Six secondhand scented spring shirts

I had two hours of kid-free time today. I spent one hour having a wonderful lunch and reading the paper (an indulgence I haven't enjoyed in I don't know how long). The next hour was spent poring over the racks at my local secondhand kids clothing store. The store was crammed full of stuff, but I managed to find very little in the way of clothes for my kids. I found a few things, but frankly, it's proving to be darn hard. What I need are pants, shirts, shorts. Just basic stuff. And I didn't find much. I'm really not picky when it comes to clothing for my kids. I want cute stuff, sure, and stuff they'll wear. But after an hour, I had only a couple shirts for Julian (who actually really needs pants more than anything) and a couple shirts for Lucy (ditto on the pants thing). So I am not sure how productive this outing actually was. 6 items of clothing will not get my children through the next season.

I'd find myself holding up an item now and then and thinking, "Hmm. well, this isn't all that cute, and I'm not sure what she can wear it with, but it is her size..." so I wound up buying several things that I don't think I really needed to buy. Or didn't even like. And of course, this particular store allows no returns. So when I got things home and realized the foolish choices I had made, arrgh. And the amount of time I spent shopping, compared with the result?? Phooey. This seems so inefficient. I would rather waste money than time. The opportunities I have to go out shopping sans kids are so rare, I hate to spend an entire hour and have so little to show for it.

And then there's the whole "bionic nose" thing. Have I mentioned this? I have a sense of smell that is, well, acute. I can practically tell you what brand of laundry soap the guy jogging past me on the sidewalk uses. I can smell the blueberry muffin being eaten by the person in the car next to me at a stoplight. With the windows closed. Secondhand stores present an entire landscape of smells for me to navigate through. It can be overwhelming at times. Today I left with a headache that is still hanging on, hours after I returned home. Obviously I will wash the clothes I bought, but I've found that when I buy secondhand clothes, I always have to wash them 4 or 5 times because I can smell the detergent/pets/residual perfume/etc the clothes have been in contact with.

Of course, I'll get better at this. I'll eventually find the right stores that I can tolerate shopping in, and I'll figure out how to better choose what to bring home. There must be an easier way. Maybe I am going to the wrong places? Anybody know of any good secondhand kids clothes stores?