So, Deadsplintergorgers, it’s the day after Thanksgiving, and if you’re reading this, it means you survived.
So let’s talk leftovers. But since Brighter covered food yesterday, let’s talk other kinds of leftovers. For instance, clothes. Do you have any vintage clothes you like which are leftover from someone else?
I have a pretty cool old double breasted pinstriped suit I’ve only worn a couple of times, but I picked it up for only about $10, so it was totally worth it. I also have a couple of old Hawaiian shirts, some old ties, and probably a few other items of previously-owned clothing parked in my closet.
In general wearing someone else’s clothes doesn’t bother me, but I was watching an old show with Anthony Bourdain when he was in Rio. He said people on the beach were renting swimsuits and drew the line there, and I have to agree.
What about things like used furniture or books? We have plenty of both kinds of secondhand stuff picked up over the years and don’t have an issue parking our behinds where others have parked before.
If someone gave you a secondhand book, tool, or piece of clothing for a present, would you mind if it was something you liked? I assume half a sandwich might be a problem as a birthday present, though.
Or, do you make stuff with leftover things? Do you, for instance, make quilts from old clothes? Build bookcases from scrap lumber? Repurpose old bits from earrings or bracelets into new jewelry?
Hopefully in terms of animals and people, you’re not hung up if a pet belonged to someone else or if a person was once friends with someone else or in a relationship with another person first. You have to be OK with that kind of history.
What’s your leftover approach?
Also a hard no on bathing suit rental. 🤢 Other than that I’m fine with used clothing. But thrifting isn’t what it used to be. You can’t really score cool finds nowadays since people sell them online. I have no problem with used furniture either. I enjoy refinishing and painting. My biggest project was an upright piano. I got totally overwhelmed about half way through and almost gave up. I had to walk away for a couple of months. But returned and finished it. NEVER AGAIN! I’ll stick to tables and chairs from now on.
I have some friends who love thrifting and the big complaint they’re seeing is that a lot of thrift stores are getting overwhelmed with fast fashion crap like Shein that it’s very frustrating to try to find quality clothing (quality in the sense that it’s going to last for a lot of wearing and washing, not fall apart quickly. Not quality in the sense of oooh fancy brand.).
Supposedly you can get used pianos for free these days if you move them. I have to say I’ve never been tempted, but I did help friends move one once.
I’m sure you can. A lot of people don’t want the full size pianos anymore and opt for keyboards instead. And keyboards are fine but why not both?
When I worked retail, I 100% hit up thrift stores because I could accidentally tear up a pair of khakis in a shift if unloading the delivery went wrong. My favorite was one of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul thrift stores by me because the clothing was sorted by type and color. So fucking convenient. It was like oh I need khakis, let me wander over to the brown pants section on the racks. Even if I didn’t find something, the convenience for quickly knowing if I could find something was so so so nice.
We have a St. Vincent De Paul near us, and I really like it. It doesn’t seem to be picked over by online resellers.
My bedroom dresser, nightstand, and tallboy originally belonged to my grandparents. Unsure how old it is, my mom remembers her mother refinishing them in the early 1970s.
There’s a china cabinet set that my other grandparents had, but when my dad eventually kicks the bucket I won’t be able to take it. I don’t have a dining room, nor another room that I could put them into. Also I don’t have china.
It’s kind of sad how rarely people eat off China, but then it’s really not the most practical thing and using it makes you paranoid you’ll chip it.
I never wanted my parents’ wedding china and I’ve never had a reason to buy my own china. I have nice stoneware dishes that I use, but also I don’t entertain. So even if I did own china, I guess I’d be setting a place serving of 1 with it and that seems silly.
Come to think of it, used shoes are a no for me because the wear patterns are so unique to each person. Although I once had a pair of used cowboy boots I really liked.
Other than online or telecom technology, I try very hard to buy used or refurbished. Clothing is my favorite, but tools (yard or mechanical), books, blankets, and many other items are just great, and it feels great to keep them out of a landfill.
I also will spend an inordinate amount of time or money fixing something I already own, rather than replace it with a new item. Point out that the new item is actually more cost-effective, and I’ll say, “I know, but that’s not what’s important to me.”
There’s definitely the fact that a lot of older stuff was built to last. Old cast iron pans, for instance, are a real joy. I have an old hand sledge that just feels great to swing.
I’m also confused about how now it’s just cool cool cool to have appliances that don’t last worth shit.
Like my washer and dryer are hand-me-downs from my parents that they got when I was in high school. I had my 20th reunion not too long ago. They’re not even fancy or a matching set, they’re just appliances my parents got at the Sear’s Scratch and Dent discount store.
Some years ago, we lived across the street in Chicago from a very natty gay couple that broke up and during a bleak snow storm one of the partners threw out all the other one’s clothes. I saw a pile of clothes while I was walking the dog and thought at first it might have been a body, but no, just clothes. It was too cold to look any closer. I told my wife about it and she took the dog with her and went to look. There were some very nice pieces with high-end labels. Prada, Brooks Brothers, and some of the more common labels but from their couture collections. We waited a few days to see if the banished partner would come back for them, but since the regular garbage pickup was coming up, my wife said, “Fuck it” and went outside with a couple of garbage bags and picked through the pile. Everything was exactly my size. I mean, cashmere overcoats, handmade jackets, leather, silks. It was going to get ruined or end up in a landfill, so I ended up with enough very sharp clothes to last me a lifetime.
We later told the remaining partner that we had taken the stuff and he said, “Good, I hope it gets good use by someone who is not an asshole” and I just went ahead and accepted that the someone was me.
I still have that stuff hanging in a closet. I don’t get many opportunities to wear it very often here on the farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains, but I pack a few things whenever I go to Chicago. It’s all from the early 2000s, but the styles are pretty classic, so when I get dressed I can still look like big money if I care to.
That’s my second best story about leftovers. One time I found a Martin D-40 guitar in a dumpster in California. It had a little crack that was easy to fix. It’s sitting arm’s length from me right now.
over here we has a facebook thing…..poor people trade its
i has 5 dinner table seats for the price of 5 long life cartons of milks
and curtains i traded for spam
spam spam spam
goddamnit its stuck in my head now
its fucking killer bargains and helping the neighbourhood out all in one….good stuff
There’s honestly *very* little that I buy new-new, or at original retail prices.
Looking around my bedroom, my bookshelves, sheets, *most* of my pillows, and this mattress (aside from my clothes, and *some* of my books), are the only new-bought things here.
Most of my books are secondhand, my lamps both came from “The Magic Closet (the trash room in our building), the desk was *also* a “magic closet” item, as was my mattress-support (not really a bed frame, but it takes the place of a traditional box-spring).
People who move out of our building sometimes leave *nice* things behind (I’ve found a set of 6 Waterford Champagne flutes, New in the box, *and* a crystal Waterford Sleigh dish (also new in the box!), in the Magic Room, too!😉😁
Tbh, my current mattress is the first *new* one I’ve ever had–and I only got it last year. The one I had growing up was my Dad’s that Grandma & Grandpa had gotten *him* right before he left for the Navy–it was a Sealy, iirc, and was still basically new, when I inherited it as a child.
When I moved to Minneapolis, the roommate I lived with had family who’d purchased beds for the migrant workers who worked on their barns–they sold us each a nearly-new mattress & box spring, for $100 each, because once the barns were built, the beds were no longer needed, and were “just collecting dust”
A few years later, I was asked by a co-worker who was making a multi-state move, if I wanted the bed I typically slept on, when I house-sat for them–and then she ended up giving me an even *newer* mattress, that had only been slept on twice, instead of the original one she’d offered–“because it’s even *newer* than the other one!”
That one was a Serta, held up for almost 20 years, and I honestly probably *still* would’ve been using it, had I not put it in my storage unit (unwrapped), where it picked up a *horrible* musty smell, thanks to one of the *other*renters in that building, storing *something* old & moldy…
I grew up poor (on welfare), and Rural, during the heart of the 70’s & 80’s Farm Crisis, and my grandparents’ generation was the “Wear it out, Use it up, Make Do, or Do Without” generation who were in their 20’s during the end of the Depression & WW2 rationing years…
New wasn’t something that you *needed* for most things, outside of Underwear & Swimsuits (and, tbh, even *those* may have been hand-me-downs, within the family, when we were LITTLE kids!).
Furniture gets passed around in our family, until it’s old & busted–then it becomes outdoor play-stuff on the farm/out in the woods for the kids–until it finally gets burned in a bonfire…. No one in the family wastes money on a brand-new vehicle, with the number of mechanics we have, because it’s not worth the hit on depreciation, driving it off the lot. Someone *else* takes that hit, and we buy it a couple years later.
As for other things, like shoes & clothes? If it *isn’t* my work clothes or shoes (cheap, and/’cuz they’re GONNA get wrecked!), I tend to have somewhat expensive tastes–so it’s either Clearance section items, or secondhand labels that I like, are comfortable, and that *hold up well* (old-school Eddie Bauer & LL Bean, Columbia, Eileen Fischer, Sofft, Clarks, etc).
I adore “Vintage” and “Buy It For Life” stuff, that I can find secondhand, and will *totally* go that route when possible. (Easier to do, when you can get away with buying sample-size & kids-size shoes & outerwear!)
An example of that, are my steel-toe Combat Boots. They look just like those ones, but are even *less* worn–because they’re a men’s size 4. I found ’em nearly new–but *already* vintage, in a local theift shop here in the Twin Cities, 20+ years ago.
Because they’re solid leather, with those vintage Biltrite soles, they’re STILL in great shape, and I can *still* wear ’em gor hours at a time, without any real problems (as long as I’ve got my orthotics in ’em!😉).
Vintage nowadays, is *often* better-quality, unless you’re buying really expensive things. And in some ways, I’m a *total* cheapskate, who doesn’t like to buy crap (except for those eork clothes, which WILL get wrecked at preschool!😉🤣), so I just wait patiently, and then grab the good stuff, when I see it!