apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

i'm a huge fan of flea markets and yard sales. you can find such great, unusual stuff. some of it is in perfect condition and some may need a little TLC. and your living space will be original and won't look like everyone elses.

Our favorite source for furniture in metro NY is the local Salvation Army. Cheap, green, and our money goes to a good social organization. Not always successful in the sense that we find something worth purchasing and rehabing every visit, but certainly much friendlier in so many ways than your typical furniture purchase. All it takes is some creativity and patience...the payoff is ultimately well worth it.

It's very easy for you to go local, Max. You're a relatively affluent New Yorker and so, it's easy for you to get whatever it is you need, pretty much, from around here. It's not just furniture, but also food. You (and I) can afford to go shop in the Greenmarket and buy icicle radishes grown in some picturesque Hudson Valley hamlet. And if not, then at worst, in Pennsylvania, which is a short drive to NYC.

But what if you live in New Mexico? Where would you get your vegetables? Little grows there and the reason that that region is populated at all is because people who live in Albequerque can buy produce grown in Northern California, which is hundreds of miles away.

Even take furniture. How can an artisan furniture maker possibly make money if he lives in rural Nebraska? He doesn't have a large enough customer base. And the furniture he does make will have to be expensive for him to stay in business. This means that people in rural Nebraska will go without furniture. The reason they don't now is because there are stores like Wal Mart and Target. But Wal Mart and Target are as opposite from "buying local" as can be.

Buying local works for affluent New Yorkers and Alice Waters' Bay Area clientelle. But remember, we're a tiny fraction of this country. This "lifestyle choice" doesn't work for very many people.

"And finally, who do you think will be the Alice Waters of the home design world?"

Maybe it's you, Maxwell-- at least on the 'opening-the dialogue to its possibility' front--

I have acquired several Danish Modern pieces from Craigslist, second hand shops and hand-me-downs. The pieces were much cheaper than new furniture and I was able to "refinish" them with steel wool and teak oil as opposed to nasty chemicals.

I also want to mention that I am a water ecologist at the DEP and all of us here drink the tap water. NYC has terrific drinking water. If you are concerned about lead or copper in your water (due to old pipes and faucets), call 311 for a free testing kit.

I appreciate your comments Gene. Sometimes I think this site overlooks how readily we in NYC have the world at our fingertips, while others elsewhere may not and it promotes a certain assumption about access to materials that only the more affluent have. If we in NYC chose to shop globally we can; if we chose to shop regionally or locally, we can do that, too.

I agree that having a "lifestyle choice" doesn't work for everyone. It's true about the artisan furniture maker or craftsperson who wants to develop their business beyond their local population. How fortunate we are to live in this global world and how great it is for those who live in smaller towns and cities to be able to access the greater world of goods and materials.

I am all for supporting many local growers, but I appreciate not having to. Too much of shopping locally can go too far. The flip side is that it can breed a narrowness and a provincialism that I am thrilled to not have to be limited to.

I think your first point (about Ebay and Craigslist) goes much deeper because wider spread adoption of secondary markets will force manufacturers to reconsider their quantities and improve the quality of their goods for a more informed consumer who's interested in longevity. Hopefully disposable furniture will go out of style...

I'd also like to add that the Alice Walters equivalent should include the local furniture services that re-upholster and re-purpose. Maybe it can be found as a service and not only local materials...

Thanks, Max, for expanding the notion of local to include furniture and furnishings. I think people at all income levels are able to access really great affordable furniture through craigslist, flea markets and thrift stores. However, I believe that in some cultures, used is considered bad. I'd love to know how to overcome that stigma.

In the meantime, I made a decision when I moved that every thing that came into the house would be used. I haven't been able to completely stick to that rule, some closet fittings came from Ikea, but mostly it's worked, and kept me from slipping into a standard style. I've also met a range of characters that would fit into a great detective novel.

Another thought yesterdays CB link provoked was - "Clearly CB can do this, why arent all their products made like this" Its all well and good having fanfare "Eco" lines, but unless the rest of your products are following suit (where possible, obviously) then is it really sincere? Kudos to the carpet guys who put their whole business behind these ideals, and not just one range to market to the "market segment" who are willing to pay up.

My personal bug is the volume of plastic bags in this world (I live in ny) In europe, they are forbidden, and shops sell reusable bags that everyone brings with them when they shop, its great, and its easy. I would love to see it take off here (though I doubt it will happen any time soon)

i like the idea, but practically local furniture translated into used furniture - of which i have lots (also have lots of decidedly non-local). if i really did local here in austin, tx, i would have way too much awful rustic wood furniture.

i think it is easier than people realize to eat local - perhaps furnishings too... sort of hard to compare.

Due to circumstances that led to greatly diminished finances, I learned to purchase items at thrift stores and yard sales. Though my finances have now improved, I still buy all of my furniture and clothing (except undies) secondhand, but now I do it by choice. I have found fabulous deals on clothing in brand names that I could not afford new. I have always worn mostly classic clothing rather than trendy, so I don't worry about being "out of style". I am also a decent seamstress, so am able to alter, repair, or redesign a piece to suit me.

I also enjoy doing over pieces of furniture and giving them a new life. For me it's like finding treasure. I get the same enjoyment at the Salvation Army that I used to get at Bloomingdale's, but now my "retail therapy" doesn't bite into my budget.

As for drinking water, I installed a faucet mount water filter on my tap. I get clean, great tasting water, without the expense of bottled water and now I don't have to lug bottles up three flights of stairs. I no longer buy juice or soda, either, but have switched to home brewed iced tea. It's cheaper and better for me, and like the water, no lugging heavy bottles up the stairs.

It's true that not everyone has access to items in their locale, but if everyone just does what they can then it's an improvement.

The reason furniture manufacturing moved abroad is most likely not the raw materials -- the U.S. is rich in natural resources* -- but the cost of labor. It's cheaper to run a factory in the developing world.

The cheapness of labor abroad also has been important in fueling U.S. economic growth (Business Week? Wall Street Journal? certainly the Economist will back me up on that). So if y'all insist on buying new items only locally, not only will you be doing without if your local economy can't support the furniture-makers you want, you'll also be slowing global economic growth. The gal in Malaysia who assembled your chair may be glad to have her job. Money from the U.S. flows into these countries and gives their economies a boost. No, the process isn't without abuses. Still, you can afford stuff because it's made inexpensively abroad, and the person building your sofa can afford stuff because she has a job at a factory that wouldn't be there without international trade.

*If you insist on regionalizing within the U.S., most places don't have enough trees to keep everyone in furniture and kitchen cabinets. There's a reason that some parts of Arizona are heavily colonized by mobile homes: it was once too expensive to haul the lumber in to build balloon-frame houses.

I have some concerns about the privatization of potable water. When Coke and Pepsi (desani and aquafina) see that people will pay more for their water than for gasoline, the $ potential makes a lot of companies and governments very greedy. Desani and Aquafina, while in plastic bottles, are NOT spring water. They use water from muicipal water sources (read: your tap water, but in a plastic bottle). This is aslo a big problem in Lagos and El Salvador where the governments want to privatize drinking water to generate revenue.

Thanks, gmculp! I have been wondering about lead in drinking water, since we live in an old building. I'll do that tomorrow.

We had our tap water tested for lead after our son was born. I think it was less than $20 at a private testing lab. Be sure to ask them how to sample the water correctly and how fast you need to get it to them.

Consider Cradle to Cradle Certified products. The C2C certification process ensures a certain degree of environmental, and social responsibility taking into account not just how it's manufactured but also what happens to it when you're ready to get rid of it. You can learn more at www.mbdc.com. At last check my understanding was that Steelcase held the most C2C certifications of any company in any industry. All that being said, it depends on what type of furnishings you're looking for. Local design/local manufacturing also seems like a reasonable solution.