find gems and I often leave annoyed they are charging the same prices as Ikea or Target. It’s insane. But second hand is ALWAYS a good idea so I think the world was ready for a new approach.

So we started chatting about ways we can work together, meanwhile they sent me 15 bags and I filled those bags:

All you have to do is quickly signup and they send you a Clean Out Bag. Then you put your gently used clothing in the bag. Seal it with its auto-seal (like glue) and give it to your postman or drop it off – it already has a label and it’s marked as yours in their system. Weeks later you’ll get a notification that your bag is being checked, and then listed, and then if items are sold you get a percentage. The percentage varies on the price of each piece and it is nominal (like if they sell it for $8 you might get $2) but it adds up, it’s easy and you do feel like your years of shopping for your clothes aren’t just being wasted.

It’s GENIUS. It’s the world’s largest online thrift store and one that you can sell on – except you don’t have to list anything yourself. It’s the most efficient alternative to donating clothes ever. And one of the best parts? What doesn’t fit as a listing or what is listed but doesn’t sell doesn’t end up in a landfill like it does with a lot of other companies. It’s not a huge money making venture. You aren’t going to get rich from it, but it makes purging and donating what you were going to anyway so much easier and faster while you make some extra money.

There is such good stuff on the site!!! Heck I gave like 12 pairs of perfectly good designer jeans that just don’t fit me anymore. There are a lot of basics as well as designer pieces. I used to take my pile to a consignment store, and waste an afternoon, humiliated while they chose 2 shirts for $12 total. Not exactly a good use of my time.

Well life just got easier and faster. I can’t recommend it enough – you clean out and make money. Plus how fun/cute is the branding?

They came over and we shot some fun gifs and videos for the holidays. Remember it’s not just purging, it’s a huge shoppable site with a ton of inventory that changes daily – and it’s all affordable. Many pieces are even new with tags.

The first gif we made was about layering, my favorite thing to do in home and fashio. We don’t have to layer too much here, but for the sake of all your weather patterns I layered on and on. 

We started with a simple and comfy form fitting black tee to go under everything, next we threw on the button down shirt and the cropped vest, which can both definitely be worn together without anything else over them, but for those days that it does get a little more chilly here in LA, and by chilly I mean when it drops below 60, we topped it off with the pink oversized jacket from Zara and the beanie – because well you know your ears get cold too and it makes me feel pretty hip if I do say so myself.

If you order from thredUP for the holidays you receive it in this adorable box and it comes with a tag that can be used as a christmas gift tag.

Sure. There are other second hand clothing sites out there, but none with so much inventory in good condition from amazing brands for women and kids. Their prices are always up to 90% off. They have last years J. Crew, last season’s Kate Spade, I even spot the occasional Rachel Comey’s which are my favorite shoes that are way too expensive to buy constantly new. They have it all. Every one-of-a-kind find goes through a meticulous process before it is accepted and listed on the site.

It’s really a game changer. I’ve convinced so many of my friends to do it (even before we partnered) and they all love it.

I know that we as women don’t buy too many clothing gifts for other women but for holiday dresses or winter clothes, they have you covered and there are so many pieces that are new and clothing for kids that could be great gifts. The only time I spend money on clothes for kids is when it’s somebody else’s child – I’m over wasting money on adorableness that just gets ruined or they grow out of too fast. So this second hand alternative is amazing to both clothe our kids but also to sell all the pretty things that they grew out of too fast.

So check out the site. Follow them on Facebook (they create really great Facebook content that I look forward to seeing) and if you want to see some of the content that we’ve already created you can check them out.

Sign up for thredUP and pick out an item you love, include a link to it in the comments section telling me why you love it. On Monday, Dec 12th at noon PT we’ll pick one lucky commenter at random to win $200 to shop on thredUP.

Meanwhile any of you who want to start shopping for gifts can use code EMHENDERSON40 at checkout for 40% off your first time order (discount up to $50). Expires on 3/1/2017.