Andrea over in the fishbowl is hosting a little second-hand show and tell carnival. (She’s endlessly creative and clever, that one!) She often blogs about the cool stuff she finds, either in second-hand stores or even on the street, and she’s invited us to play along:
The goal here is to open more people to the idea of shopping second-hand, to showcase what kind of stuff is out there, but also remind people to donate their goods instead of pitching them in the garbage.
I love the fact that people are getting more and more into curbside recycling of goods, not by dumping them into the blue or black recycle boxes but by simply leaving stuff at the end of the driveway with a “free” sign on it. Just last Sunday on the way to swimming lessons, we picked up a perfectly lovely soccer/hockey net for the boys, which I was planning on buying this summer anyway, that was left with a computer monitor by the curb. Sadly, the monitor was still there the next day in the pouring rain and I’m sure is now sitting in a landfill somewhere, but the soccer net will have many years of use with its adopted family.
Other goodies I’ve scored from the curbside include a set of hockey skates, a bookcase, and an electric lawnmower. (What a picture I was that day, pushing Tristan and Simon in the double stroller while holding the dog’s leash with one hand, while dragging the lawnmower behind me with the other. A lot of work, but FREE! And that perfectly good lawnmower lasted us a good two or three years, if you didn’t mind the duct tape residue on your hands every time you cut the grass.)
That’s not my second-hand show and tell, though.
In thinking about what I wanted to blog about, I realized that we’ve hardly bought any new baby gear for Lucas. Of course, we already have a lot of stuff from the big boys, but after two babies’ worth of wear, a lot of stuff was starting to wear out. The only major things we’ve bought new were a bouncy-chair-toddler-rocker because the original one wouldn’t vibrate, and a fancy Maclaren stroller I got on clearance at Toys R Us because the old umbrella stroller was nasty and the bulky one that came with our original travel system was starting to look a little worse for wear as well. But we’ve been given or loaned a swing, a pack’n’play, a sling, and an infant car seat.
Which brings me, by way of the dairy and the dell, to the thing I wanted to blog about for second-hand show and tell.
My friend Candice and I are often on the same wavelength. She and my mom are the ones who, when the phone rings, I already know it’s them. Candice loaned me a lot of baby stuff when Tristan was born, including an exersaucer, a pack’n’play and one of those high-end MEC baby backpack carriers, all of which enjoyed liberal use by both Tristan and Simon. Then she had the audacity to go and have another baby when I was pregnant with Lucas, thus reclaiming a good chunk of our baby gear. Most of it I was able to beg, borrow or steal to replace from other friends and relatives, but I was really bummed about the loss of the MEC baby backpack.
About a month ago, I was in a local consignment shop buying splash pants for the big boys when I happened to notice they had a baby backpack in perfect condition for sale at about half the retail value. I was thrilled and snapped it up. The saleslady said they had just put it out, and the woman who was selling it had used it only once and hated it, so it really was in brand-new condition.
I got home and picked up the phone to tell Candice about my score, and heard the broken dial tone that indicates a waiting message. It was, ironically, Candice. She was calling to tell me that she was in Boomerang Kids, another consignment shop across town, and that they had a MEC baby backpack for sale. It was the exact same model, even the exact same colour, as the one I had just bought around the corner. “If you call them right away and tell them I referred you, they’ll hold it for you while you come down and get it. They’re so rare and so popular, it won’t last.” The selling price was even identical to I’d paid for mine. The time of her call was within about 10 minutes of when I was buying the one I’d found. Weird. I haven’t seen one in stores before or since.
I was going to add more to this post by going on about the glory of garage sales – both hosting them and trawling them as a family expedition – but Lucas is growing tired of swinging in the borrowed swing. And now that I think about it, since it’s the first weekend of May, there may in fact be a few garage-salers willing to brave the risk of rain today.
Do you recycle your stuff? What’s your best second-hand score?
