apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Maybe our times are stressful because EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK, there are reminders of how stressful it is...

A WW2 poster at a friend's house exhorted people to "make do and mend!"

The scandal today is about the number of electric and household products that CAN'T be repaired, and are made purposely to force you to buy more in the future. I don't know why nothing is done against this.

I try to do my part by buying used furniture and decorative for my home - good quality lamps, cabinets, dressers, end tables, etc. are easily cleaned up/refinished/rewired to work like new and have alot more character than some of the stuff in the retail stores going for 2-3x the price.

...I also try to make my clothing last, tho I recently had to break down and buy a new pair of dress shoes - I guess there's only so many times you can replace the outersoles and heels until the innersoles crack in two.

Most anything in my home that I get bored with (and would love to simply replace) automatically gets a coat of cheap (as in 67 cents cheap) craft paint, even my walls. Everything gets rearranged, some things get retired, and some things get a new life.

I try to use things up and wear them out, but it's hard to decide when to make something do. Should a piece of furniture that can be 'made to do' be kept in a room if it disrupts flow and makes the room feel crowded? Or should it be replaced with something that fits better and sold on craigslist or donated to a thrift store? How do you decide when to act in the best interest of the environment (or your wallet) and when to think first of your home? Coming up with a way to answer that question seems like a big part of what we all do in terms of the Cure.

I do this already!! Being a full-time student working full-time to make tuition, I normally don't have a lot of money to spend on things that I don't absolutely NEED. The down duvet on my bed is 7 years old and it's covers are more than a year old. The quilt I often use for warmth is 5 years old and doesn't match anything but I just layer it under my duvet when it's needed. I often go to garage sales or vintage shops in smaller towns to look for furniture that can be rehabbed to fit my decor (gotta love spray paint!).

I love the art on the poster. That phrase is one of my husband's favorites, except he always says: "use it up, wear it out, make it do...or do without!"

That poster is so cool! Nice to see somethng other than 'For Like Ever' on AT!

Vintagraph (www.vintagraph.com) has a bunch of WW2 prints, but none of them about mending or making do or using it up or wearing it out. Anyone know if prints are available?

The poster is great. I don't resist temptation to buy things I want. Why would I do that? Well, I won't buy cheap stuff. I do resist buying cheap stuff, like, IKEA stuff.

I just try to buy top of the line, quality furnishings. They last forever, man.

Love the poster. I do my part by using old hand-me-down furniture from my grandmother, as well as buying/selling things on ebay or craigslist. Whatever I don't sell I tend to freecycle.

If I need furniture, which I do right now, I try to get things that are vintage or antique, that way I'm reusing something rather than supporting the production and transportation of new and inferior products. Reduce REUSE recycle.

Please, Mr.Dangerous, enough with the IKEA-bashing already...
1. I have bought furniture from Ikea that has lasted for over ten years and still looks as good as new. If you are careful to choose pieces that are made from solid wood rather than particleboard, there is no reason to think your furniture will not be durable.
2. Not everyone has the budget to buy "top of the line furniture"; as a self-employed artist, my home is a mix of handmade furniture (made by my friends and myself), thrifted finds, and yes, Ikea furniture...

I have always used things up, old textile items get cut down and re-used in various ways as curtain trim, throw pillow covers and such. I even turned a set of denim curtains that a friend gave me into a fun sundress...

I have a vision of how I want my home to look, while I sometimes need to "make-do" with something not quite what I want until I find or can afford what is ideal. For example, I did use a less than wonderful bookcase from a friend, because it was better than having my books live in boxes. I used my exercise ball as a computer chair, until one day the perfect vintage chair showed up at Goodwill for $4.99...

I do without mostly!

As for IKEA-bashing, ten years isn't a long time! This is not just IKEA's and IKEA-likers' fault. Not everyone likes anything that long, but around that time when you're through, it is probably in some kind of condition where whoever might be interested in taking it off your hands is not going to treat it well. I mean, good stuff you take care of, and when you get tired of it, the next taker will recognize it's worthy of treating like the treasure it is, and it will outlast. Cheap crap, well who cares.

It's just for argument's sake, whenever anyone posts about IKEA-shopping tricks and strategies, people post like there's some urgency to fill a space with just anything, and IKEA fits that pattern very well (if apparently aggravatingly, because everyone in the state is there all the time except early on Mondays). Last September, my neighborhood looked like an IKEA threw up all over the sidewalk with all the people moving out.

I tend to wait to find the right thing and afford it or just not have it. Sometimes I end up not needing it, or I rearrange again and come up with other sized spaces to fill (and wait for the right thing).

Unfortunately society is based on us buying more and more stuff. Aren't car factories etc on short time or closing? What goes around comes around.

Uh, you know a couple of months ago I bought an Arts and Crafts table circa 1900. It's made out of solid oak and has mortise and tenon construction. On the front of the table, beautifully hand carved, are the words IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME. (The table is in the form of a sofa table.) I paid $900 for it. It's been around for approximately 100 years. The table was either in a church or an Arts and Crafts Home. The metal tag on the stretcher reads, "Ye Old Arts and Crafts Shoppe. Pasadena, California."

90 years from now if that IKEA stuff you bought is still around AND BEING USED FOR ITS INTENDED PURPOSE I'll buy your arguement that it's "quality furniture." Until then, it's crap one step away from the landfill.

I recently re-upholstered my late-Victorian settee (and believe me, it NEEDED re-upholstering), not being able to afford another couch. It was difficult (due to the complexity of the piece) and didn't come out quite perfect, but it'll do.

I have an ugly, ancient hand-me-down paper shredder that jams constantly, is louder than a riding mower, only shreds one or two sheets at a time (originally it could handle up to 5), and is easily knocked over by my cats. I really, really hate it. But I can't bring myself to throw out something that technically still works, so I just unplug the sucker, dislodge the jammed paper scraps, and stash it in the closet when I'm done shredding for the day.

Things that work, but which aren't thrift shop quality, can be left on a busy city street corner with a note and will disappear quickly - no-hassle free-cycling! I got rid of my perfectly good (because I never watch) 30 year old 12" black & white TV my parents bought me, my CD changers and a host of other things, including used clothes, that way.

That being said, I'm all for repairable stuff designed to last. It makes me crazy when my cellphone provider tells me that "of course" my 2 year old phone is acting strange!

One of the things we don't know how to say in America is that we have "enough" - our house is large enough for our needs, the sofa stylish enough, etc. If you can learn to think that way, and to shop prudently, life becomes much simpler. Even if you can afford more, why spend it? Much more interesting to solve a design problem using creativity rather than by throwing money at it.

I find smugness to be cheap crap. It makes no difference what brand an item holds if the owner gets full use and satisfaction from it. And if you purchase something at a great price AND have resale in mind, it's akin to getting married with a divorce lawyer's number in your pocket.

It's not really akin to that at all. Investments are investments, hyperbole is hyperbole. Ploces are also ploces.

My whole life is about this credo. One of my comforters is 13 years old, from Martha Stewart's first K-Mart collection. We live near a business that literally calls itself a fix-it shop, and they've fixed so much for me at next to no cost (including an IKEA lamp that just needed new wiring after 9 years). I've written elsewhere on here about my old, well-maintained appliances.

Mr. Dangerous, your table sounds like a Mormon communion table.