I’ve been finding myself disheartened lately by the constant barrage of content attempting to convince us that we need more “stuff” to make us happy. I can’t pull up Instagram without being shown a $20 dress from Amazon I’m told is a total steal, a new D2C roman shade brand my favorite influencer just installed, and an ad for a bathroom faucet I looked at the other day but decided was too expensive. I’m not going to pretend like I’m unaffected by any of these tactics (I def gave that faucet another look), but I am kicking off a personal challenge this month to both help curb the urge to go out and buy as well as consume in a more sustainably-minded way.
I’m dubbing it “Secondhand Summer”: a three-month-long moratorium on *new* purchases, with the exception of a couple categories (namely personal care and food). I kicked it off Memorial Day weekend when we purchased our travel stroller via FB Marketplace (see first post for a peek at the inner torment and reflection that caused) . Since then, Secondhand Summer has forced me to reckon with that inner voice so easily swayed by Instagram ads and to take a step back and really consider whether I truly need something or not. It’s also made me realize how easy it is (at times) to source an item secondhand vs buying new, and conversely, how much more challenging it is to source others.
Let’s start with the easy sourcing first. “Buy Nothing” groups on Facebook have been a real eye-opener for me. I’ve been a member of our local group for about a year now but always felt the items posted were a bit junky. Common postings can include a set of lotions someone was gifted years ago or a single, chipped mug with a cheeky saying. But it’s a magical thing to witness an exchange of excess vs want, like someone gifting a perfectly good washer & dryer set when they upgraded to another person whose own set broke down. Or a single mom struggling to make ends meet requesting toddler-sized clothes met with an outpouring of drop-offs from the community. Or simply someone gifting artwork they no longer want to someone else who’d love to have it. In my own recent use case, we’ve had unseasonably warm temperatures hit NorCal the past few weeks and I thought our daughter would love an outdoor water table to keep her cool and busy. Pre-Secondhand Summer I would’ve hit up Amazon and had one delivered in a day. This time, I posted in our group “ISO kids water table” and uploaded a picture of what I was looking for. Within the hour, a mom down the street sent me a message offering up their water table that had been sitting outside without use for a while. Kevin drove over that afternoon, sprayed it down with our hose, and Sofia had a blast splashing in her new secondhand water table the next day. The satisfaction I felt after that transaction was amazing. I was hooked.
But not all desired items have been so easy to source. I’ve started going into the office 1-2x a week recently and have cycled through the four work-appropriate outfits I have many times now (I’m starting to regret that major closet purge midway through the pandemic…). I’d love a few more pieces to wear so I spent an afternoon last week hitting up the local thrift shops, certain I’d find a variety of viable options. Not so! I was hoping to find the East Bay version of my favorite San Francisco thrift store, ReLove, but had no luck. I picked through a shop full of vintage fur coats and costume jewelry and combed racks of hundreds of colorful graphic tees. Four stops later I returned home dejected and empty-handed. I know for many, the thrill of thrifting comes in finding the diamond in the rough. But as I look for some specific items in my “style”, I’m finding it incredibly frustrating. If anyone has an East Bay thrift shop recommendations, let me know!
Buying secondhand has come a long way since shopping at the local thrift shop, though. There are many online options these days, like ThredUp, Poshmark, and DePop to name a few. While I love the accessibility and assortment these sites offer, it’s a lot more difficult to navigate online thrift stores than firsthand online retail or even in-person thrift stores. For starters, the online options have thousands and thousands of items listed. You have to come prepared with some serious filters (e.g. brand, size, category, etc) and the more filters, the better. If you do find something that looks interesting, it’s hard to imagine how it’ll fit since it’s typically either on a mannequin or laid out shapeless on a background. And unlike firsthand retail, if you purchase the item and decide it doesn’t work for you, it can be difficult, costly, and sometimes even impossible to send back. For all these reasons, I’m excited about how ubiquitous thrifting is becoming but believe there is more to be done in the way of shopping experience optimization.
A month into my experiment so far, I’ve acquired a few items I would’ve otherwise purchased new and forgone purchasing many others I felt weren’t worth attempting to source secondhand. Our monthly spending is down, and I’m starting to feel more indifferent towards those pesky Instagram ads. Overall I’m really enjoying the challenge so far and I look forward to sharing more updates as I go!
Care to join me in Secondhand Summer?
Alexia