Shopping second hand is something I've known nearly my entire life. At 4 my grandma started taking me to estate sales, as a teen thrifting was a weekly activity, and in my 20s I wore vintage clothing day and night. I've restored, upcycled, traded and sold, shopping with an open mind and patience to wait weeks, months, even years to find what I'm looking for. These elements have become second nature to the point where I have to remind myself I can buy things new if need be, though I still say to my husband "I'll look for that at estate sales" when we find we need something around the house.

There's many reasons I still shop secondhand besides habit. For one thing price: Seeing what things cost new sometimes gives me sticker shock, especially large items like furniture. Another reason is quality, because it's true they don't make things like they used to. When you handle enough you get to know the differences up close, things that can take the wear and tear of daily life vs. things that were made to look good for a short period before being replaced by something else. And last, the thrill of treasure hunting. I can't think of a single brick and mortar shop (or online for that matter) that has an abundance of things I want to buy. Shopping new is just as much work for me as shopping second hand, but pricier, worse quality, and not nearly as fun as finding a diamond in the rough in a crowded thrift store.

That's it. My reasons are completely selfish and habitual, and maybe because it's just what I've always known is the reason why I don't give a thought to the fact that by living this way, I'm having a low impact on the environment and not supporting exploitation of mass production labor. I see influencers and content creators push to do exactly what I've always done but for compassionate reasons, showing people how to thrift and making charts on the impact. They're driven to challenge consuming new products by social change and environmental efforts, and I'm just not. Because for me it's not effort, it's not conscious, it's as natural as anything.

Would I like you to thrift more? Honestly I don't really care. I'm not going to push my habits onto someone else, because we all live different lives. Not everyone has easy access to thrift stores, not everyone has time or drive to treasure hunt, and when it comes to clothing it's much harder to shop plus size than straight size. I think leading by example rather than pressure makes the most difference: you're invited to join me, not be dragged over. I hope in future posts to pinpoint elements that indicate higher quality so you can find things for yourself that will last, and this knowledge can be put towards shopping second hand if you want to.