25 Jul Housing Works Warehouse Sale Review

This past weekend I was in thrifter’s heaven at the infamous Housing Works warehouse sale. The $25 Buy the Bag event featured bins, boxes and crates of thrifted clothing for anyone brave enough to deal with the 90 plus NYC weather. In last week’s video I showed you how to prepare for a sale like this and now I want to share how the event went down.

The awesome Housing Works staff let me take a peek at the scene before the hungry crowd entered. Several dozen bins were piled high with goodies.

I had access to the sorting room where donations from the 12 Housing Works locations are gathered.

At 10am, shoppers who purchased Power Hour tickets {an extra $5} were able to enter before everyone else at 11am. I highly suggest paying the extra 5 bucks if you can. I shopped during the 10am hour and it was pretty calm. I was able to get most of my thrifting in during this time. At 11, the massive crowd came in, including a few of my friends.

I stood to the side and gave my girls some tips. Though the bins aren’t exactly organized, I found that most tops and sweaters were in one area {the bins straight ahead when you walk in} and dresses, skirts and pants were to the left. I gave my friends this info for easier shopping.

We also huddled together beforehand and everyone stated what they were looking for. I knew to be on the lookout for high waisted jeans, denim tops, body con skirts and more. Not for myslef but for them! We’re all different sizes and have varying styles so we just decided to grab anything someone in the group might like.

Like I stated, the temps were insane outside and pretty hot inside as well. A few fans were placed around the warehouse but it was still scorching. I conveniently stood in front of a fan while I waited for my friends to finish shopping. If you get overheated or overwhelmed during one of these sales {or any warehouse sale} just take a break and get back to shopping whenever you’re ready. Though there are a lot of people, there’s enough for everyone to find awesome stuff.

Here’s what the scene looked like once everyone started shopping. Clothes were pulled out of bins and we had to step over the clothes!

This is one of the reasons I tell people not to wear flip flops and definitely no heels. When you’re walking over the clothes {with a bag on your shoulder or in your hand}, you can easily lose your balance or a shoe.

We regrouped after an hour or so. Anything we didn’t want for oursleves was placed in a large pile. We held up items and whoever claimed it, got it.

Based on the stuff I found and items I got from the group pile, I walked away with 29 pieces. The bag normally costs $25, but since I used my Groupon, the bag of clothing was just $10. $10 for 29 garments, you can’t beat that.

Check back Wednesday for a breakdown of what I scored!