Tips and Tricks of Thrifting Shoes

My approach to thrifting shoes is buying new and gently used shoes only. Generally speaking in all my years of thrifting, my shoe size is hard to come by, but when I do thrift shoes I like to thoroughly examine them. Look them over on the inside and out to see how worn they are. Are they dirty, are there any holes, & how bad the soles look are the things I am checking for. 

Should you find a pair you like, next you need to consider how you can clean them? Are they machine washable such as sneakers? Do you want to wash and dry them at home or do you prefer a commercial laundromat? Perhaps they are leather or a material that are not machine washable? Wiping them down inside and out with disinfectant wipes and/or spraying them with disinfectant spray and allowing them to air dry is the way to go. 

My final tip is shoe restoration. The first thing to consider is if you are going to restore them yourself or take them to the Shoe Shop? If you are restoring them yourself there are plenty of DIY videos on the internet. Depending on  the shoe you can paint them, dye them, or use shoe polish. For sneakers you can invest in a sneaker cleaning kit. Lastly there is re-fabricating the shoe if you are really feeling creative.

Here are some of the shoes I have thrifted over the years. 

I got these knee-high combat boots from the Goodwill Outlet for $3. If you are not familiar the Goodwill Outlet is where the Goodwill Inventory goes before they get rid of it. 

These booties were purchased at a Goodwill Retail Store in Virginia Beach, VA. This is an completely thrifted outfit.

These cute pumps were love at first sight. They were purchased at Goodwill in Midlothian, VA. 

Fun Fact about these Just Fab pumps. I am sure they had never been worn by looking at the condition. After purchasing them from the Love of Jesus Thrift Store in Richmond, VA it became quite obvious why! They hurt and are my photo/content shoes only! Who can relate? This entire outfit from the earrings to the shoes were thrifted. 

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