Buffalo Exchange: two hours I'll never get back.

So recently my sister had a small case of clothes hoarding or just spring cleaning overdue.  Either way, we had an insane amount of clothing that needed to find another home.  She had bagged up the discards.  My cousin, Kat, even came by to dig through the rubble to take any treasures. We were still left with 5 bags plus approximately 20 pairs of shoes.  Should we be embarassed that we had this much clothing that we considered unwearable? Yes. However, I didn't have the time to worry about that.  My mission was to get these sacks of clothing out of our house for once and for all.  Note: they had been sitting in our "shoe room" (i'll explain in another blog) for at least a month.

Most Sundays, when the mood strikes, you will find me on a cleaning/organizing tangent and this past Sunday was no exception.  Katie was out of town, the dogs had been walked and fed, and Momma had her breakfast and two cups of coffee.  Basically, it was the perfect storm for Mission Take Back The Shoe Room.

So being the domestic goddess that I am, I separated the clothes out into pants, shorts, dresses, tops, and jeans.  I put any subpar articles or winter attire into a Goodwill bag because I knew they didn't stand a chance at Buffalo Exchange.  Now being the OCD freak that I am, I even buttoned up, tied up, and zipped up all the clothes as if I was getting them ready for a store floor. I had hoped presentation might have earned me some brownie points.  Later I would find out they didn't give a rat's ass if it was buttoned, tied, or zipped.  I then went to scope out the shoes that we had set aside for donation/resale as well.  I'd like to add that I gave myself bonus points for a major 'Green' effort to recycle. Here is a shot of the broken down shoe boxes that have since been put into the recycle world:

Now here are shots of the clothes I took to Buffalo Exchange:

The Goodwill bags (this is additional to the Buffalo Exchange pile):

So I load up the car and head out to take a chance at putting some cute fashion back into circulation.  I go in the store with the shoe bag first.  By the time I had gone out to my car to gather another pile, she had already picked through my kicks and had only decided 2 pair made the cut.  I have to admit, in my head, I was screaming "Whaaaaat?!?!"  Needless to say, I was a little nervous at how this was going to go after that poor selection process, but nonetheless I powered through.  I continued to bring in the clothes one pile at a time, each time returning to find she is handing back the stack only keeping one or two items.  I started to get a little defensive.  You start questioning why they don't want to buy your stuff.  My inner monologue was full of "What's wrong with that top? Those pants are adorable! How can anyone say 'no' to that dress?!?! Do you even read the fashion magazines? What makes you qualified to make these decisions!"  I felt like it was a personal attack on my taste and style and they weren't even my clohtes! I should have armed myself with a PowerPoint presentation on how these clothes can be worn and how to get the most out of each piece. I wanted to 'sell' my piles as if I was the shamwow guy, bluetooth headset and all!

After it was all said and done, I had the chance to either take $90 worth of store credit or $60 in cold hard cash.  After feeling defeated, spending money in the store just didn't feel right. 

Word to the wise: they are Lable Whores!  She looked at EVERY label.  I wasn't aware before I went in, but the key is to cut out all your tags before you try and sell.  At least the no-name items.  They seem to like so-called unique stores like Anthropolgie and the like.  I spoke to two of my friends who were denied at one location, went home and cut the tags out, tried another location and low and behold, they took their items. Save yourself the headache and just cut out any questionable labels.  Also, don't try to sell any winter clothing in summer but I figured that was common sense. However, a dude that was in there at the same time as me was trying to sell some sweater vests.  I chalked it up to him being a young, clueless pup.  Also, don't wait till you have 50lbs of clothes to sell or donate.  It will only frustrate you.  Take baby steps and baby piles!  You might want to even go in the store before hand and browse the styles they are selling.  This way you can go back to see if any of your clothes stand a chance.  Lastly, there is nothing wrong with asking the sales associates what they need.  This will cut out a lot of the work and frustration of having your entire load denied. 

Even though I didn't make much money on the whole deal, it was $60 more than I had to start with so I had to consider it a success.  Where did the rest of the clothing go you ask? I found the first donation box and unloaded in about 2 minutes flat.  At least now I have satisfaction in knowing there will be some well-dressed homeless people roaming the streets of Houston.  Good deed: Done!

Love and shoes,
Kim