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‘Thrifting’.

(29 Posts)
Calendargirl Sun 21-Jun-26 09:45:37

Was undecided about putting this on the Decluttering thread, but decided to start a new one.

On my Facebook site, these reels keep coming up showing people ‘thrifting’ (in the USA).

They show shelf after shelf of stuff, vases, ornaments, crystal, kitchen paraphernalia
 and what the buyers do with them.

It’s fascinating, the new life they breathe into ‘Grandma’s stuff’.

We are always saying how no one wants our stuff, but looking at some of these uses that are found for them, I find myself thinking “I could have done that with that bit of crystal” etc.

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MT62 Mon 22-Jun-26 20:00:17

I remember taking a trip up to the lakes, there was a bit of a factory that made bronze animals. Outside was a skip, so we had a nosey. I found a couple of bronze cats, ears were chipped but I restored them.
Anyway I passed them on to a friends daughter as she loves cats.
Does anyone know of such a factory? Name?

petra Mon 22-Jun-26 20:29:20

Farmor15

Here's a good example of upcycling, producing something useful. Someone in a group I'm in moved house and curtains from old house didn't suit. We're converting the very good quality fabric into tote bags, to be sold at a craft fair. Last Saturday the shed where we meet looked like a sewing factory with 8 of us busy making bags! We hope to have over 40, from various curtains.

Farmor
I don’t know if you’ve made these bags.
My friend used to make bags out of jeans. What made them different was that she kept the look of the jeans by keeping the zip/ button fly and waistband all in one piece and the same with the back with the pockets. They looked amazing.

FranP Tue 23-Jun-26 21:28:14

Farmor15

Here's a good example of upcycling, producing something useful. Someone in a group I'm in moved house and curtains from old house didn't suit. We're converting the very good quality fabric into tote bags, to be sold at a craft fair. Last Saturday the shed where we meet looked like a sewing factory with 8 of us busy making bags! We hope to have over 40, from various curtains.

I had not done any machine sewing for years, and the gears in my machine had perished so I decided to buy a new one and get back into it.

I was practising and used some random material that I had been given and found could barely sew a straight seam <LOL> so I made some random bags to donate to a charity that was looking for bags to give stuff in. If it's free they cannot complain about wonky seams