Buying used goods

When I was younger, my mom occasionally shopped at thrift stores, but frequented yard sales. From what I recall, she purchased any number of used items for herself and the house, but not really for us kids. She was definitely a mom that wanted to do and buy the best things for us, even on small budget.

Learning on your own is a completely different story. I don't think I really learned what great used clothing was out there for sale until I was in my Sophomore year of college. A friend of mine worked at a local consignment store and was able to get me a job there as well. At the time I was just excited to get a job, but it is an experience I will never forget. Not just for the wonderful people I grew to love, but how easy it is to find like-new clothes at a fraction of the price. After working there for a year, on any given day my underwear and socks might be the only new items I was wearing!

Ever since my son was born, I rarely buy him new clothing. In our city there was this wonderful consignment sale twice a year that I would stock up on everything he might need for that season or even the next. And I found a wonderfully stocked and well priced Good Will not far from us that I would frequent for anything from a new couch to Christmas presents.

All of these reasons stemmed from a need or desire to spend less. Now as I do more and more research on ways I can help out the environment, one of the main things emphasized is buying used goods because the energy needed to produce these goods has already passed and purchasing them does not create a demand for more items to be produced. (REUSE!!!!!) I can now pat myself on the back for another great reason to shop at the Good Will, consignment shops, craigslist, thredup,etc.! There are so many wonderful outlets out there to find like-new items at a fraction of the cost and leave fraction of the carbon footprint by doing so.