Reasons to Shop Secondhand

Savvy Secondhand $hopping

"Ew gross, that's as old as my grandmother!" "Used? As in, not new? No way." "Someone else's sloppy seconds? No thanks!" "I think I'm just going to go to Ikea" are all things someone in the likes of a Paris Hilton might say (although, let's be honest Paris Hilton wouldn't be caught dead buying furniture from Ikea). But not you, dear reader. Oh no, you know the vast benefits that come with shopping secondhand, seeing the treasure in another man's Hilton..I mean trash. BUT, in case I have overestimated you, allow me to provide several reasons why shopping secondhand is something everyone should get on board with.

1. Cost Effective

I recently bought a bedroom set from a certain, Swedish, warehouse store, we'll call it Pikea. And although I didn't love the aesthetics of the furniture, I believed I was saving a bunch of money. However, I did not know that by saving money on furnishings, it cost me money in TIME. The hours and hours and hours it took assembling the furniture, piece by piece, screw by screw, nail by nail, was torture. Or at least it was torture for my boyfriend whom I made put it all together while I read Cosmo and supervised....Anyway, you can imagine my anger when I waltzed into a secondhand antiques mall about a month ago and found not only a cornucopia of beautiful furniture, but beautiful furniture that was inexpensive and didn't originate from a pile of veneered particleboard. 

You after saving all that money by shopping wisely:

2. Your Money Stays in the Community

Do you personally know anyone in Hong Kong? Do you have any college buddies over in Sweden? How's your old baby-sitter living in Indonesia? No? None of this applicable? Secondhand shopping at your local thrift store and antiques mall helps to foster the economy of your community and ultimately, your country.

3. You Could Discover a Wish Granting Genie and/or Flying Carpets

Has Aladdin, arguably the most notable secondhand shopper, taught us nothing? Clearly the inside of that giant golden cat thing was representative of an antiques mall. Aladdin didn't care the lamp and carpet were mysteriously used by a total stranger, and nor should you!

4. Not Recycling = Trash = Landfills = Gross/Smells

 Buying used goods cuts down on manufacturing demands and keeps more items out of the landfill. Which keeps the landfills from growing, and growing until they reach our homes, our schools, our streets, our shopping centers and movies theaters, and ultimately devouring all of civilization as we know it like The Blob. If you re-use items, that cuts down on "trash" being thrown away and gives the item a longer life, and ultimately helping save our planet. And if we don't work to save our planet we are going to have to colonize Mars and live there, with no Wi-Fi, in those hideous space outfits. Do you want that?

5. New Goodies Coming in Daily

I always feel like an awkward, incompetent failure as an employee when a customer at the antiques mall asks "Do you have any ____ ?" and I have to answer "Well, I'm not sure..perhaps...I mean, it's possible.." because there are new items brought in every day. It's impossible to tell what exactly is there all the time. For all you retro hunters out there, this means that the hunt continuously changes and keeps the stores fresh with new treasures to find.

So there you have it folks. Certainly there are many, many more reasons I could share about why shopping secondhand is advantageous, fun, and cost effective; but I am far too busy writing my strongly worded grievance letter to Pikea at the moment.