Secondhand September is underway, so I thought I would confront you with an uncomfortable truth:

You don’t need brand new stuff.

Believe it or not, I’m not all that “crunchy.” I consider myself environmentally aware, but I wouldn’t call myself a hardcore environmentalist. I commit plenty of eco-sins, but I have a consistent eco-virtue: I try secondhand sources first whenever I need to buy something. It’s easy and has more impact than you might think.

Although clothing is my favorite thing to source secondhand (obviously), it’s only the top of a mountain of stuff you can stop buying from traditional retailers.

A wide range of everyday items can be purchased secondhand. Resale items are often brand new! We live in a time of wretched material excess*. People have storage units filled with things they don’t use or need, and almost everyone’s home is stuffed full of clutter. We buy far more than we can reasonably use, and a lot of that stuff ends up on eBay or Mercari – or in physical thrift stores you can visit.

Decorative Items
Resale platforms and thrift stores are overflowing with decor, especially seasonal or holiday items. You can find a wider selection of secondhand items than you’d ever see at Home Goods or Target. Beyond seasonal decor, you can find wall art, vases, planters and pots, lamps, baskets, and anything else you’re looking for. You may need to be patient if you want specific colors or sizes, but something will turn up eventually.

Housewares
If you only choose one thing to never buy new again, mugs would be a solid choice. There are endless shelves of mugs available. You can also find home textiles, such as bedding, curtains, and cloth napkins – often brand new. For instance, I purchased our last two sets of sheets from eBay, new with tags. Try looking for dishes, quality cookware, specialty baking pans, serving platters, and small appliances.

Gifts and Collectibles
There are amazing collectibles on every resale platform, often at reasonable prices. Remember, eBay began its journey as a platform to trade Beanie Babies. Collectibles are right there in its DNA! No matter how niche your interest, you can find unique items for your collection – and if your interests are more mainstream, you’ll have a dragon’s hoard to choose from. I buy plenty of secondhand gifts, both collectible and otherwise. Since these are often unopened or new, I sometimes need to explain that the items can’t be returned. I always tell recipients that I will be happy to rehome something that doesn’t fit or work for them and replace it with something they’d like better. (If you feel this conversation would be awkward or embarrassing, you might want to ask yourself why you’re giving gifts to people you can’t be honest with. Sorry to be blunt!)

Wooden Furniture
I know many people get the ick about secondhand upholstered items due to bed bug fears, so I’m only recommending sturdy wooden furniture here. Sometimes, you do need to put in some work to repaint or stain a piece, but you can buy used solid wood furniture for less than you’d spend on pressboard flat-pack items.

Books and Other Physical Media
Interest in physical media is growing again as people are tired of paying for endless subscriptions and never owning their own music or movies. I’ve had luck sourcing recent DVD and Blu-Ray releases on eBay, so don’t assume you can only find decades-old stuff on the secondhand market. We went to a warehouse sale for our local library recently, and for about the price of one month of Netflix, I bought seven books and four DVDs. Not bad!

This is not an exhaustive list; these are just a handful of categories you can easily find secondhand. In fact, I left out several common categories that other people regularly find that I don’t usually see. For instance, I haven’t reliably found craft supplies, fabric yardage, or stationery items. I also rarely find organizers in sizes I need or baskets that suit our decorating style.

Sometimes you really can’t find what you need on the secondhand market. This is not failure! It’s okay to buy new when the resale market fails you. The important thing is to try alternate sources first.

There are so many things already in existence. I’m a reliable secondhand shopper, but others buy even fewer new things than I do. You don’t have to go to extremes. Just start somewhere – maybe with a single category – and go from there. You’ll likely save money compared to retail prices, and you’ll definitely save resources from going directly to the landfill.

Try the Secondhand First lifestyle. You may love it even more than I do.

*Well, we have been. If the tariffs remain in place, we may very well be living in a new era.

One Large Caveat I don’t recommend thrift stores for people new to secondhand shopping, especially when it comes to clothing. You’ll have a much easier transition using online secondhand resale platforms. Start by searching for brands you know well so you can stick to styles and sizes that are likely to fit. Be sure to check garment measurements against similar things you already own, because tag sizing is inconsistent. But the magic of online platforms is that someone else has already done the curation for you. You don’t have to sift through endless racks of used clothing that don’t interest you and won’t fit. You can zero in on exactly what you need. Furthermore, people are accustomed to shopping online now, and this is just a slightly different method. Thrift stores, no matter how well managed, can be overwhelming and chaotic for folks who are used to walking into stores filled with racks of identical garments. The other downfall of thrift stores is unique to the present moment: Thrift stores are currently packed to the rafters with terrible fast fashion clothing. These aren’t the thrift stores of 20 years ago. You truly could find racks filled with gently used name-brand clothing in the past. Current racks are filled with polyester garbage from Shein and Temu because that’s what people are buying. People donate what they buy, and the average buyer’s behavior has shifted radically over the last 15 years or so. You can still find gems in thrift stores, but the amount of work required will put off a new secondhand shopper. It’s better to dip your toe in by opening up eBay and searching for whatever specific item you need.

SPOOKY SEASON IS COMING.
I plan to send a bunch of posts in October, so unless things go completely sideways, expect your inboxes to fill with delicious spooky treats. In the meantime, I’ll send out one or two more Secondhand September posts. Just managing expectations! It has been a rough year, so I know realistically that any plan can fall through, but I do intend to spend October doing my regular creepy thing.

That’s it for now. OKAY, BYE! 🖤