OK. I have a problem. I love the thrill of the hunt when it comes to thrifting. Many a long night I have laid in bed, after a long day of work, scrolling on my phone through ThredUp or Poshmark, or posting on Reddit asking questions like, “Has anyone else ever purchased a blouse that stunk and if so, how did you get the smell out?” (I’ll make a post about this next!)

The best place to start when you want to figure out how to turn your problem into something good is to start at the beginning, right?

I always loved dressing up. Whether it was in costume, or in fancy dress clothes, there always was something appealing about looking cool. I was six years old, on a trip to visit family in Scotland, and my mother laid out some really fantastic 1980’s sky blue polyester trousers, and I threw a fit, because I wanted to wear a dress. I don’t think my mother relented, as you can see, there exists a photo of me sitting on a cannon outside Edinburgh Castle in those beautifully ugly trousers.

Back to turning my problem into something good. I thought about the fact that I turned 50 about 6 months ago, and how I had no idea how to dress because I spent about 30 years wearing clothes even less fashionable than those sky blue trousers.

I started reading the blog, “40 Plus Style” and it had a lot of great tips, but it also had a lot of expensive clothes. I liked them a lot, but could never afford to spend $160 on a dress from Nordstrom, because inevitably, I’d have to give it away again in 3 months since I was losing weight. I had tried ThredUp in the past, so I thought, maybe I’ll see what they have. It opened up a new world for me.

A year later, I feel like my style has evolved. I’d love to help you, dear reader, on your quest to find your own personal style by buying used!