As An Avid Thrift Store Shopper, I Will Never Buy Pillows Again

I have been thrifting items for 23 years, both for myself and to resell, which means I have purchased a lot of different things from the thrift store. One item that I have purchased multiple times over the years is decorative pillows. At my local stores, they typically have shelves of pillows for sale with a yellow tag that says that they have been sprayed down with either a sanitizing spray or a deodorizer (depending on the store itself). Unfortunately, these sprays don't always do as much as one might hope. And that's not the only issue I have had with thrifted pillows.

The biggest issue with buying pillows from the thrift store is that you don't know what happened to them before they were donated. Did the previous owner get rid of them because they were ripped, they had mold issues, or there was a bug infestation in their home? Were those pillows ever washed? These are things we don't know when we buy thrifted soft furnishings. While I've been lucky enough to avoid finding a pillow filled with mold, I have certainly dealt with not only infested pillows but also internal damage to the actual insert that led to down feathers all over my living room (and in the washing machine). Not every pillow is salvageable once you try to clean it up, adding to the frustration of having purchased something that was meant to be decorative but ended up as a headache.

One of the biggest issues I've had with pillows from thrift stores is how unclean they end up being. While the store might try to sanitize them before putting them out for sale, that doesn't do anything if bedbugs are lurking in the pillows. Unfortunately for me, I've ended up with more than one pillow that had bedbugs. Even though washing and drying the pillows in high heat might ultimately kill the bugs on and in the pillow itself, it doesn't get them out of other places the pests crawled onto once you carried them out of the store, like your clothing, your car seat, or your sofa. And you might not figure out the issue until it's too late, and multiple things need replacing.

The other issue I've come across repeatedly with thrifted pillows is quality problems, particularly with those filled with down feathers. At many of the stores I have shopped at, they attach their tags near the zippers, which makes it hard or impossible to open the exterior case to check the inserts before you buy. This means taking a gamble on what's going on with the inside of the pillow, since they typically can't be returned or exchanged. I have found inserts that were completely destroyed, to the extent that all you're really getting is a sham. What started as a fun way to save a few bucks can end up being a money pit when you take into account buying new inserts and dealing with bedbugs. It's often cheaper and more sanitary to simply buy new pillows, where you can guarantee they'll be in good condition.