My friend Sara and I headed to the J. Crew warehouse sale in Lynchburg, VA this past weekend to see what deals I could not live without. And, oh did we find some deals!

We left D.C. around 9:30am on Saturday morning and rolled into Lynchburg at 1pm. This is what we walked into.

Hoards of crazy deal searchers wading through boxes that looked like this.

Clearly, this was not a sale for amateurs. We were greeted by staff at the door who handed us a trash bag and a price list. Everything was on sale, and I mean everything. If it wasn’t nailed down, you could buy it. There was no rhyme or reason to they way that things were organized, so finding items was based on sheer luck.

We started with the shoes and accessories, and then moved on to the clothes. We collected everything that we wanted and then found a quiet corner at the end to sort through our goodies (they didn’t want you to do this but we did it anyway to get organized). Once we finalized what we wanted to buy, we headed to check out. It only took 3.5 hours from start to finish. Obviously, you have to really want some deals to make this work for you, but I scored some great things for a fraction of the price. Consider me, one happy Discountess!

If you’re planning a trip to a warehouse sale soon, here are some things that helped us in our shopping quest. (You can also check out this helpful post or this one that I read before heading to the sale)

1. Dress appropriately. There are no dressing rooms, so wear layers and flats to make trying things on easier. Leave your coat in the car, and be sure to put on a cross body bag. It frees up your hands to find the best deals.

2. Inspect all your items. Look for holes, tears, and spots. No one has looked at these clothes in a while, so it’s up to you to make sure that you’re not getting a raw deal.

3. Ask yourself, do I really need it? I put back a gorgeous pair of flat, black suede boots that were on sale for $70. I would have loved them, but I already have a pair of black boots so I didn’t really need them. Taking inventory at the end helped me think things through and realize that I wanted to spend that $70 in another way.

4. Go with a friend. Sara and I navigated separately for the most part, but it was nice to have a sounding board to go through our items at the end. We also looked through the boxes with each other in mind. I found her a cute black dress, and she found me an awesome pair of gold studded flats. Now that’s team work!

This is what I got:

1 pair of pajamas

1 pair leather gloves

1 pair earrings

1 bracelet

2 pairs of shoes

1 gingham work shirt

1 blue button down shirt

2 belts

1 cashmere sweater

1 pair black cafe capri pants

2 skirts – one black and one grey metallic

1 green cotton shirt

1 cosmetic bag

1 leather pouch (for all my coupons, obvi!)

Check it out. Total spent: $213. Not bad, right??