In many essays on this blog I’ve sung the praises of shopping at secondhand stores. Beginning with
Museum of Lost Desires, and including A Successful Bargain Hunt, we have benefitted greatly from our local private secondhand store, and the Salvation Army’s thrift store.
I’m continually amazed by how often we find precisely what we need and want, even in our small town (pop. around 2500). In this small, insular community, goods circulate from home to home, expanding the utility of each item as it gets used (or proves unnecessary) then passed on to the next owner. Garage and yard sales extend this process even further, as do the many “Free” boxes that dot our roadsides through much of the year.
Lately, I’ve had reason to appreciate this even more; it must be time to remind readers about a valuable resource that often gets overlooked in our hyper-consumptive society (see also Clothing: Essential to Survival and Self Esteem).