Why Is Thrifting So Popular: Is It Just a Trend or Something Deeper?

Amber:

Welcome to Episode 6 of the Gem Finders Podcast. I'm Amber.

Shaun:

I am Shaun.

Amber:

And today, we thought it would be really interesting to have a discussion about why so many people love thrifting and antiquing. Because I know in some ways it feels like it's trendy right now, but I feel like there's a lot of depth there too and a lot of other reasons other than it just being a popular thing to do.

Shaun:

Yeah, obviously, it's what we do for our livelihood, but it is such a popular thing. Not just right now—I feel like it's been growing in popularity for a long time. It was kind of like this underground thing that people did and didn’t really tell people about, and now it's really popular. So I think it'll be a fun subject to talk about. And we have not only our insights on this but also some insights from some comments on recent viral videos that Amber has had. So that should be fun to discuss.

Amber:

Viral-ish. I know that in terms of other people and their content, these might not be viral, but to me, they feel viral. And I don't know that I've ever had content get this many views before. So to me, it feels viral, and to me, it feels like I have successfully kind of initiated a fun and thoughtful discussion around thrifting and antiquing. There are two videos that kind of discuss this topic. The one on TikTok—the one that's taking off—is a little bit shorter, and it has over 170 thousand views.

Shaun:

Hundred seventy thousand, not 170 views.

Amber:

Thousand. And then the longer version went a little bit more viral on Instagram, and that one had over one hundred thousand views. So that feels really exciting to me. It feels like I was really able to relate to people in these posts. What inspired this is we had a really good day of antiquing, and I came home, and I was just like, this just felt good. It felt like we had a really good day, and it was in the middle of so much stress. We have a lot going on right now. I had a miscarriage in September, and that's really been taking a toll on our life for a number of reasons. But it's been really hard to kind of get myself out of that and to put it down at all. And so I just came home from this day of sourcing, and I just felt like, for a few hours, I was able to really just be in the moment and enjoy what I was doing. And that felt really good.

And so I was thinking about that, and I was like, how can I share that feeling? How can I share what that felt like? And I have been challenging myself to post three TikToks a day since mid-January. And I needed to post my three, and I didn't have a lot of time that day. And I just wanted to do something quick and easy. So I threw up a little clip from when we were antiquing that day, and then I just did a little voiceover about how I would rather be overwhelmed by pretty old things, looking at pretty old things, compared to being overwhelmed and overstimulated by life. And that just is what kind of kicked this all off. That video really took off. And then maybe about a week or two later, I made a longer one with a similar tone, but I wanted to try to make a longer-form video. And that one is also continuing to be pushed out there, which feels so exciting.

I really loved reading the comments because so many people brought up points that I hadn't even really thought about in regards to this. So it's been really fun to watch the lifespan of these two pieces of content.

Shaun:

And I have not been able to keep up with all the comments. I kept up with them for the first few days, but I don't even know what a lot of them say anymore.

Amber:

Yeah, I haven't kept up with them either. And I think after this filming, I think I'm going to go back and interact with more of them because I'm so grateful that so many people have commented on it. But it definitely was hard to keep up with them because so many of them were coming in. But before we get into that, let's talk about why we love it—why we love thrifting and antiquing.

So obviously, you can listen to Episode 1, and that will give you an overview of our whole story. But I think what I really love about it now is that it forces me to be present. It forces me to be in the moment. It's really hard to think about everything else going on in life—it's hard to think about all of the stressors and everything that I'm overwhelmed by—when I quite literally have to stop and lock my brain in on what's right in front of me to be able to find these pieces. So there are a number of reasons that I love it, but I think that what brings me back to it time and time again is that it forces me to be present. It forces me to have my attention on something that doesn't involve a screen and forces me to live right then and there; otherwise, you miss the good stuff.

So I think that that is probably what keeps me coming back and what makes thrifting and antiquing feel like something that I can do at any time, on any day. Like, I always feel mentally prepared to go antiquing unless I have other things at home that I feel like I have to do. Then I'm overwhelmed because I want to be antiquing, but I have to do the stuff at home.

Shaun:

I don't know that I've ever thought really in-depth about why I enjoy it. Because we always joke around that it is so easy to default to just going sourcing when we don't want to do other work. It's like that's the fun part. Going sourcing is the fun part. So it's so easy to just say, "Oh, we're gonna, you know, push everything else aside, and we're gonna go sourcing today."

But I mean, I know on like a surface level, I just enjoy seeing all of the old things because so many of the old things are just so much cooler than anything you find today. There's a lot of nostalgia that I associate with thrifting and antiquing. I see a lot of things from when I was younger, and it always brings back memories and makes me feel like a kid again, which I always want to feel like a kid. I wish I could always be a kid and never grow up.

Amber:

Sometimes when we have our niece here, I feel like there are two kids. I feel like I have to be the grown-up.

Shaun:

There's a balance. Anyway, looking at it on a little bit of a deeper level, when we go sourcing, I am always in the moment. I'm not as easily distracted. I don't feel like I have to default to looking at my phone and scrolling through things. You are super focused while you're thrifting and antiquing because there's so much to look at, and you do have to look in every nook and cranny. And if you're not in the zone, if you're not in the right headspace, you will miss things. And again, because we do this as a job for our livelihood, we do really have to focus on everything and try to find the best pieces that we possibly can.

Amber:

There's so many things your brain has to do at one time when you're thrifting and antiquing. Like, there is no time to be distracted. You have to do all of these things, and it doesn't really leave room to worry about what you have going on outside of that moment.

Shaun:

And there's so many additional things that we need to do because this is our business that oftentimes we forget to do because you are already so focused on the things that you need to do just to find the items. We sometimes neglect the steps that we should be doing to make our lives easier when it comes to inventorying. Which is what we're going to talk about in the next episode.

Amber:

Yeah, so stay tuned for that. But we are going to have more conversation and discussion around this. Let's kind of go into the list that we created, and this list was inspired by the comments, inspired by the trends that I saw in the comments, and kind of like the general ideas that people kept bringing up about why they love antiquing and thrifting and why it feels so good.

Amber:

One thing I saw come up consistently throughout the comments is that people love going thrifting and antiquing because it provides a sense of peace. Whether it is decompressing from a long week or a long day, whether it is kind of almost like a meditation when you're going through it—again, you really are focused. And a lot of people said, "Thrifting is my therapy." And I have mixed feelings about that because I really do believe in regular therapy too.

I feel like everybody can benefit from that, but I know it's expensive, and I know not everybody wants to do it. But I do think that there is a certain therapeutic aspect to it. I think that ties into the nostalgia, kind of like it brings back memories and can kind of heal you in that way.

Shaun:

I also noticed a lot of those comments, and I kind of found it ironic in a way because you're in these thrift and antique stores, and there are so many items, and it feels so overwhelming to look at everything. But at the same time, it has this calming sense about it. It's this weird dichotomy between the two. You feel like you should be stressed and overwhelmed when you walk in and see this clutter a lot of the time. But I don't know—it gives this calming atmosphere and just kind of takes you to a different place. It's hard to describe, really.

Amber:

And as somebody who gets overwhelmed very easily, especially like the clutter in our home drives me crazy, I really can't put my finger on why I can walk into an antique store and that clutter feels so different. I hate having a messy home, and right now, with the way the business is, it just has to take over multiple rooms, and it kind of is everywhere in many aspects. And that drives me crazy, yet I don't feel that way at an antique store.

Shaun:

Probably because we don't have to clean it up. Haha. That's not our responsibility.

Amber:

So it's special. It is. There's something special about it. And I think it's still so crazy that he actually enjoys it. Like, even when I started doing this and he would come with me, we weren't going antiquing nearly as much as we do now. And I just find it very surprising that you also got roped into that feeling of what it creates. It's almost like it's contagious.

Shaun:

It surprises me in a way, but also, when I think about me and my personality, I have always—like, obviously, I've been a collector. I had a huge action figure collection, I collected video games. So I've always had this appreciation for things of the past and holding onto those types of things. So it does surprise me that this is what I do to make money now and that I am so interested and attracted to the glassware now because that was never something that I had any interest in whatsoever before we started this. But the core of what it is, when I really think about it, it doesn't surprise me a whole lot because that's kind of ingrained in me in a way.

Amber:

We touched on this a little bit already, but thrifting and antiquing are such a great way to escape life. And I feel like the world really does melt away, and a lot of you said that in the comments, just that the world turns silent for a little bit. And I absolutely agree with that.

And that is probably like the second thing that really draws me to it. One is being present, but two, the fact that I can escape my overthinking because I feel trapped in my own brain all the time with overthinking and decisions.

Shaun:

That's an understatement.

Amber:

And like looking at all the possibilities and all the solutions and all the answers all the time—it's like a nonstop loop that goes through my head. And it really does stop. The world really does just stop when we're in an antique store. For me, it provides me relief from that anxiety in a way that nothing ever has before.

Shaun:

That's interesting. I don't think you've ever said that to me before.

Amber:

It does. It really does. My anxiety truly is at bay when we are walking through an antique store.

Shaun:

When you said that the world turns silent, I started thinking about that on a more literal level. And I think that the overall vibe of antique stores—more antique stores than thrift stores, I think, because thrift stores can be a little bit more hectic sometimes—there are usually not very many people in antique stores. So I feel like on a more literal level, it also quiets the noise from the world. Because you kind of walk into these stores, and there's usually not a lot of people in there. And it's just like a quiet atmosphere overall. So not only does it, on more of like a spiritual and deeper level, make the world go silent, but also on like a more literal level, there's just less noise in there in general, which I feel like contributes to that peaceful, calming atmosphere.

Amber:

Even though the stuff can be overstimulating, the environment is not. And it is like one of the few things left that don't involve a screen where you can do the whole thing. I mean, obviously, we're looking at our phones sometimes while we're doing it, but like if we were just antiquing for fun and not for the business, we wouldn't really need to pull out our phones. Like, we could just walk through, and it would be screen-free time. And I always appreciate that. At least it's an activity where I get to be on my phone less compared to all of the other things that we have to do for the business.

Shaun:

That was another comment that came up a lot—that it stops people from their doom scrolling, where it's like one of the only other things they would rather be doing than just endlessly scrolling on TikTok. And that makes so much sense to me.

Amber:

I also feel like thrifting and antiquing allow us to tap into creativity and connection in a way that a lot of other things don't, for a couple different reasons. One, you're walking around, you're seeing all of these items, and you know that they have a story. Whether they're vintage or not, even if they're just from something that was secondhand, it was still loved and owned by somebody else. And you don't—you don't know anything about their story. So there's something special about imagining where all of these items were and the lives that they lived. Part of me feels so silly talking about things in this way, but it's true. Like, they do hold a story, and they hold a piece of the past, and they hold a past life. And I think that there is some connection to that.

 And there's also this creativity that you have to tap into. Whether you're shopping for your shop or your home, you have to be creative and imagine these things outside of their current environment. So, you have to access so many different parts of your brain in order to enjoy antiquing and in order to be good at it. 

Shaun:

Yeah, you've talked about the stories and like the lives that the items have lived for a long time. I feel like that's something that's always on your mind. You think about that when you see an item, and that's probably one of the first things that crosses your mind—where did this come from? Who had this? Even when we're antiquing, a lot of time, I feel like that's one of the first things you say is like, "Can you imagine the house that this was in?"

It's not necessarily something that is the first thing that I think about. It would be really cool if you could find out the history of all the items. That would be super cool. I would be really interested in that. I don't think it's necessarily the first thing I think about now because I feel like it's about impossible to find out where these items came from. But if I knew that you could, that would be really cool—to find out the history of all these items.

Amber:

And sometimes it's really hard not knowing. Like, sometimes I really want to know who owned this or where it came from. I especially feel this way about antique pieces or something that's really old or really ornate. We will see these huge pieces of furniture that you couldn't even fit in homes today. My brain will just start thinking about where this could have been, where it would have made sense for its time. And then you start to think about how old it actually is and all of the people that have loved it throughout the years. And the fact that it still exists in amazing condition—it just blows my mind. And it does, it makes me feel connected to the past. It makes me feel connected to the items.

It also makes me feel connected to our home when I find items that I feel like really speak to me, that I feel would fit in well, even if I don't have that, you know, room or that space kind of imagined yet. It connects me to the process in a way that feels really interesting to me. And I feel like I should go into that more on another episode. But I do feel like there are multiple different layers of the connection that is created through secondhand shopping in general.

Shaun:

I feel like another part of the creativity aspect is a lot of these old items—the purpose that they were made for is obsolete these days. So it's really cool to repurpose the items and find new modern uses for them. I don't know a good example off the top of my head—

Amber:

A celery dish. Like, who's gonna use a celery dish?

Shaun:

Sure, yeah.

Amber:

A relish dish. Like, I don't know, I just don't feel like those are things that are common on the table anymore. Because in the past, they had a little dish for everything that was on the table, and we don’t do that anymore.

Shaun:

No, yeah. So it's just really cool to see an item, and you might not even know what its original use was for, but just to imagine what you could use it for today. Because technology is always advancing, we're always being introduced to new products that almost become everyday things that you use. So it's really cool to find these old items and these old pieces and find a way to incorporate the modern technology and the modern uses with those.

Amber:

It creates a really beautiful dynamic in your home to be able to mix old with new. One of the coolest things about my personal journey antiquing and thrifting and getting more and more involved in this world is how it has allowed me to discover and kind of tap into my style. Because I don't really feel like I knew what my style was when we first started doing this. And I feel like I have a much better idea now, even though I feel like I can't afford the pieces that are within my preferred style. I feel like seeing all of these items and playing around with them and finding them and sourcing them and holding them in my hand have really allowed me to discover what speaks to me and how I can incorporate them into my own home. And it's allowed me to—even though I haven't executed it as much as I would have liked to by now—it has allowed me to tap into what I love and the space that I wanna create and what I want to turn our home into in a way that I don’t think I could have exercised if I was just shopping from modern retailers.

Even if I had a more modern style, I think there is something to be said about seeing all of these different styles kind of like blended and thrown together and having to pick out the pieces that fit yours. Regardless of if it is like a vintage or antique look that I'm going for or not, I think even if I had a more contemporary look, that this process still allows you to discover what you're looking for and what you feel connected to.

Shaun:

So as I mentioned in the intro, nostalgia is a big thing for me—just in life in general, not just when we're antiquing and thrifting. It consumes a lot of my mental space. So I think that for me, that is the biggest draw for sourcing—the history of all the items and the feelings that come along with it, the memories that I can associate with so many things that we see at thrift stores and antique stores. It makes me feel good.

I have a lot of fond memories of my childhood associated with materialistic things. I know that that's probably terrible, and I should probably have more therapy about that, but I do. So it brings me these little pieces of joy and happiness when we're at antique stores or thrift stores and I see things like old action figures that I might have had when I was younger—or maybe I still have upstairs.

I feel like there is so much missing from today's world that I had when I was growing up that I feel like should still be around. Like, where are the cool toy stores? Why do those not exist anymore?

Amber:

Yeah, like toy stores are awful these days.

Shaun:

Kids are missing out on that cool experience. Like, that was one of the things that I looked forward to the most as a kid—going to the toy store. And even if I didn't get anything, just looking at all the toys and the cool things that were out.

So I don’t know, in a way, the thrift stores and antique stores kind of give me those same vibes and feelings that I had when I was younger and we would go to the toy stores or the video stores or the video game stores—things like that. So I think that’s why I enjoy going to these stores so much.

Amber:

I have gotten emotional on more than one occasion at an antique store. I think the most impactful one for me was—I have had this giraffe my whole life. It's in my storage unit. I don't know if you've ever even seen it, but I've had this giraffe, and it's like a little clothing rack for a baby. Like, you can hang a coat on it. And my mom has always told me that it was blue, and my dad painted it pink when they found out that I was a girl. And so I've had it my whole life. And my dad passed away when I was in high school, so especially since then, it's been a really special piece that I've had in my personal collection.

And a few months ago, I was at an antique store, and I saw the version in blue. And I was like, how special is that? I thought that that was so cool to find something that has always been special to me. You know, in its original form, it just really took me back to all the times that my mom has been like, "Your dad painted that for you." And that I still have that as a little piece of something that he made me.

And it was still there when I went back, and I literally almost bought it because I was like, well, if we have a boy or a girl, we'll be set. So if I ever come back from Maryland with the blue giraffe, you know, I caved.

One thing that I absolutely love about doing this as our career and as our business is that we get to create those moments for other people. And even if it's not them buying it, I have had so many people who have watched our hauls or they have watched our videos, and they have messaged me or commented and said, "Wow, I totally forgot my great-grandma had that, and I remember it sitting on her kitchen shelf when I was younger." And I love being able to bring up those memories for other people, and hopefully, they're good memories. But that's one of the reasons I love sharing when we're going thrifting and that I love really sharing what we find. And I love sharing behind the scenes of this business because I feel like the more I share, the more I can create that connection for other people. And it feels really special that I have the ability to do that.

Shaun:

Yeah, it makes me wish that someone in my family did collect glassware or brass pieces or stone pieces because that would make this feel even more special when we were sourcing and being able to associate memories with those. But I don't—I don't have anybody that collected anything like that.

Amber:

I don't either. The items that we carry, I don't really have a special connection to, other than I like them. But no, nobody in my family ever collected them that I know of. But we bring up lots of memories for other people.

And obviously, something really cool about antiquing is just the joy. It is the joy of finding something good—the excitement you get when you've had something on your list, and you finally come across it, and you can take it home. Like, there is just nothing better than that. When you find something amazing, or even when you find something that you think is good, and then you bring it home and find out that it's especially amazing, there is just so much joy.

And I feel like it's joy at any budget. You can walk into the thrift store and find cool things for $5 or $500 at an antique store. So you really can tap into that concept of finding joy through these vintage items, no matter how much you want to spend.

Shaun:

Someone made a comment that it's like Christmas every day—something like that, right? That's a cool concept to think about. You never know what you're going to find. It is like a surprise every time you walk into a thrift store or an antique store.

Amber:

It's like you come downstairs on Christmas morning, and you had no idea what was in your presents, and you got surprised as a kid. And I feel like it's a way to create that surprised feeling as a grown-up.

Shaun:

Another interesting comment that multiple people left on the videos was how thrifting and antiquing kind of brings back this primal hunting, sourcing, gathering instinct that we as humans have. And I don't know that I ever would have thought about that on my own or associated thrifting and antiquing with that. But after reading those comments, it makes sense. That survival instinct kind of kicks in when you're thrifting and antiquing.

Amber:

Yeah, I think that's probably one of the reasons that your brain really zeroes in and locks into what you're doing because it does activate something that's just ingrained within us—this instinct.

And I never thought about that before either until somebody said it, and then more comments came in. And I was like, wow, that is such an interesting perspective because I think a lot of people have a really hard time putting their finger on like, "Why do we love this so much?" Like, it's different than shopping. It's a different vibe, a different atmosphere. It's not the same.

Something that people bring up all the time is that thrifting and antiquing are a more sustainable way of shopping and living, and I definitely agree with that from a consumer standpoint. I think if you're able to buy something secondhand, it is much more sustainable.

I do have mixed feelings about that being a shop. I don't really promote that we are a sustainable way to shop because I don't know—if you add up all of the packages and the trucks shipping these and all of the bubble wrap that we use—if I can still make that sustainable claim. But I do think that if you're antiquing and thrifting for yourself, it's absolutely a more sustainable way of shopping. But I don't know that if you factored in all of the elements that go into this, that we are necessarily doing anything that's better for the environment.

And I have a lot of guilt about that.

Shaun:

We have come up with such an almost foolproof packing system at this point that it's terrifying to think about altering that. And we do use a lot of bubble wrap in that system. But we don't have items break hardly ever.

We haven't. It's been over a year since we've had anything break at this point. It does weigh on me too. I definitely have some guilt about it, but I also don't know what we can do to change that, especially as a small business. We don't have access to a lot of the resources that major corporations do. We have to get what we can and that's about it.

Amber:

But, I also think the quality of items that people buy from us does hold a certain level of sustainability because I do think that many of these things have already lasted so long that they will continue to stand the test of time with care and caution. I definitely think that there are certain areas where sustainability does play a role, especially when you're passing these things down and you're gifting them to other people. So I do think that there are still many reasons to shop from vintage shops compared to big box retailers.

Shaun:

The quality of the items that you find from these thrift stores and antique stores—the items that are older—they're just such higher quality. They last longer. They feel better when you touch them. You can just touch it and feel it and you're like, wow, this is so much different than something that is made today.

Amber:

Yeah, and I think that that applies to a lot of different things, but I think it especially applies to furniture, which we don't sell a lot of obviously. But I think that buying furniture secondhand, especially vintage and antique furniture, is such a smart move because it looks so much better, it's going to wear a lot better, and it's going to be around because of how different it was made compared to how things are made these days.

Shaun:

I also think this ties nicely into thrifting and antiquing being such a great resource when you are on a budget. Especially if you're buying something like furniture, you could buy one piece now that might last your whole entire life, or you could buy one thing from a modern store and it might fall apart in a year. So I think that it's a great way to make smarter decisions for your budget. You're only going to have to buy something once compared to multiple times throughout its lifespan.

I think you can find some really great deals at any price point, and I think that that is something really special about this being a hobby or a business.

Something that I have thought about multiple times throughout the past few years is how I really wish that we would have known about this world in the house that we lived in before this. We were renting, we had no extra money for anything, and our house was just—it was sad. It was very sad.

Shaun:

It was all furniture that we had already had from previous houses. We didn't buy—I don't know if we bought anything new at that house.

Amber:

No, and it wasn't—it was furniture that had been passed down to us, which there's nothing wrong with, but nothing went together. There was no style to anything. It was just like, what is going to be functional enough so that we can survive in this house?

And antique stores and estate sales and yard sales—I knew yard sales existed, but I didn't know that you could find cool things at them. I had no idea that you could go to an estate sale on the last day and get amazing quality furniture for next to nothing. So I really wish that we had been exposed to this world earlier and had more knowledge about what we could have found because I think we would have been able to make that house feel more like home.

Amber: 

I can kind of tie this into what I said in the intro about how it feels like thrifting and antiquing is kind of growing in popularity, and it kind of felt like this underground thing for a while. To me, up until we started really doing this, I had this weird stigma associated with thrift stores. I guess something from when I was growing up, they were always looked down on. I never went into them with my family. It was frowned upon to go to thrift stores and buy secondhand things. You had to buy new things. So I think that that stuff was never on my radar because of that, because of just this stigma and how I was raised to think about these stores—not necessarily antique stores, I didn't even really know anything about antique stores in general, but more so the thrift stores.

So yeah, I'm wondering if other people kind of grew up with that same stigma and their circles kind of ingrained that mentality into them. But I think that it's really cool now what we're doing, that maybe we can try to help break that stigma and get more people on board with shopping secondhand and realizing that, in my opinion at least, it is way cooler than going to a big box store and buying these new items that are more cheaply made. You can get items for much cheaper and much better quality, and you get these cool stories and the history associated with them. So I don't think that there should be a stigma around them at all. I think that they should be promoted and encouraged, if anything.

Amber:

I see that especially with our niece. Like, I love that she doesn't mind going to the thrift store and that she is totally open to picking up a secondhand toy and that she doesn't mind if her dress has been worn before because we're kind of teaching her that that's okay, that we want to reuse things. When you're growing as a kid, you don't wear clothes for very long, so it's okay if you're using a dress that somebody else had. And I love that we're kind of teaching her that's okay,

Shaun:

Because it is okay.

Amber:

And not only has she accepted it, but she also literally enjoys it. Now I'm working on getting her to donate some things because we have accumulated a lot of kids' stuff by taking her with us. But overall, I think it's been a very positive experience, and I hope that more parents teach their kids the importance and the joy and the fun and the excitement that can be found through secondhand shopping.

So let us know if any of these points resonated with you. What draws you to thrifting and antiquing? Why do you think you constantly feel the need to go back? Because it's not just like, "Oh, I want to stop at the thrift store today." Like, it's our lives, and now we're like, "We need to go antiquing, like we literally have to." And I feel like so many people feel like that too. Like, it's not just stopping to get practical things. It is something so much deeper, something so much more special than that, and something that keeps pulling us back into it.

So let us know what you think the factors are for you.

Shaun:

And that's even for people that we know that aren't resellers—people in general that just love to go thrifting and antiquing. It doesn't have to be for a business.

So yeah, leave some comments for us. Let us know why you love thrifting or why you love antiquing. And maybe we'll have to do another video where we cover the comments that are from this video.

Amber:

Alright, let's go find some vintage, and let us know what you find.