A kitchen is the heart of the home, the place where everyone inevitably spends most of their time while they are at home: from making and eating meals to creating masterpieces of arts and crafts to hosting cozy and intimate get-togethers.
Naturally the goal for such a heavily used space is to make it as comfortable, attractive, and practical as possible, without blowing one’s budget. This is where shopping secondhand comes in. Not only can you save bank shopping secondhand, you can also find unique items that you keep from the trash before their time, and you remove demand from consumerist markets to keep producing more stuff. Lots of winning.
To fulfill your sustainable goals, here are three small kitchen necessities with big impact that you can find secondhand:
- Mis-matched and beautiful dishes.
Sometimes you get lucky and find a complete 8 or 12 place setting group of dishes in secondhand shops. More often than not, however, you will find three of a certain dish, two of another, and maybe 4 of another. It is a truth universally acknowledged that dishes get broken at some point in time, thus the fragmented sets of dishes you find in the shops. With the likelihood that you might break a few dishes in your time, why not create your own unique set of mismatched but coordinating dishes? A “set” of dishes could be plates with a unifying color, a particular style rim and many colors, all handmade dishes, or a collection of someone’s donated finest wedding china. It is a chance to get really visually creative in your kitchen for quite cheap. Take a peek at these, these, and these.
- Fancy candlesticks.
Candlelight elevates any dinner, no matter how informal, to a level that is delightful. We light beeswax tapers with our kiddos at dinner almost every night, and it is a simple effort with great effect. Candlesticks are one of those secondhand items that show up in droves and droves of styles and materials: modern, traditional, colonial, contemporary, craftsman; crystal, brass, pewter, wood. Pick your favorites, light your tapers, and turn down the lights. Elegant, right? Try out this one or these.
- Cloth napkins.
Cloth napkins show up in thrift shops like dishes do: in incomplete sets. Once again, don’t let that stop you! There are napkins to fit pretty much any taste in style: colored, patterned, plain, embroidered, cotton, linen. I am always drawn to the fine linen napkins that were clearly loved, often ironed, and sometimes stained. I have a drawer full of mismatched napkins that are our daily workhorses, generally unified by the color white. I have some finer napkins in colors like red and white or red and pink stripe for holidays. For some lovely basics, check out these, these, and these.
A little tip for any cloth napkin newbies: create a sustainable system in your house for catching your used napkins (a pretty basket under the sink or on a shelf is a good option) and dedicate a drawer or basket in a cupboard to clean, folded napkins. When the dirty basket is full, toss the contents in the washer with any used hand/dish towels and “unpaper” towels and wash. Keep enough cloth napkins in your reserve that you do not have to wash more than once or twice a week. I also do not usually take the kids’ breakfast napkins from the table before dinner, unless they get particularly dirty, or I am expecting company.
Dishes, candlesticks, and cloth napkins are very small, interchangeable items in the kitchen that can nevertheless have a big influence on the feel of your kitchen in both a literal and a metaphorical way. Dishes and napkins can be very tactile and cozy or gleaming and crisp, while candlesticks host candles that cast a soft glow, romancing the room and the people in it. Elevate the look and feel of your home when you are ready by supporting the circular economy and shopping secondhand for these treasures.
First and foremost, though, I encourage you to “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without,” as the Depression-era saying goes, before you shop for these lovelies.
Cheers!