These days I tend to buy big furniture items — sofas and the like — second hand. I can't afford really high-end quality furniture new, but, if you're careful, you can find well-made furniture at low prices in charity stores. My house is furnished with a mix of crappy Ikea stuff and very nice second-hand furniture; I much prefer the latter.
> if you're careful, you can find well-made furniture at low prices in charity stores. My house is furnished with a mix of crappy Ikea stuff and very nice second-hand furniture; I much prefer the latter.
But this illustrates exactly the problem. "If you're careful" -- meaning you wouldn't want the average one you see. Meaning there's going to be considerably more waste when people have to buy second-hand than if they just kept their own that much longer.
I wouldn't want the "average" new sofa either, especially not in a price bracket I consider reasonable.
I agree that it would be more efficient if people kept their sofas for a decade, but they don't, and me buying the sofas they don't want is a better option than them ending up on a trash heap. Plus, I'll probably keep them for ten years. I buy high-end furniture second-hand so I can do exactly that, rather than getting a new Ikea piece of junk that falls apart in a couple of years.
I suppose the ideal scenario would be for manufacturers not to make rubbish and for people to be able to afford good furniture that lasts for decades, but we don't live in that world.
I think you misunderstood the point of my comment. I wasn't criticizing your approach or debating buying first- vs. second-hand. That's not what the discussion was about at all. The question was about renting and "updating" every couple years "because you want to" vs. actually owning your stuff, and how much additional waste that generates. I was pointing out that even if people like you exist who buy second-hand, they (naturally) won't necessarily be interested in doing that for most items, so that still results in a ton of waste instead of increasing re-use as someone else claimed. That's what this discussion was about.
"If you're careful" is reasonable. You wouldn't blindly buy a second hand car, you need to make sure the engine actually works etc. I suspect the careful in this case is avoiding said crappy Ikea stuff. That's not to say you shouldn't buy it 2nd hand, just make sure you pay an appropriate price.
Its not an either or, you can buy second hand and keep your stuff longer.
I never said you shouldn't buy it second-hand either. Try reading the full discussion again from the top comment. It's about a different question entirely.
The early comments were about renting, and you making the reasonable point that renting furniture that can be replaced at any time promotes waste.
This is about purchasing, if you're purchasing 2nd hand you do have to be careful because you don't have the same rights etc. The "average" may be perfectly fine, just like the average second hand car is fine. I think you're reading too much into "being careful", that's all.
