Most shops are just landfill waiting to happen.

[SummerDaytoNight]

I mean, all are to a point, but I’m talking about the non essential ones.

Our society is engineering its own collapse. We only need food, health, house basics and clothing. And I suppose, technology.

Fast fashion could go. Housing should just be the essentials.

My friend took me into a shop called sostrene grene. It was lovely, but nothing was essential. Most shops are like that.

The horse has bolted, but I wish we could limit the unnecessarily stuff and just have the basics. Im not talking Amish level, but there’s no need for all this waste. It would be so much better if only the essentials were produced.

At the point of production, it’s already basically landfill.

I agree I’m no hoarder but been decluttering in spells as DD now adults and have time. Weeks of bins filled up at home. Don’t even go there in clothes.
sad thing is I look at some clothes I bought in 90s that passed to daughters and the quality and cut was so much better.
i think all today’s young girls would be much happier with less clothes and nicer ones but addicted to wear once for insta. There was more stylish people as couldn’t afford 100s of clothes so you had 5 really lovely ones and re wore no one minded and shared with friends.
i think the tide will change but only when they become unfordable. I love clothes but even I get stuff of vinted now. So does one DD looks at what she wants in Zara current range and gets it almost straight away in vinted

Did you go to Jane Norman? MK one? Morgan et tui? Miss selfrisge? Kookai? Were you even in 90s if not shopping the 90s version of landfill here?!

Instead, disc rot, delamination and degradation can leave a useless pile of plastic being kept on a shelf.

This stuff may last "forever", doesn't mean it works forever.

In terms of the issue of "stuff" in general, I'm the sort if willing victim of "dead people's stuff" and am really trying to get my head round sentimentally detaching from it as I'm horribly aware that if I dropped dead tomorrow my poor DS will have my flat and a storage unit to deal with.

I have my Mum's stuff, some of which is useful furniture, plus ephemera from my Nana, I have late DPs stuff ( probably the hardest to deal with for obvious reasons, but I'm three years in and am trying not to be Miss Haversham). I have stuff of his Mum's (not dead but end stage dementia in a nursing home) and his "Auntie Jean's" stuff.

It was difficult to deal with it all when I should have done for various complicated reasons, and now my Dad has had to move out of his marital home and has a storage unit of his own that we need to sort into his new flat, but he's 85, very frail and has been in hospital for three weeks. My desire for him not to die is selfishly partly underpinned by the fear of adding his stuff to the pile.

Again, we come round to our complex psychology and attachments. In some weird way, the things we own are proof we existed perhaps?

This thread is so interesting and is helping me in my ongoing rationalisation of not just physical stuff but emotional attachment to it, and seeing a bigger picture.

Could not agree more with this post about tat. But people nowadays are progrmmed to buy mountains of tat.

It is their raison detre. Lets kill ourselves working in shit. pressured over worked jobs so we can go out and buy the Himalayas of tat for me and my young family.

I would also say that some supermarket clothes are really good prices and good design. Not bad quality either.

Think Teso and Sainsbury. Also really miss C&A and Debenhams and BHS.
Bon Marche is quite good for oldies

Also some of the bigger Snotty retailers sell at tat at Top Dog Prices Very pretentious.

Was a teenager in the Sixties with disposable clothes etc.But there was also still a lot of well made quaility stuff around.Meant to last.

Hit the nail on the head. People don't know what quality is any more. Very Sad

Byeee
😻
Xxx

^ this. B&M full of complete and utter rubbish. Most of it poor quality and tacky looking. All made with the intention that people will put this crap in their houses for a few months and then get rid of it next year when they bring out a different type of fruit shaped vase. Don’t get me wrong, I do shop in B&M for some things so I’m not against the shop as a whole but the sheer amount of home decor and plastic crap they have is obscene.

Everyone's got so.much stuff.
Our local fb page is full.of people giving stuff away.

Agree, so much boxed plastic tat which may or may not be recycled. Mostly aimed at kids and the extra cases etc are superfluous to make them seem bigger and more exciting to unwrap.

Sad indeed. X

I was delighted to find a good old jumble sale when we went camping in the Dales. Kids loved it, we bought a lot of stuff, just chuck in the wash and good as new! Xx

Wholeheartedly agree.
i walked past a cottage today in a beautiful place. The front room was full of those eco-crime, huge plastic “30” birthday balloons. Why does anyone, let alone a 30 year old, need this shit to mark their birthday. Such a contrast to a natural, lovely landscape that the cottage sat in

Are you only just waking up to consumerism!
It's not just landfill-in-waiting, it's water consumption/pollution, carbon emissions, air pollution, deforestation, loss of biodiversity etc etc
The answer is to reject it! Only buy ehat you need, buy well and look after your stuff

Sostrene Green is a weird store to use to make this point. They sell food items, tea, storage, cooking utensils, wooden baby toys ....

There was a documentary on Netflix about this and it’s scary. We consume just as much as we throw away. I only ever buy second hand items & don’t buy anything from the fast fashion brands as they are awful quality and don’t last.

Retailers mass produce for holidays & end up throwing out so much of it. Electronic devices built to only last 18 months, Apple devices being GLUED together during production so the consumer cannot get it repaired down the line. Prior to the gluing they changed their screw type so no one could change the battery if it died. They just want us to buy a new phone every 6 months.

Our planet will shed us like a skin in years to come.

I'm currently trying to block AI from my internet use. I don't use it, I don't want it, it uses up a huge amount of resources but there it is now on everything, often appearing without me even asking for it. Absolutely madness.

Hello all....I love going to thrift stores and we have lots of them in the area where I live here in South Carolina, USA. I am very excited about a new one to open at the end of next week. It is going to be a big one. Sure beats paying full price for some things. I buy clothes, furniture, kitchen supplies mostly for a fraction of the new price.

This is not true. Different companies who retail SOME of the same brands. But you can't buy Shein branded clothes on Ali (or Temu for that matter.)

(This is not true. Different companies who retail SOME of the same brands. But you can't buy Shein branded clothes on Ali (or Temu for that matter.)

Do the planet a favour and give all of these shite merchants a swerve rather than arguing about what labels they sell.

@MariaUSA I also enjoy a thrift store - we call them charity shops here, which is sometimes shortened to the chazza!

However...having done a number of cycles of decluttering over the last year or so and battled to get rid of things, even my enjoyment of charity shopping has waned. I don't feel so bad about buying things the family or I really need eg. I just bought a trench coat off Vinted for a tenner because my old one is just too ripped and tatty to wear to the office now. But it's far too easy to buy "stuff" just for the sake/fun of it and then the weight of it sitting in my closet, pantry, or in storage is just too much.

It's not that easy to get rid of things once they're in your home, at least here in the UK - charity shops are full to bursting, rag recycling doesn't pay so many companies are not accepting, our local tip won't recycle a lot of things like shoes so it's just straight to landfill. It's certainly better if they came from the thrift store to start with but even still, the weight of all the stuff feels suffocating sometimes.

Xiaoxiong...please excuse me if I am not addressing you correctly, I just joined yesterday and I do not know how to do the @Xiaoxiong. Can you tell me how, please? Well, over here in USA where I am, the charity shops are more than happy to receive anything brought to them. What country are you in? I guess that some things that are donated are routed to landfill but if so, donators are unaware of it. Smiles. Maria USA

This thread has definitely given me something to think about! I have cut down in recent years - buy annual passes for days out instead of short lived toys etc for Christmas, I buy from Vinted more and only when something needs replacing. Old towels and sheets go to the local cat sanctuary.
I am guilty of having some seasonal decorations but use them year after year and won’t replace once beyond repair. I use refillable cleaning products so not buying plastic bottles. Sandwich bags get reused, used coffee gets put on plant in the garden. I can and will do better though.

I know someone who spends £100s a month on Temu/Shein. They have piles of the stuff not even taken out of the box. The house is a complete mess with all this throwaway tat. Their idea of gift giving is ordering a huge haul of cheap tat and then dishing it out between everyone at Christmas or pulling random items out of a box of universal gifts for birthdays.

Under this thread, adverts came up for Easter themed Lego, Amazon deals and clothing. People will always be surrounded by temptation because we all spend so much time on line and ads and links create more profit 😣

Over here in USA (I'm in the state of South Carolina)...when I go to the charity shops/thrift stores we call them....I look for 100% cotton clothing....to me that is the best material...because we hardly ever find anything in new shops over here that are made with 100% cotton, always a mixture if any cotton at all. Maria USA

its so depressing, I can’t bear to think about it. I walk into shops - buy nothing as I see it as a burden to pay for, own, store only to eventually then dispose - but then I remember that regardless of whether or not I do it, someone is going to! We are doomed..

DoItLikeAWoman...I never looked at it that way before, but I know you are right. Maria USA

Well, over here in USA where I am, the charity shops are more than happy to receive anything brought to them. What country are you in? I guess that some things that are donated are routed to landfill but if so, donators are unaware of it.

I volunteer in a charity shop and there are lots of rules about what we can and can't take. Legally we can't sell weapons, counterfeits, electrical items unless they can be tested. Also we don't sell things like child car seats, helmets, lifejackets - can't guarantee they are safe. And then there is all the stuff which people give us and is broken or damaged.

We are very grateful for donations of things we can sell and make money on. The rubbish not so much.

yes yes yes!!!! i buy almost nothing other than food these days because we just don’t NEED anything else. i really think twice/thrice or more before buying anything else and very usually convince myself out of it because it just makes me so sad having so much shit everywhere (i don’t just mean in the house but the world in general). i realise im in the minority thought but we should all try and do our bit. from little acorns big oak trees grow is my thought…