To think we all need to learn to love second hand

[Ravenspeckingontheroof]

Second hand almost everything? Go onto eBay; there are 92000 used size 10 tops for sale, 4500 used travel systems, 1700 used Bluetooth speakers. Go to your local recycling centre and watch people throw perfectly useable furniture away.
We are literally drowning in cast offs many of which will go to landfill, but which are perfectly useable.
I’d say about 1/3 of my wardrobe is preloved and maybe 10% of our household furniture. I love going and choosing new things. But I think choosing preloved needs to become a first choice, and we should be incentivised to do so.
But if I walk down any high street, read any magazine, pick up my phone I am bombarded with ads for all the new things I ‘need’. Every single shop is rammed with more stuff to buy. Our society depends on us buying more stuff. How do we fix this?

I agree with posters about buying clothes of eBay,sizing is important, and you could buy something, doesn't fit and ends up in landfill.

I say bring back jumble sales, I used to go all the time when I was younger getting loads of clothes for a couple of quid. I haven't seen a jumble sale advertised for years

YABU
You do you, but I don't "need to learn to love" anything I don't love, e.g. used clothes.

@DanielODonkey it releases those regardless, as ot decomposes in landfill.

It takes 5 minutes to search your item online, compare the prices in a few shops, order, and bam, it's delivered to your door.

If it doesn't fit, or is not as expected, you send it back - usually free of charge.

And then the retailer destroys it because it's cheaper to do that than checking it before reselling it. The model is fucked because we all want cheap clothes and to get that the retailers cut costs every which way. We need to pay more a lot for our new clothes but none of us want to do that. It would make those £10 tshirts in the charity shops look a lot cheaper though.

I totally agree with OP. I’ve done this all my life, mostly because I loved the quality of older things. Not many second hand shops were around when I was a student, but I did have a small collection of vintage dresses that I wore to parties. My parents didn’t want their antique furniture painted, so I fitted out my bedroom with other people’s cast offs. I also got given furniture for first house, as I couldn’t afford to buy a lot of new things. Much of this furniture has become desirable pieces, over the years.
I had my DCs later than my friends, so got passed on their baby/ child’s clothes, a lot of which was unworn and designer.
Now there’s charity shops, which I just have to browse in. My latest finds are a lovely large, new, ceramic pot for a house plant (£2.50) and some brand new sewing patterns at £1 each.

There is a lot of snobbery in the UK about second hand items. And it's usually from those who can least afford it, in my experience.

Just one of many examples: 3 staff members in my workplace were pregnant at the same time, two in admin and one in senior management on at least 3x their salary. Guess who happily accepted the barely-worn, excellent condition and gender-neutral baby items I gave away for free? There was enough to cover the first 6 months completely and at least half of what was required for the following 6 months (with the PFB lots of family members had bought an insane amount).

And with a bit of basic DIY knowledge and skills, nothing which is second hand needs to look outdated. A lick of paint, self-adhesive foil or wood stain can make a huge difference to the look of old furniture, a basic understanding of sewing can make clothes change from frumpy to modern in the space of half an hour.

The one thing that is disappointing is that repairs of items is often not worth it, financially. I've had a shredder die on me a few days ago and replacing the one plastic cog that had worn out would have cost the same as a new shredder with updated technology (just the cog, not actually getting someone to fix it). Same with a pair of scuffed shoes, which no cobbler would even attempt to fix because of the pattern. And that is an example of where manufacturers need to take some environmental responsibility and make spare parts far more affordable.

Totally agree but also think it’s worthwhile buying some things new but better quality so they last years. I buy a lot of my clothes from places like Lucy&Yak because the quality is excellent and I know I’ll still be wearing them years down the line. I never buy anything from primark because the quality is absolutely dire and the few things I have bought from there in the past are just no use to anyone after a few weeks, days sometimes!

I do buy a lot of second hand stuff on eBay or marketplace. Most of our IKEA furniture is second hand, all great quality still and we got some of it for free on marketplace! I buy a mixture of new and second hand for my DC but always give the things they outgrow away.

There is a lot of snobbery in the UK about second hand items. And it's usually from those who can least afford it, in my experience.

I have found this to be the case too. Ditto being a brand snob, it’s usually those who can least afford it.

Surely the problem is that we buy too much stuff and the quality of it is terrible. I am still wearing stuff that I have had for twenty years and it is still fine.

I had a Levi’s jacket that I wore for twenty years and now DD wears it at uni. Similarly a silk skirt I bought and a Liberty shirt decades ago she now wears.

Meanwhile the fast fashion she buys isn’t fit to be resold.

And a lot of poor quality clothing isn’t even cheap; it’s as expensive as the decent stuff.

Totally agree with you that we should reuse or pass things on. I love nothing more than wearing loved items of clothing for years (I have a favourite dress I've worn for 20 years).
However, I've personally been out of pocket from buying clothes on Ebay. They rarely fit (I'm a strange shape) and obviously I can't send them back. They then end up for the charity shop. I try and stick to a few makes/sizes I know now which helps. Amazing for kids' clothes though!
I think we should be able to fix/get things fixed e.g. electrical household items.

I do think proper sewing should be taught as sometimes much of the material could be re-used or the item be adapted to more modern shape/style but me and my friends dont have the skills so things go to landfil because of small repairs needed or stains on one area. Im better at repairing furniture.

I think we all know we need to consume less individually. As a society we should bebtaking action as a whole and actively thinking about alternative solutions for e.g the thousands of shop workers who will not be required in future years/our high streets/repair shops. The government really needs to start stepping up as well as the individual.

Etherel- totally agree.
Re repairing and replacement parts it ought to be easier now we have the internet to buy obscure replacement bits that are never going to be worth a local shop stocking, as well as YouTube and forums to tell you how to do it.
The trouble is it is very often only the more expensive brands that sell replacement bits. I love my Kenwood for this reason, and my Trangia camping stove, but they are higher end to buy in the first place.

I bought everything new for my PFB....looking back I really regret this. My kids are 3 and 4 now and we buy lots of their clothes and toys second hand. I get compliments on their clothes: nothing is tatty.

The money we save goes towards days out etc.

The slide and trampoline in our garden were second hand. Saved us 100s

Getting second hand stuff for your kids is great if it’s a choice.

I had my first young and people were very kind and gave me lots of stuff but none of it was mine that I’d picked for my baby. I couldn’t justify changing it but I was made to feel like a charity case and that was horrible.

It is nice to buy some things new (I saved up and bought a pram new because the cord thing I was given from my auntie was horrible). I was so proud to be pushing the baby in a nice pram. It then did all my other kids so it wasn’t wasted.

I'm a fan of choice. I don't think we 'all need' to do anything. I love nothing more then a wee rummage in the charity shops and I might find something I like, in my size and buy it. However, if I need say 2 pairs of black trousers and couple of white shirt I'm going to go to ASDA because I am more likely to find the size and multiples of the item in one go. Someone mentioned it being good for school uniform, I could shop every day for months and not complete a set with the correct size in decent enough quality to last the year, so again I'm going to go to ASDA.

Furniture wise I will never buy a second hand item again after downing over £200 on a wonderful vintage solid wood set of tall drawers only for them to reel so badly of smoke I couldn't use them and ended up having to get rid. I gave them away because I would have been embarrassed to sell them. No, the smell was not evident in the shop when we looked at them. These places tend to have an overpowering smell of their own which masks it all.

@toconclude

Well, ok, but some of us have been on this page for decades. Not needing to 'learn' anything, thanks.

Well this post isn’t for you then.

On one hand I like buying things second hand. I love second hand books, and will almost always choose those over a new one as long as it’s in decent condition. If I can find what I want I have no problem with second hand clothes or furniture. Plenty of items in my house have been given to me by friends who were getting rid of it, and in the same way I’ve given away things I no longer needed. I also mend things, particularly clothes, and if I can’t do it myself I’ll take it to a tailors to have it done professionally.

But, I tend by second hand stuff incidentally, as in “because I happened to be browsing a charity shop” rather than “because I was looking for something specifically”. Ebay can be a minefield of things not looking like the picture or not being in the condition the seller says, and as PPs have said, the prices people ask for things is utterly ridiculous. Charity shops can be great but they rarely seem to have anything I want.

I don’t buy many clothes but those I do will either be worn to death (things like leggings or t shirts), repaired when possible and then recycled, or I will buy quality pieces that I look after and are going to last a long time. I just don’t have the time or energy to trawl a charity shop only to find everything is organised by colour or theme (rather than tops/dresses/trousers) and there’s nothing in my size/it’s all bobbly/its Primark but priced as if it’s not.

Yes I’m sure I could “do more” and adopt the attitude that I’ll only buy/wear what I can find second hand, but I don’t want to.

I am a shortarse and finding knee length winter boots is quite a trauma as a lot of standard size ones finish on my knee, rather than just under, which is both unflattering and uncomfortable. I found some about 12 years ago and I had them for about 8 years, getting them reheeled every couple of years. When I needed new ones a few years ago it was easier to look for the same style and brand on ebay than trawl the shops again. The "new" pair have been reheeled a few times as well. Even at £25 it's still a lot cheaper than buying decent boots.

@AzraiL Burning material on a campfire is dangerous. You've no idea how the material will behave, plus the toxins released in particulate matter form is incredibly dangerous. Then you are left with the ash/melt. How is that dealt with in your plan?

Whereas if you take it to landfill as your disposal method then the material takes forever to decompose but is managed carefully and any gases are captured for energy.

Neither are good options but landfill is marginally better than sitting round a campfire actively polluting your lungs with toxic particulate matter.

@AzraiL

If you have the ability, any clothes that don't make good cloths or are too crap to donate take them in a rubbish bag on your next camping trip and burn them in the fire peice by peice. Or even in a backyard fire pit. Saves a trip to the tip.

I hope you don't mean at a campsite where there are other campers? Or if you are burning clothing in your backyard then I hope you don't have close neighbours!

Kowari i thibkas a regional dweller i forget about others... our land plots are huge so no. And i don't camp when and where others usually camp, i gave that up years ago when our neighbour campers put their boom box music on really loud in an attempt to muffle some different sounds but we could hear it all anyway 😐

I haven't had melt yet with burning clothes. It just burns away.

As burning of clothes is quite common where I am, I looked online and found this titbit:

Incineration is better than landfill. While some old clothes are re-sold, re-used and go to good causes, the bulk end up in in a hole in the ground. There the natural fabrics contribute to methane production which is a powerful greenhouse gas. The synthetics contribute to plastics pollution: fashion accounts for up to 35 per cent of microplastic flows into the ocean

Do you agree? Disagree? Would love to hear thoughts and discuss it.

And to keep things fair, this is one against birning clothes:

Incineration produces waste, some quite nasty. While it is technically possible to scrub the emissions free of toxins, nothing runs that efficiently and even the best incinerators pollute while producing potentially dangerous ash. How much air pollution, and how dangerous the ash, is open to debate but the negatives must be balanced with the downsides of other forms of waste disposal.