Yeah I know what you mean, trading is not as streamlined on here as it might be on other sites.
If you ever do want to try trading on here though, I find it's easiest to go to shops such as
this one or
this one. These kinds of shops are run by one person selling almost everything, and the people who run them are usually very active on TBT so the wait time might not be as long as someone just selling a one-off item. AND they always have many many reviews, usually 100% positive, so you know you won't get scammed. Just fill out the form that the shop requests, wait for them to agree to it, after that you send the agreed amount of TBT and then wait for them to message you their dodo code (or they'll message you for your dodo code). It does take a lot of refreshing the page which can be a bit annoying. Also it helps to 'like' and/or quote their post to get their attention, so that they know they have an order to fulfill.
It can be a bit daunting at first, it certainly was for me, but it does get easier!! And I largely prefer trading on TBT to Nookazon now, and it's honestly been way quicker most of the time, too.