When you buy cheap furniture are you looking after your environment?
I hear you cringe at this question! Buy cheap furniture, what do you mean?
There is a mass of cheap imitations of designer furniture about, and everyone is buying it!
Is it a good investment?
No
Then why buy?
It is fashionable, and a lot of people have a “use it then lose it!” philosophy to their lives, they simply buy cheap furniture because it doesn’t have to last as they will redecorate within a couple of years.
A terrible way to be in today’s world when we are all trying to be more energy efficient, environmentally friendly and reduce our waste output.
It is down right irresponsible!
So what should we be doing?
I always think that spending as much as you can afford on good quality furniture (among other things) is the best way to go. The products usually last for a very long time, if they do suffer some wear and tear, it is usually cost effective to have them repaired and you still are able to resell them to someone else who appreciates good quality furniture if you end up tiring of the design.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t reimage or makeover your home frequently, you can, you just don’t have to throw everything away and start again! You can buy new items for you at a second hand store, check out the thrift shops, shop online for second hand items. You can sell your old furniture to someone else, give it away or donate it to a charity. We can learn to reduce our consumption, reuse things in a different way or recycle and let someone else use them for a different purpose.
I walked into a large department store the other day and looked at the bedding section. I saw plastic packaging for rows and rows. Where does it all go, I thought? Then I looked into a different area, more plastic packaging, it was endless. Then the toy department, so much packaging and plastic toys that break and are thrown away. I then though of the size of the store and how often it is emptied and refilled with products that we consume. Start calculating the plastic packaging and throw away items from that, that is one store in New Zealand, our country will end up being and island of rubbish (or garbage), we will lose our clean green image and be known as the island of plastic packaging!
I know I have digressed from cheap furniture, but the theory is similar, at some stage we have to all start thinking about what we consume and where it goes when we are finished. Just something to get you thinking. Any ideas are appreciated on solving this global throwaway society problem, feel free to add it into the comments.
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