Month: April 2023

Why buy anything new …..  as in previous post.

Detailing the “why’s” of not having done so.

 This habit/lifestyle, being a habit/lifestyle,  gives a focus to the day and a structure.  Having done it across more than forty-five years in many places,  in varying circumstances,  single and then married and raising a family, I can see that it is society,  it is community.  It can be a career,  a profession. 

 It is fun.  It is enjoyable.  I t makes me feel good, along with those moments that introspection brings to give contrast and opportunities to evaluate,  to make choices.

 There is something satisfying in the ‘bargain’ aspect of life.  Coming across a $150 pair of brand new shoes at a garage sale that fit perfectly in a style and colour that appeal to me and in a name  I have been wondering about,  with a $10 asking price that allows for an ‘affordable experiment’,  has both the satisfying and bargain aspects.

 Educational as well as I learn why  new merchandise such as this finds its way to garage sales:  the items are the result of shopping trips abroad or to warehouse trips to the US which did not suit once home and now even $10 is some consolation.

 These shoes are now personalized for me as I know the history, have likely chatted with the seller about where she got them.

 And they are liberating.  If I had spent $150 I would have felt far more an attachment to wearing them even if they did not suit or fit exactly;  at $10  I am far more likely to resell them myself or donate them somewhere.  This is true of furniture and clothing and appliances and services.

 The habit/lifestyle is an adventure and exciting and often surprising.  You never know what you will  find!

 Environmentally friendly is obvious.  But you have to want to do it.  Feeling you “should” alters most of the other aspects and make them a burden not a benefit.  Do what feels right.

Shopping the world:  merchandise from all over this planet makes its way to thrift stores and church rummage sales and auctions.  A set of snowshoes from northern Quebec,  a wardrobe  from England,  a length of hand-dyed fabric from Zimbabwe,  wool from Australia come to mind.  Etc!

 A challenge and a quest:  my Caddy of a Waring blendor (from a garage sale where the young couple were moving back east for school, the blendor had been their grandmother’s) served me well for years but needed a new seal and I could not get one or come up with an alternative that did not leak  so I began to think “blender” and “old Vita Mix” such as we had in Toronto more than 30 years ago from a booth at the CNE. Blenders began to ‘pop out’ at sales everywhere;  no Vita Mix yet, but in the meantime a good quality,  good condition 8-speed is doing the trick for the morning smoothie.  It was purchased at a church sale with no idea as to its history but the man in charge of appliances told me it had been tested and he  plugged it in to demonstrate that it worked.  We both listened thoughtfully to the whirr of the motor and agreed it sounded just fine.  When the Vita Mix appears this one will be donated back to that church sale or to wherever I find the Vita Mix.  This  is a unique,  economical system.

 Fibre archeology is a major part.  The sales are my digs and I am unearthing treasures,  artifacts from the past -  years,  decades,  sometimes a century or more.  Fibre in all its forms from paper to clothing to yarn to fabric.

 Thought-provoking happens here – wondering why something was given up and when and by whom and by which route or means it came to me.  And asking about such things.  And – often – getting answers.

 When offered such a variety of things (and they remain things unless we let them become stuff which has to do with our feelings about our possessions)  we are inspired to choose what we want from the vast colours and styles, to choose from the smorgasbord selection of what manufacturers over many seasons, many eras have decided we should be buying that year.

 Things that have meaning – like the spoon I got at a garage sale in the summer and was told it was carved by a Dukabor man in the interior of  BC  back in the Fifties, a spoon that has worn with time and use,  the spoon I used to stir the gingerbread cake this morning – made me think about its background and how it was now in my hands,  made me pay attention to what I was doing right now.  This is always worthwhile.

Posted on December 11, 2009 at 01:01 AM | 

"Why buy anything new …." was a  pondering kind of statement  that came to  mind as I was sitting at the kitchen table and my eyes  caught in an admiring gaze upon an old, exquisitely  crocheted item that I had recently  purchased at a flea market and draped over a chair.  

"Why buy anything new when I can get something so lovely, " I was thinking.  And then a piggy back thought :  when had I last bought something new.  I began to look around the kitchen and then that question changed to - what had I bought new.

After a great deal of looking at the things in the kitchen I realized, out of the hundreds, I had bought four things new.  This spoon was one of them and the man who sold it to me many years ago had carved it from an old tree, was actually carving it when I first saw it and I bought it as soon as it was finished.  

The other three were a set of cutlery from Pier One Import in Toronto twenty-five years ago,  a Salt lamp from a touristy store in Sidney BC  when my brother was on a visit out here two years ago  and purchased because he had one and liked it very much,  four pottery bowls made by an artist who lives a block or so away and was selling some of his work at the Fernwood Tuesday Market two summers ago.

Everything else, except a few things that were received as gifts,  was bought  at garage sales or thrift stores or flea markets or rummage sales or church bazaars or  found in a free box.

Why?  It's a habit acquired many years ago that became a lifestyle.  It's satisfying,  meaningful,  liberating,  fibre archeology,  creative,  economical,  exciting,  often surprising ,  thought-provoking,  challenging,  environmentally-friendly,  educational,   an adventure,   a means of shopping the world without leaving home.  And it is fun.