First, make sure you have plenty of time. Anyone can run into The Gap and find a decent pair of jeans or khakis in fifteen minutes, but good thrift store buys sometimes hide. You have to be patient and go through all of the racks. It takes time.

The first rule leads to the second. Look in all of the sections. If you wear a medium, it is still important to look through the small and large sections. Many things get misplaced so that your perfect shirt is hiding in the extra-small section. And don't disregard sections that look like they aren't your style. It is a daunting task to look through "Women's Blouses". From afar it appears as though the only blouses are in the eighties sailor style or bedazzled or covered in huge brass buttons. But if I had skipped the Women's Blouses section today I never would have found the never-worn, still in the tags, beautiful deep purple NY & Co. sleeveless shirt for $3.00. And if I hadn't looked in the sweatpants section, I never would have found the kick ass Old Navy wind pants.

Looking in other sections includes looking in the men's section. It is my experience that thrift stores generally place most t-shirts in the men's section, even if a girl would like them. In the men's section today I found the coolest olive green t-shirt with an iron on of Juliette Lewis and Woody Harrelson from Natural Born Killers that says, "Made In America". Come on, people, that's cool. You know you want it for yourself.

After you have allotted enough enough time and looked through every rack of clothing (including men's pants, where I found the coolest cargo pants today), remember the third and final rule for thrift store shopping. Thrift stores are not just for clothes. Many thrift stores have toys and books and furniture. I didn't find anything good in those sections today, but in the past I've found some gems. I once found four matching chairs to put around my kitchen table for $19.99. In college I found almost a complete set of dishes that were identical to the dishes my mother gave me so I was able to replace those that were chipped or broken. For my old school nintendo I have purchased a bunch of the original games. Today, in fact, I found an entire box of original atari games. Unfortunately no atari console, or I would have gotten them all.

God Bless Thrift Shops. They make life interesting.

P.S. I added a new favorite to my diary list, Persimmmon. Check her out. She lives in my hometown, and she's groovy.