As you can see in the above picture, our house is a work in progress. Wires hanging here and there, sofa cushions waiting to be upholstered, and other DIYs and purchases that we have not yet agreed on.
Octave knows that every time he leaves the house for a couple days he'll find it in a totally different state as I love to rearrange things around the house (things have moved quite a bit since he took this picture).
There aren't many things we brought with us from Switzerland when we moved to the US except for small tables and art, mostly.
The rest of our home decor consists of items we found at flea markets, garage sales, second-hand shops, and some we made ourselves.
There are of course a couple new items we were in a rush to get when we found a place to live/work, but for the most part, we were naturally drawn to gently used items.
Here are my favorite resources, for home decor and more:
- Buy Nothing - Find your local group on the website and join it on Facebook, then browse through the dozens of pictures of items your neighbors are parting with, express your interest and go pick them up.
Other neighborhood social networks like Rooster and Nextdoor also have "classified" and "free items" sections.
- Instagram - Some people create specific accounts to sell items via Instagram, and others randomly organize garage sales and you're lucky enough to live close by. This is what happened to me last winter. I had been following Liz's Insta for a while and suddenly realized that she was selling her army cot for peanuts. I jumped on the occasion and brought back an extra bed for our guests. She later organized a big garage sale when she emptied her house and left for a big road trip in her Winnebaggo and I scored a couple more items, including the most crooked cactus.
Look for local interior designers on Insta and keep a close eye on their Insta stories, you never know when they're gonna realize that they might be hoarding and decide to host a small or big sale!
- Craigslist - Is it really worth mentioning why Craigslist is an awesome second-hand resource? Our best score was a fridge. Octave noticed the ad, and even though there was no picture and the price was too low to be good, he felt like this was no scam. He was right! The older couple just did not want to bother taking and uploading a picture. We came back home with a close-to-new KitchenAid fridge for less than $100!
I usually look for specific items but am more and more on the lookout for estate and garage sale dates and times. I'm gonna start getting up earlier and earlier on weekends to catch the best items.
And a list of my favorite resources for second-hand treasures in Portland:
You can find more gems in the "Shop Second-Hand" section of my Zero Waste City Guide.
What's your favorite second-hand score? Where and how did you find it?