Are there alternatives to what shopping has become? Malls the size of your home town mesmerize consumers with enough merchandise, diversions, and food to keep you there all day and half the night buying more and more stuff you think you need but really don’t. It’s not just an American phenomenon. It’s global!
Let’s face it, we are spoiled. Need to go somewhere? Just jump in the car and off you go. We don’t have to walk for miles carrying buckets to haul water. Without much thought, we simply go to a faucet and water comes out. We’ve controlled the inner environment so that we have warmth in winter and cool in summer by just clicking a few buttons, and our food only spoils in refrigeration when we neglect to use it. Things we buy? Over packaged with layers of plastics and tags. And let’s not forget the mountain of disposables.
To decrease personal wastefulness and carbon footprint we’ve been encouraged to incorporate the 5Rs: REFUSE, RECYCLE, REDUCE, REUSE, and ROT (compost). You can refuse to purchase disposables, produce wrapped in plastic, and such. Refill that non-disposable water bottle instead of using one-use water bottles. Recycle the plastics, glass, metals, and paper that you can’t avoid. Reduce overall consumerism. How many tee shirts do you really need? Reuse (and repair) whatever you can—like a washcloth instead of paper towel. Rot—well that’s about composting when and if you can.
The internet is loaded with ideas. It seems easy enough to accommodate when it comes to shopping, food packaging, and such, but the Rs can also pertain to home furnishings. Well, rot may only apply to wood and fabrics being biodegradable. But why would you even want plastic furniture? Here are some other Rs: revamp, restore, refinish, repurpose, refurbish, reupholster, renovate.
Furniture
Why buy furniture made of cheap materials that you need an engineering degree to assemble when you can buy well-made classic pieces for a fraction of the cost? You can rescue some of grandma’s furniture from ending up in the clean-out guy’s dumpster or try auctions, garage sales, charity shops, thrift shops, online markets, and even curbside shopping at a ridiculously low cost. It may take a bit of time to find the right piece, but worth it and the hunt is fun. Just think of the great treasure hunt stories each piece can tell.
As a precaution, used furniture, especially upholstered furniture, needs to be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected—very easy with all-wood pieces. Soap is your friend. Never buy used mattresses. First of all, in my state, it is illegal, which doesn’t stop some people. Things with fabrics have the potential of housing microscopic and unwanted six-legged creatures. Yuck! But on to better things.
Recently, mid-century modern is the popular taste along with chunky sofas. Oak is out; teak is in. Interest in Victoriana, Early American, or classics from before the nineteenth century has been replaced by metal and pressed sawdust, purely functional. No fuss, no craftsmanship, nothing to spark curiosity. But remember—styles do not have to match! In fact, rooms are far more interesting when they don’t. You can add an interesting antique piece in a mostly contemporary setting or mixing ethnic styles (like African or Asian pieces mixed with Scandinavian).
Videos on the internet give step-by-step directions on DYI projects if you want to change the look. If you are not inclined to do it yourself, barter with a friend that does. Here are some furniture Rs:
- Revamp, restore, and refinish—paint, stains, a new coat of lacquer, shabby distressing, or change of hardware can transform a chest, dresser, coffee table, and more.
- Repurpose a piece. Adding legs or shortening pieces, removing some parts or replacing with something else are just a few ways of changing the original purpose of a piece. A piece of glass transforms a trunk into a coffee table. Drawers removed can transform a chest into a bookcase. Check out those DYI projects on the internet.
- Refurbish and reupholster. Changing the upholstery on chair seats is only a matter of removing the old one, adding some new foam padding, and stapling new fabric. Large chairs and sofas are big projects and can be costly, so only worth it if the piece has good bones.
Housewares
You can buy fabulous high-quality china, glass, flatware, and serving pieces at a very low price tag, sometimes even less than paper products at your local thrift shops and non-traditional shopping sources. Just recently I saw antique beautifully hand-decorated china serving pieces for a dollar each at a local garage sale. Too bad I don’t need any more.
Why not use the Rosenthal, Wedgwood, or Lenox every day? Why not drink your favorite beverage out of Waterford or Baccarat crystal? I must admit I do like matched china most of the time, but really, why does everybody’s place setting always have to match? Why not have a glass salad plate with a floral china dinner plate? If a piece breaks, it’s not a big deal when you’ve paid pennies on the dollar by alternative shopping.
Yes, you will have to wash them, but it takes less effort to wash a stack of dishes than it does to rinse, load, unload, run the wash, and often dry the contents of the dishwasher. I haven’t used my dishwasher in years.
Home décor
Why buy bad art and flimsy prints at a discount store when you can buy paintings and etchings by listed artists for the same amount and oftentimes less at auction? Prints are okay, but do you really want décor that is so overdone it gets ignored or looking like the discount furniture store with no personality? It doesn’t have to be an artist whose works hang in world-renowned museums to be a good work of art. The same principle works for objet d’art (things that are not paintings).
You educate your eye by reading and visiting museums, but you don’t necessarily have to own pieces that would hang there. And it doesn’t have to be a work by a dead artist. I bought a painting by a Majorca living artist at auction for $90. When I got home, I checked out his work on the internet and found his paintings go for thousands in Spain, but unknown here. Hey, I’m okay with that. You just need to develop a good eye and not limit yourself to artists that everybody in the universe knows.
I do have some prints too, but they amount to the few I’ve kept since my younger and more impressionable years that have personal meaning. Of course, it comes down individual taste, and the question, would you rather have five department store prints to quickly fill up your wall and eventually have the same fate as Elvis paintings on velvet, or one decent painting?
As stewards of the planet, we’ve been doing a pretty lousy job in spite of some marginal efforts to care about the only home we have. Whatever your style or preferences are, every effort on your part to lower your carbon imprint matters. Information to that end is abundant and easily available. We share the planet and have some responsibility to preserve what we can for future generations. These ideas may not appeal to you, but for the planet’s sake, start somewhere!
2019 Copyright by Eva Benevento. All rights reserved.