A Guide to Thrift Store Shopping in Northern Virginia

Benefits Blue Ridge Hospice

Third week of every month all clothing is ½ price, a different 50% off sale each day of the week, bag sale every last Thursday of the month, fill a bag for $10.

The Blue Ridge Hospice Thrift Shop is a bit out of the way, but if you're in the area, it is well worth a stop by. The modest outside of the building belies the interior capacity of the shop. Two full sized floors contain a wide variety of merchandise. The bottom floor contains a nice selection of furniture, linens, and women's clothing (including that rare find--a whole rack of barely worn jeans). Especially nice is the book room. Set up like a book store, the room contains books assorted by genre and alphabetized so it is easy to find what you are looking for.

The even larger second floor contains a large selection of children's clothing, furniture, toys, and a wall of board games. There is also a nice section of special occasion table linens, glassware, and lace for gifts or housewarmings.

Resourceful Woman's Thrift Shop, Leesburg

Benefits Loudoun Abused Women's Shelter

Resourceful Woman has a great selection of up to date professional clothing, but there isn't much in the way of household wares. Both women's and children's clothes are well sorted and organized on racks. The women's department also has lots of stylish accessories like hats, bags, and shoes. The children's section always seems to have nearly new shoes. The dressing rooms are also nice, roomy and well lit. In addition to clothing there is one shelf of toys and games, one bookshelf of books, and two small stands for house ware and dishes. The prices aren't the best, and the small selection of house wares especially seems to be overpriced, but the clothing is name brand and the out of style pieces have been weeded out for you.

Twice is Nice, Leesburg

Benefits Loudoun Memorial Hospital

Hole punched frequent shopper tickets handed out at the register, every sixth purchase you get $2 off $10 or more

More of a consignment boutique than a thrift shop, Twice is Nice makes up for its small size and sometimes questionable prices with its amazingly high quality and pleasant shopping experience. Located near very affluent neighborhoods, the merchandise is extremely high quality and the women who run the shop are very selective about what is displayed.

One can find clothing with tags still on; women's racks are packed with brand names like DKNY, Dockers, Banana Republic, Juicy Couture, Talbot's, Old Navy, Land's End, and Urban Outfitters. The same goes for baby and children's clothes, a lot of new, name brand piece with tags on. There aren't many toys or books but there are a lot of baby items (bibs, cribs, nursery décor, play pens), again often brand new. The house wares section is small but, again, of high quality and there is a wide selection of linens and towels. Some prices, especially on house wares and furniture, are a bit overpriced but deals can still be found especially on sale days.

Good Shepherd Thrift Store, Sterling

Benefits Good Shepherd Alliance

Good Shepherd is more in the vein of a traditional, dig through it, Salvation Army store. There are some good finds, but you'll have to pick through dozens of old concert tee shirts and bowling jerseys. The merchandise is not as high quality, but there is a lot of it, and prices are rock bottom. Lots of jewelry as well, but all of it is behind glass cases. In addition to the clothing, there is furniture, glassware, and electronics, but the same warnings apply. There are really good finds here, but be patient.

Pennywise Thrift Store, Herndon

The shop is small but there is lots of merchandise. Because of the lack of space things can get really crowded, so be prepared to do some digging because not everything can make it on a rack. But prices are great and there is always some sale or other. Parking can be a pain, but there are some spacious parking lots a few blocks away.

TWIG, Alexandria.

Benefits Alexandria Hospital

TWIG has a nice location in downtown Alexandria and is in a very cute shop. Due to its location, it is more like a boutique than a secondhand shop, so don't expect any great deals. Because of the small size of the shop, selection is limited. But all of the pieces are top quality and comparing what the prices of most of these name brand clothing would be new, a deal can still be had. This is definitely a place that is about quality over quantity. Also note that TWIG is closed throughout the summer months.

Unique, Falls Church

25% off on Mondays, 50% off on holidays

The granddaddy of all thrift stores. Unique isn't a thrift store so much as a mega, highly organized rummage sale on steroids. The size of a Target, Unique has ten checkout lanes, over thirty aisles of merchandise, and shopping carts for customers (take one-you'll need it).

All of the merchandise is well organized and is set up like any other store. There are aisles for house wares, toys, books, videos and DVDs, furniture, and jewelry. Clothing is in the back and is sorted on racks according to items and sizes. There are entire aisles just for pants, tops, dresses, or skirts. Some pieces of out of style but many are contemporary and have barely been worn and the high level of organization makes going through merchandise an efficient process. Prices are reasonable and each item is priced individually according to quality (tank tops and tee shirts were 1-2 dollars, cocktail dresses 7-15 dollars, shoes 3 -5 dollars). Shoes are lined up according to size on the shelves above the clothing racks and many are surprisingly nice and contemporary.

One drawback is that there are no dressing rooms, so if you plan on buying clothes wear a tank top and skirt so you can try on pants and tops under and over them.

Leave a whole afternoon aside, and be in the mood for some serious shopping; this is literally your one stop shop for everything. The store takes credit cards in addition to cash.