As the summer heat starts to break, I am looking forward to an increase in local yard and estate sales. These kind of sales are great places to pick up used home goods. I like to buy solid things such as furniture, glassware and dishes, and books.I love the retro look that you can easily and inexpensively achieve through buying second-hand.
The best thing about buying glassware at an estate sale is that people often stored their best stemware or dishes in a china cabinet and rarely used it because it was "too nice". These finds are in perfect shape and a true steal for someone in the secondary market, like me.
I look for local sales in the newspaper, on craigslist, and by just biking between the advertised sales and following street signs. I bike to sales for several reasons: it's fun and exercise for me, saves gas, and it keeps me from buying too much!
Reusing second-hand materials decreases the use of primary resources (often mined from the earth or cut from a forest) and saves the energy that would otherwise be used in the manufacturing process.
For anyone who holds a yard sale or donates items that they no longer want and keeps their old 'stuff' out of the landfill!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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2 comments:
You'd love me then! I adore yard sales, flea markets, Goodwill, etc. And, my mom and me are always buying used and selling/giving away items we don't use. I lost count of how much we've donated a while back. Burnout victims and missions have received a lot of stuff from us. Of course, there've been times we didn't have what the person needed and ended up buying it new in a rush - like a set of dishes or something.
I've never understood folks who frown at all the good used stuff. Leaves more for us, I suppose! hehehe
*smiles*
Michele
They don't make furniture like they used to! The "old" stuff we have is so much nicer than what we see in stores...
Most of our furniture was either inherited from my husband's grandparents or bought at antique stores and estate sales. Most of the time they were ready to use. Some pieces needed refinishing, which was not hard to do. Our dining room table and chairs are new, but only because we couldn't find a used one that would accomodate the "intimate family" of 15 when we cook for the holidays.
Another great way to recycle furniture is to reapolster them when they start looking shabby. You can do it yourself (if you are handy) or have it done professionaly. I'm sad everytime I think that we won't have our couch for much longer. It is starting to fall apart, but it has been reapolstered so many times it can't take any new staples. We need to keep our eyes open for the estate sale signs...
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