ThredUp’s Goody Boxes – A StitchFix Alternative Sustainable Clothing Subscription Box

So you don’t have the time to shop for yourself, and you’re thinking either: 
A) I wish there was a more affordable StitchFix alternative out there. OR
B) I wish someone would pick out some pre-owned fashionable clothing for me and then a big box just shows up on my doorstep, like a sustainable clothing subscription box.  

Then you need to listen up because if you haven’t yet tried out ThredUp‘s Goody Boxes, you need to. STAT. 

Wondering what in the world ThredUp is? It’s my favorite place to buy clothes. I don’t say this because I’m being paid to say this but because it’s absolutely and totally the truth. If I can buy something for cheaper without sacrificing quality or convenience, then why not?? And, super duper bonus, if I can also feel like I’m being sustainable and helping lessen the over-consumption of mass-marketed goods…then it’s a TRIPLE WIN.

ThredUp is like the biggest and best online consignment sale of gently used pre-owned clothes in the world. Oh wait, it’s not like the biggest and best – it IS the biggest and best. If you somehow haven’t heard about it before, go take a look now and come back to this post later. 

ThredUp recently released a new offering called Goody Boxes. You order a box for $10 deposit, select a few preferences, and then a box with ~15 clothing items shows up on your porch. You try on the clothes, decide what you want to keep, slap on the enclosed pre-paid return label, and send the things you don’t want back. It’s simple. It’s easy. Some of the items are misses (not gonna lie about that part), but an item or two usually fits exactly what you want and you keep it. Once the box is returned and processed, you’re charged for whatever you kept, minus the $10 deposit that you paid when you ordered the box.

I did a review of my first Goody Box a couple months ago. Since then, I’ve tried out two more of the boxes and think I’m figuring out some Goody Box tips on how these boxes work. 

And yes, while I’ve included affiliate links in this post, I used my OWN money to buy these clothes! ThredUp didn’t ask me to write this post and they probably don’t even care that I wrote it. So you can rest assured that all that I wrote here is the God’s honest truth. 🙂

If you’d like to learn a bit more about how these Goody Boxes work, read on. Otherwise if you just want to see what I got and what I kept, scroll down. 

PROS:

• Sooo easy! Pay a $10 deposit, get a big box of clothes in the mail.
• Allows you to try out new clothes when you don’t have the time to figure out what’s in fashion.
• Affordable, fashionable clothes that you didn’t have to scrounge around ebay or consignment/garage sales to find.
• You can set a price range limit, as well as make (somewhat limited, see below) preference requests.
• It’s free to ship the clothes you don’t want back, and it comes with a pre-printed return label. 
• It’s fun to see what you’ll get each time! You get to try on clothes in the privacy of your home.

CONS:

• You don’t have a dedicated “stylist”. The clothes you get can be hit-or-miss.
• Don’t forget to return the box! And you only have SEVEN days to send it back! Mark this big on your calendar. I’m always paranoid I’m not going to get my return box to the post office in time. 
• You used to be able to choose a $10-$25/piece price range, but now it looks like the cheapest option is $20-$40/piece. Ehh. I admit that I got better quality pieces that I liked better in this box than my first box (in the cheaper price range), but, I was kind of annoyed that I couldn’t choose a cheaper price range anymore. 
• While you can use any ThredUp credit you might have (for selling clothes, returns, referral, etc), as well as the $10 deposit you paid toward any items you keep – you can’t use any coupon codes or other promotions. 

Tricks & Tips:

• “Favorite” items – it’s a good idea to spend a few minutes on the ThredUp site and click the heart icon next to any items you particularly like. Supposedly this will help the Treasure Hunter pick out your items. For my second Goody Box (that I didn’t photo document) I noticed that I got a cardigan that I’d had on my “favorites” list for awhile; I assume they purposely sent it to me because of that. And hey, I ended up buying the cardigan, so it was a good call on their end! 
• Don’t count on getting things on your “favorites” list – For the past 7 years or so, 90% of the jeans I buy are one particular brand, and one particular size. I know how the jeans fit on me and I like them (and I’m old and boring) so I just stick to them. I have “favorited” at least a dozen of these jeans on the ThredUp site thinking they’d get a hint that that’s exactly what I wanted. They didn’t send me any jeans of that brand! So, moral of the story: favorite stuff, but don’t necessarily expect to get anything from your favorites list.  
• Let them know if you have an specific non-nos – For my first box, I didn’t want to sound picky, so I left this spot blank in the questionnaire. Then I got smart. I mean, don’t go overboard, but let them know if anything is totally not your style. For me, my no list includes: Cold-shoulder look, capris, super short dresses/skirts. Since giving them no list, they’ve been pretty good at honoring it. 
• Don’t expect every request to be honored! – I mentioned that I strongly preferred skirt/dresses with pockets and well as clothing made from natural materials. I get that it’s probably difficult for the Treasure Hunter to tell if an item has pockets (this isn’t something they note in their item listings), but I was hopeful they’d stay away from 100% synthetic materials, since they can tell that from the item listing. Nope. I got several polyester items. Ehh. It’s fine. Other than the Intermix shorts, I only bought the natural fiber items, so hey, it’s their loss. 🙂   
• Return on time! – I haven’t yet missed the return date (you’re given 7 days to postmark the return) so I don’t know if they offer any kind of grace period, but I don’t want to risk being charged for the full box, so I have’t done it. If you don’t know if you’ll be able to return the box on time, don’t order it in the first place! 

What I got & What I kept:

The first ThredUp Goody Box I was sent had 15 items in it. This time I got 17 items:

I knew right off the bat that I wasn’t interested in these and didn’t even try them on:

These were maybes that I tried on and you can see in the photo shoot down below:

Outfit 1: Sun and Shadow Romper (retail $48, ThredUp $22.99)

Hah. As soon as I put this on I knew it was for me. I hadn’t thought I’d be into rompers, but it was comfortable, and fit well, and made me feel like I was a scout charting courses and exploring new territories. In fact, I’ve worn this twice in the past week. It’ll be heavy in my rotation this summer for sure. 

Outfit 2: Intermix shorts (retail $143, ThredUp $27.99) and CAbi tank top (retail $64, ThredUp $25.99)

I didn’t think I’d like these shorts at first, but I’m glad I tried them on. They were casual, and made me feel slightly hip without even trying. It was easy to pair this with a tank top and go for the just rolled out of bed look. It’s the perfect late-for-preschool-dropoff outfit. While the shorts surprised me, and I kept, the tank top was going for $26, and I can get pretty much the same thing at Target for $8. So I passed on that.

Outfit 3: World Market Casual Dress (retail $39, ThredUp $20.99)

I don’t know why I even tried this one on. I guess I thought it would be fun? Now I can’t even look at these pictures without singing “this is the dawning of the age of Aquarius, the age of Aquarius. Aquariussssss…..” This was horribly see through. It reminded me of what one might wear for an early 2010s black & white maternity photo session in front of a window or in a field of flowers.

Basically, this wasn’t for me at this time in my life (though I do sometimes like the hippy-ish lifestyle, I’ll admit it). 

Outfit 4: Vigoss jeans (retail $78, ThredUp $21.99) and Angie casual dress (retail $68, ThredUp $35.99)

To me, this outfit was very running-errands-with-kids-while-looking-hip. It seemed very me and I actually kind of liked it. But the shirt itself was $36 and I didn’t love it enough for that price nor could I see myself wearing it enough to justify that cost.

Outfit 5: C & C California pullover sweater (retail $88, ThredUp $20.99)

It might be totally wrong weather for this sweater right now, but gosh darn it, I’m always a sucker for simple striped sweaters. 

In case that you forgot that I was a mom, the boys wanted in on this round of pictures and I obliged. 

Outfit 6: Style & Co cardigan (retail $60, ThredUp $20.99)

 I was gonna show of this cardigan too, but my photographers wanted to do other things at this point, and this was the only picture I got. I don’t really know why I’m even posting it, except for the fact that it was taken. And because it’s real life. And I like real life. 

I didn’t keep the cardigan. 

Final result:

I’ll probably keep sporadically ordering ThredUp Goody Boxes, because I like them, they’re fun, and I discover clothes that I otherwise wouldn’t’ve thought to buy. I can’t promise I’ll keep doing blog reviews every time I get a box – but we’ll see. Also, the next time you see me, you can be assured that I’m almost definitely wearing something I got from ThredUp…maybe you’ll even recognize me wearing something I posted above! 

If you end up trying a Goody Box from ThredUp, let me know if you got anything good!