dear doris. this year i only want to buy secondhand. any tips?
issue 40 ♡ the second-hand object will seek you & you will seek it — it’s always a two-way street
dear doris. this year of 2024 i only want to buy second-hand. any tips? love crazed & consumed, burnside, australia.
dear crazed & consumed
i share some tips as dee and my earth-bound perspective as a second hand scavenger and stylist in part I. in part II i meditate and wrote notes received from my higher self to gain a higher perspective on human consumption. this post relates back to issue 6 the one on collecting things and issue 16 the one on saying no to things. kindly note that ‘god’ can be substituted for any venerable you prefer and ‘heaven’ for a non-physical plane that resonates with you.
part I
i have been buying second-hand for as long as i had the guts to wag school and take the bus to fremantle town to go op-shopping — aussie tongue for thrifting. this was the late nineties when the opportunity shops were indeed filled with opportune outfits, crammed full of 50’s to 70’s and 80’s garb that nobody cared for and would be considered vintage gold these days. it became a way of wagging with creative expression, trying out different styles and playing with textures and colour with a minimal amount of change in my velcro surf wallet.
as i got older and moved out of home — the humble charity shop became a kind of godsend to find household items and any necessities of life on a twenty-something design-student budget. when i moved into motherhood — the dear op-shop continued to be a loyal friend — providing cute coverings for my babies and a thrifty way to dress my burgeoning body.
to this day, the majority of my home is furnished and my wardrobe is filled with second hand pieces. while this was largely motivated by a scant budget in my younger daze, these days it is compelled by an ever increasing desire to have less impact and waste on earth.
below i share some tips from almost three dee-cades of being a second-hand scavenger.
keep an inventory of all the material things you need/want/desire. write these items down in notes or a diary and keep it on hand — so when you do visit any second-hand stores you can scan your list of necessities. i keep a loose inventory of things in my head that i am looking for myself, my family, friends and also for styling shoots. so when i come across such things there’s like a buzzer that goes off in my head alerting my attention to grab noted item.
find all the op-shops and markets within a 5km radius of your home. my kids and i know all the local thrift stores within close proximity of our house and we often go together to seek toys and treasure. as you visit them more frequently you will become accustomed to which ones have the kind of things you dig and the categories best suited to you.
start them young. i have been taking my children to the markets since they were born. newborns are wonderful companions for perusing flea markets. older kids can find toys, books and clothing that suit them and space to creatively explore. there is great joy in giving them a handful of dollars and allowing them the freedom to choose their own things.
visit op-shops on the way somewhere — so it becomes a fun pitstop on your journey. you don’t need to make a dedicated trip to hit up the local thrift-store, you can treat it as a stopover on the way to nonna’s house or on the way home from piano lessons. my vintage store friend advises to hit up three in a row. generally there are a cluster of charity stores in the same area within walking distance — so don’t just stop at one, visit a few.
you don’t have to spend much time in each op-shop either — sometimes ten to fifteen minutes is enough. just hit up the sections that you dig. i like checking out the homewares first, then i move into crockery and kids department before i peruse through men’s old tee’s. often i bypass the clothing and just look at homewares. find what piques your interest and allow your intuition to gravitate you there.
hit up your local swap meet or flea market. a friends spanish boyfriend was so confused when he first landed down under. a swapmeet — he questioned. what do you do there — swap meat? he implored. mate, it’s aussie lingo for a flea market.
i go to the flea religiously — every sunday without fail, i honour the second hand gods at the crack of dawn. when i was grieving my firstborn child, the flea market provided respite and joy. when i went into early labour with my third child on a sunday morning, it felt calming to wander the market. with all three newborns i have popped them in the pouch and gleefully taken them to the market.
facebook marketplace and gumtree or craigs list are your pre-loved pals. for household items and for furniture, your best second-hand bet is using these platforms to search for your desired goods. i often trawl gumtree #justforfun looking for interesting and beautifully made pieces. i send links to family and friends if the item seems to suit. there are instagram acounts dedicated to selling pre-loved clothing and furniture. hunt for ones that are aligned with your style and pop notifications on for when they upload ‘new’ items.
tap into etsy and depop and eBay. i am a huge fan of etsy. it’s a treasure trove of very good vintage and handmade items. if you now what you are looking for, you can be very specific and use the search filters for size, colour, style and era. depop is great if you have specific brands you are looking for and nineties to Y2k era of vintage. eBay is also a great source for hunting true vintage.
across these platforms — click the used box so it filters out new listings in your search.
set yourself up for a challenge. last year i took part in a one hundred day no-new-clothes-challenge which proved to be less challenging and more fun as i could indulge in second hand and vintage treasures at leisure. prior to the challenge my ratio of old to new was about 80/20 and now its closer to nine times out of ten. if you are new to buying old and want to kickstart your second-hand ways — start with an 20/80 ratio and move up from there.
these days when i consider buying new things – it feels decadent and mostly unnecessary. however if i do make a choice to buy new, i try my best to research brands that are aligned with my values and support local, independent makers and creatives within my means. i understand this is not just a purchase but a special transaction of energy that activates a relationship between myself and the independent brands i wish to support.
part II
the process of purchasing commodities began a long, long time ago when we discovered we could receive wealth for exchange of goods and services and the world slowly became consumed with consumption and beings declared a consumer— which is consuming right. so how do we ween ourselves off our propensity to consume and consume to fulfil our homes and apparent hearts.
first we must consider our needs versus wants and then dissect which is which and want is want or just a want-on lust for satisfying the sacral chakra — the one of desire and fulfilment.
next after discernment ask yourself is that some-thing or ding or ring — could it be found pre-existing in the spectrum of my world. could i place and find and seek this object of my affection and attention somewhere that is accessible to me without consuming it as a shiny new objectification. if yes, then make a list mentally of where such thing could be located and learn to repeat this — training yourself to apply this need vs. want and then where this need/want could be fulfilled without newly acquiring it.
try your best to locate a place to purchase pre-loved, pre-picked, pirate goods that have been ferried from one owner to the next, like finding treasure and loot that is yours for the moment.
often with older items — they are produced well and for swell conditions and they lay the test of times. incredibly well designed and made items are made for distance and often span longer than a lifetime of the of initial owner and can be passed on for generations to come. a stuffed hare or a marble chair could be passed on multiple times before it sees its untimely death. like people, an object generally does not know its own lifespan. it can just hope that it serves a need/ service and function to be the best it can be operating and existing before it has past its shelf life.
second hand, third hand, four-ever hand. mano a mano we go — forever exchanging beautiful, useful, practical and seemingly trivial things around. the object will seek you and you will seek it — it’s always a two way street. you just have to open your eyes to see what the world already has to offer free of shiny plastic packaging.
the things that are often the best belonged in an era before you even incarnated in life. it will carry memories of wisdom and wacky behaviours of the past and may blast you small hits of this deep knowledge. don’t be fooled by an inanimate object — within its cells are a vessel of time and space and conversation carried around it — the sobbing, the laughter and love and languid lazy days it spent a idly sitting or standing or lying on a shelf.
remember to cleanse your items where possible. wash them and hang them on the line to dry under the sun. wipe off their tears and dust and shine their ears. the action of touch and care forms a connection with all inanimate pieces in the world. allow them to be of service to you for 2024 and onwards.
love d(oris) x x
previous issues you may enjoy — :)
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