Feb. 19, 2025

We Are The Hansons Why We Love Hand Me Downs & Thrift Stores

We Are The Hansons Why We Love Hand Me Downs & Thrift Stores

We’re diving into one of our favorite family traditions—embracing hand-me-downs and the thrill of thrift store shopping! From the legendary clothes that have made their way through all the kids to our greatest thrift store treasure hunts, we’re sharing why secondhand is often first class in our home.
Join us as we talk about the best (and funniest) thrift store finds, why we love passing things down, and how shopping secondhand saves money, helps the environment, and teaches our kids valuable life lessons. If you love a good deal, a great story, and a little family chaos, this episode is for you!



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Welcome back to We Are the Hands the podcasts where

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we dive into the joy of challended and hilarious moments

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of breaking a big, lively family. Today we're talking about

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one of our absolute favorite things, hand me down and

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thrift storms. Yeah, we are your acting resortful and maybe

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it's just a little bit obsessed with finding the best

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deals on clothes, furniture and random treasures. If you've ever

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experienced the pure joy of snagging and amazing fines for.

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Next to nothing, you're in for a treat. I'm going

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to start by saying, I grew up in a family

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that we got hand me downs, and I loved it.

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There's something so exciting about digging through a bag of

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clothes from an older sibling, a cousin, or a family friend.

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It was like opening a surprise gift. Sure, some things

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were a little questionable, like nineties wardrobe included in at

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least one Neon windbreaker. Every now and then you'd find

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the one thing that made you feel like the coolest

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kid in the world. Let's fast forward to today with

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our crew of kids. Hand me downs are not just

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a way to save money, they are a tradition. Clothes

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in our house go through a full cycle. Something start

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with one kid, gets passed down to another, and maybe

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even another after that, and then it's still in good shape,

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it gets handed off to another family, or if it's

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stained or ripped, we toss it. It's like a little

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piece of history moving from one person to the next.

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I could probably do an ancestry chart just based on

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who wore that sweater first. That's how much we wear

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our clothes in our home, just one kid to another.

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Now let's talk about thrift stores. Oh man, do we

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love a good thrift store. Some people like to spend

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their free time at them all. We prefer aisles of Goodwill,

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Salvation Army, red Rax, or just a random store that

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smells like an odd mix of Grandma's Addict and vanilla candles.

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One of the best things about thrifting for us is

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that you never know what you're gonna find. It's like

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a treasure hunt, except instead of gold, you might find

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a designer jacket for five bucks, or a brand new

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kid's coat that looks like it's never been worn. Don't

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even get me started on furniture sections. I love that section.

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I actually have a piece of furniture that was handed

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down to me when as soon as the weather gets warm,

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I'm gonna be working on making it look unique in

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my own way, and I can't wait to show the

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kids how we can change it. Some of our favorite

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pieces in our house came from either a thrift store

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or a flea market. With a little cleaning and fresh

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coat of paint, something old can become brand new again,

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especially to us. Besides being budget friendly, shopping secondhand is

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actually great for the environment. Instead of tossing clothes or

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household items into a landfill, they get a second, third,

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or even a fourth life. We love to teach our

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kids that just because something isn't brand new doesn't mean

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it's not valuable, and honestly, some of our favorite outfits

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have come from thrift stores, churches, or family friends rather

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than a department store. And let's be real, guys, kids

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grow up so fast. One minute they fit into those

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jeans or shirts, and the next they look like they're

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preparing for a flood. I don't know how many times

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I've had to tell my kids those pants do not

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fit you anymore, get rid of them. Hand me downs

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and thrift store finds make it possible to keep up

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without spending a fortune. Of course, secondhand shopping isn't always

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a smooth experience. Let's talk about a time we bought

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what we thought was a beautiful dress and we get

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home and it wasn't what we thought it was, or

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it had a rip. One time, I remember buying a dress.

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It was supposed to be for I think a wedding

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or something that we were going to beautiful dress. The

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zipper did not work. It looked like it would, you know,

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nothing was wrong with it, but it would not go down.

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Couldn't even get the dress on. Needless to say, the

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day right before the wedding that we were going to,

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I had to go back and find a different dress.

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I was so mad. One thing we really tried to

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teach our kids is that there's no shame in wearing

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secondhand clothes or shopping at thrift stores. It's actually kind

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of cool. They get excited when we find like name

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brand clothes for fraction of the price, or when we

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discover a vintage T shirt that no one else will

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have at school. We want them to understand the value

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isn't always about price. It's about how much something means

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to them. Because you could find a shirt that you

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absolutely adored and you could spend a dollar on it.

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Nobody at school is going to know what you spent

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on it, and you do not have to tell anybody

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how much you spent on it. They could think that

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shirt was twenty bucks. They're never going to know you

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paid a dollar. So that's one of our big things.

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I don't want my kids to feel like they aren't

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part of what everybody else has, you know. I want

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them to be able to have name brand clothes. And

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yes we do buy brand new, name brand stuff. We

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will go to a thrift store or the twenty five

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cent Christian store before I go to a regular store.

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I always try to get the kids new shoes, unless

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it's for something like a play at school or theater

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or something that it's probably just going to get war

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one time and never again. Then we go to the

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thrift store or the twenty five cent store. It's just

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a lot easier to spend a quarter or two dollars

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as opposed to fifty dollars. We check for sales. Some

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thrift stores have discount days, especially like Goodwill. They well

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Goodwill and Red Racks both they have a color day.

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So if you find a yellow tag, it might be

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two dollars, or if you find a blue tag, it

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might be five dollars. They have that at our thrift stores,

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and that is our favorite we go. I pray that

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we hit a day that the price is cheaper. Not

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always do we, but we even tend to go to

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a place called Bid and Digging, and it's like all

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these bins that are set up and you can find blenders,

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and you can find pans, and you can find whatever

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in them bins, and you can buy them for like

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nine ten dollars, sometimes they're five dollars. Just whatever day,

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each day is a different price. Some days it's a dollar,

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some days it's two dollars, some days it's five dollars.

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It just depends on what day you go. And you

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can look online to see what day is which and

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go on those days. I love going into stores like that.

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Love it, and my kids probably think I'm crazy. It

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is something that I get joys from doing, and I

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know they do because when we go in there, they

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are like loading their arms with stuff they want to buy.

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So not all kids have the luxury of getting name

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brand stuff, and not all kids have the luxury of

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buying brand new. I've always taught my kids you never

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tease anybody, because we have done it for so long,

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and I tell them all the time, you do not

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ever have to tell anybody you got that shirt at

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a thrift store, you got them shoes at a thrift store.

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But to me, I would not be ashamed of it,

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because you're getting it for a fraction of the price.

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It looks brand new. Somebody that had the same sweatshirt

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as me that I bought in the thrift store and

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spent four bucks on, they spent forty on theirs. So

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I think we were pretty blessed to be able to

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to go out and find these good deals and be

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able to make sure our kids have clothes they need

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and their name brand most of them. I remember going

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into the Christian store. I found a brand new designer

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person there. The only thing that was wrong with it

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is the strap.

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It was.

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It was a double strap, but the one strap had

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came unstitched, so all I had to do was stitch

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it back up. That purse had a price tag on

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it that said sixty nine ninety nine. I walked out

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of there with that purse for five ninety nine. I

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know I got to steal that day, so you can

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find some real cool things in stores like that. I

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remember another time I went to Goodwill. I was shopping

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for pants and I think a Duffel bag of some

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sort because we were going on a trip. When I

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got home, I was cleaning the Duffel bag, you know,

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getting it ready to go into the wash machine and

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the pants, making sure that all the tags were off,

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and I found a secret pocket in the Duffel bag

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and there was a twenty dollars bill in there. So

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needless to say, that day I walked out of that

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store with an extra fifteen dollars because the purse and

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the pants didn't cost me hardly anything, so with what

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I spent, I got my money back plus an extra

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fifteen dollars. Was pretty cool. One of our favorite things

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about hand me downs too is if you need to

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use them items for a play or like if they

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have silly closed day at school, you can use them

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hand me downs to decorate your clothes however you want

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or whatever the occasion may be for and not feel

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bad about ruining an outfit. We've had to do that

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a lot. Like the kids will have, like especially homecoming week,

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they'll have Silly Hair Day or Crazy Sock Day or

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whatever it may be. One was dressed like your favorite superhero.

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So we made an outfit to look like I don't

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remember if it was Spider Man or Superman. I thought

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it was so fun, and I didn't feel bad because

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those clothes that we used had been handy downs through

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many of our children. I wasn't too worried about it.

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I didn't have to spend a lot, and I went right

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down to the next child anyway, because the next year

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it was the same thing for the homecoming. I remember

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taking the kids into good Will. We were going through

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the clothes. Mind you, they don't wash those clothes when

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they turn them in. Some people are decent and they'll

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wash them, but most of the time they are stored

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in a basement with the mice or whatever is down there. Rodents.

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And we were walking through the store and we came

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to the rack that we needed to come to. It

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was like a sail rack. I'm going through the clothes

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in there, and I picked a shirt off the shelf

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and I was like, oh man, this is a cute shirt,

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but it smelled so bad like cat urine. I wanted

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to buy it, so bad, but I didn't and the

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kids were like, oh man, the smell. We put it

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back and the kids are like, why did Why do

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all these clothes smell so bad? A lot of them

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smelled like just old basement, you know, that musty smell.

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But just see the expression on their face, and oh,

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we don't want that, you know. It was just fun

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to see. We have ran into the not so great

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thrift stores where you go in and you find a

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really nice name brand shirt that you could get at

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a different thrift store for five dollars or ten dollars

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and they want thirty dollars for it. We have ran

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into that. So sometimes your thrifting is not the best.

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You have to really search sometimes to find what you need.

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So why we feel secondhand just makes sense. One, it

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saves so much money, especially with kids who grow fast

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and with a lot of kids like us. Two, it's

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better for the planet, less way and more reuse. Three,

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it teaches kids not to be materialistic and to value

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things beyond their price tag, which my kids they love thrifting,

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so I never have to worry about that. Most importantly,

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it's so fun the treasures that we find. We even

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find like curling irons, flat irons, stuff like that we

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find so cheap, and most of the time they are

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still in the package. Some of the must checks for

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thrift shopping is checking for stains, missing buttons, and a

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zipper that actually works, because that tends to happen you

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get home. Oh man, the button's missing on a pair

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of jeans, or the jeans are ripped in between the legs.

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It's hard to fix a pair of when they're ripped.

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Don't be afraid to upcycle a little sewing That is okay.

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If it's a small spot that needs to be sewed,

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I don't have a problem sewing it. It's the really

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big ones, or like jeans, they're really hard to sew.

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We always make it an adventure when me and the

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kids go. I try to make it so fun for them,

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like they like to help pick out their clothes or

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their treasures. They're way more excited to wear the clothes

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that they pick out, so that helps too. You also

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have to know when to say no. Just because it's

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cheap doesn't mean you need it. I mean, if it's

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a great deal and I know they're gonna wear it

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or they're gonna use it, I do buy it just

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because sometimes it's that type of thing you just buy

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it because you know you're gonna use it eventually. And

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I don't mean like a year later, I mean within

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the next month or so. I'm gonna end this with

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my final thoughts by saying, whether it's a hand me

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down sweater that's been worn by every kid in the

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house or a thrift store treasure that you probably got

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for two dollars, there's something special about secondhand shopping. It's

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not just about the clothes or the furniture, it's about

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the stories behind them. To all my fellow thrifty moms,

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dads and budget savvy folks, keep hunting for those hidden gems,

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keep passing things down, and keep making memories. Thanks for

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tuning in to We Are the hands Ins. If you

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loved this episode, share it with your fellow thrift lover

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and let us know your best secondhand finds. You can

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go over and send us a message on We Are

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the Hanson's Facebook. You can send us an email at

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Weirrethehansen's Show at gmail dot com, and please go subscribe

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to our We Are the Hansen's YouTube channel. Until next time,

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happy thrifting