You're listening to Life Kid from NPR.

It's 2016. I'm on hour three at a thrift store.

The fluorescent lights are bouncing off the white walls of the changing room.

I'm sweating. Vision is blurry and I'm losing steam.

Nothing humbles you quite like the experience of thrift shopping for jeans.

And then finally, the last pair I try on, she was it.

High-waisted mom jean, medium blue wash, really good denim quality.

Perfect fit.

It's like a treasure hunt.

And that's why I love thrifting.

That's Mary Jacobs. She's based in New Orleans, Louisiana.

She loves thrifting so much she made a career out of it as a second hand stylist.

So people pay her to go thrifting for that.

I'm a lifelong thrifter. I've been thrifting since I was a kid.

My mom's been a thrifter her whole life too.

And it's like an adventure, you know?

I love finding something and seeing another life for it.

There are a lot of reasons people thrift.

One of them is to try to be more sustainable.

That's why Steven Emory started thrifting.

I started becoming way more aware of my carbon footprint

than I really wanted to do my best to reduce the amount of things that I bought new.

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