Second Hand Home Furnishings
I’ve managed to make our new home (we are renting a large Victorian country house) more cosy and beautifully furnished by visiting the local charity shops once a week (there are three in the local town) and trawling the weekly car boot sale every time it is on.
Some people have an aversion to all things second hand but luckily I have the opposite view - I feel ever so slightly revulsed by new things now, especially those made of plastic and for me buying beautifully made things for under £3 (usually for under 50p) is a great way of saving the planet from being submerged in landfill refuse and gives me an eclectic collection of things for my home within my extremely tight budget.
We keep a list of ‘Things we want’ posted on the fridge and instead of shopping for new items we look out for 2nd hand ones. Current list had ‘buttons, extra knife block, bay tree cutting, lampshades, pretty curtains, houseplant pot, old fashioned feather quilt’ which amazingly have all been aqcuired this week for total spend of £20
I was most excited this week to find two beautiful wicker shopping baskets at the local car boot sale for £2 each. It was an extra big bargain for me as only the day before while driving through nearby Cheltenham we’d stopped the car to look at an identical wicker basket sitting outside a secondhand store - the price tag stated it was £22. I climbed back in the car without it thinking of days gone by when I would have bought it without a thought.
The following day at the car boot sale I was grinning from ear to ear when I found my latest two wicker purchases…
[See also - The Basket Case System]