“Word for word, Chris said you have an empty truck and a house to furnish. So go have fun.” That single line of permission from her husband is all @emorypepper_ needed to launch into one of the most ambitious single-day thrifting missions to hit the app in a while — five hours, two estate sales, a workout, several thrift stores, and, by her own count, no idea how much she ended up spending because it all came out of cash.

The day starts at 6 a.m. at the first estate sale, where she is, for a few minutes, the only shopper in the entire house. “I have the whole house to myself at the moment,” she says, before politely checking in with the estate sale staff. “Is it okay to start looking?” “It’s okay for you to do whatever you want,” comes the reply, and from there she is off, building a pile: rattan chairs she admires but ultimately doesn’t need, a coffee table she worries might “come unraveled,” and a set of baskets that becomes the morning’s first real win. “We have so much shelving in our bathroom,” she explains, mapping out a plan on the spot to swap out baskets she’d already bought at Target for these secondhand ones instead. The whole haul of baskets comes to $52 — “which is less than like two baskets at Target,” she notes, checking out with a $100 bill from cash she’d made selling other items on Facebook.

From there it’s an actual workout — “We were able to talk the entire time during our workout. We were not slacking” — followed immediately by estate sale number two with her mom, who had already scouted ahead. A wool rug, a blanket, a step stool, and a light fixture all catch her eye, and she negotiates the group down to $40 for the lot. By 9 a.m., she pauses to take stock: “I’ve been to two estate sales, I’ve done a workout, I ate a banana. Now let’s head to more thrift stores.”

The rest of the day becomes a tour through TJ Maxx, a Habitat for Humanity ReStore, and a thrift store she’d never visited before called Community Thrift, where the bedding selection stops her in her tracks. “These go for so much money,” she says, genuinely stunned. “God, I can’t believe I just found this.” A basket collection there gets her so excited she coins her own phrase for it: “I am in Nancy Meyers basket heaven.” By 1 p.m., her back seat is completely full, and she signs off honestly: “No idea how much I spend. I spend it all in cash.”

What a Full-Day Thrift Marathon Actually Requires

Watching @emorypepper_’s day unfold end to end reveals something that shorter thrift clips usually skip: the real logistics behind a serious haul. She doesn’t just hit one store — she strings together estate sales, retail stops, and a specialty thrift shop in a single loop, timing the visits around when each one opens and closing gaps with a workout in between. That kind of planning, rather than luck alone, is what let her cover so much ground in one morning.

Cash also plays a bigger role than most shoppers realize. Estate sales in particular often run cash-only, and having bills on hand — in her case, from selling her own unwanted items beforehand — keeps a good find from slipping away over a payment technicality. Experienced estate sale regulars treat this as a non-negotiable part of prep, right alongside comfortable shoes and an empty vehicle.

There’s also a lesson in her willingness to walk away. Not every item that catches her eye comes home; the beautiful rattan chairs and a $75 side table at the ReStore both get passed over because they don’t fit a specific need. That discipline — loving something without needing to buy it — is often what separates a productive haul from a cluttered one.

Finally, her habit of thinking in terms of comparison shopping, weighing thrift prices against retail ones in real time, like the baskets that beat Target’s price outright, is a genuinely useful mindset for anyone furnishing a home on a budget. A full house, it turns out, doesn’t require a full-price budget — just a full day and a plan.

You can watch the full video and follow @emorypepper_ on TikTok for more.