For the Love of Second-Hand

A love letter to op-shopping

Hi friends! I had a day off today, and instead of cleaning my floors or any number of household chores that needed doing, I took myself off to the op-shops, ones I don’t always get to and some that are my regulars. It was fun to have time to browse instead of doing a quick in and out between work ending and needing to get the kids from school.

I’ve been an op-shopper since I was about 15 but my mum always bought us clothes from the second-hand shop. She had six kids to clothe, so it made sense. It also made me realise that I could get better, more original clothes if I took the time to search.

By the time I was 16, my wardrobe was bursting with clothes that leant very heavily into a 60s/70s vibe. I wore granny dresses, tie-dyed slips as skirts and dresses, men's bell bottoms, army shorts, shoes with wooden soles, and lace dresses over flared jeans. I fully believed I had been born in the wrong era, and I badly wanted to look like the hippies from the decade before I was born. I lived in a small coastal town, so I really stuck out, but oh my god, how I loved hunting for those clothes.wearT-

Top L-wearing a tatty old grandpa sweater to school. Top R-my tie dyed nightie that I wore as a dress.Bottom L-my favourite seond hand cords that I wore all the way into my mid 20's. Bottom R- me at a crew meeting, the smelly jacket is sitting on the bench next to me

I knew that I wanted to move out of home as soon as possible, so in my final year of school, I began collecting housewares from the local op-shops. One side of my bedroom was piled high with linens and crockery. The day I moved into my lakefront shack, my friend and I carried a bright pink and purple check lounge set that I paid $20 for, down the road from the opshop. We stopped every 100 metres, sat on the couch, laughed and waved at everyone driving by and then wrangled it into my place. A few days later, my stepdad delivered an old fridge bought from the same place. It was probably 20 years old, but it worked for years! I can’t remember what happened to that lounge.

When I moved into my second flat with a friend, it was two doors up from my favourite Vinnis shop. I could lean off the balcony to see when they put their $4 bag sign out. Those were the best days. You could fill a (plastic) grocery bag with whatever you wanted for 4 BUCKS! My mum taught me that if you roll the clothes, you’ll fit more in. My bags were always full of clothes and shoes. I wasn’t even thinking of having babies at 18, but if I saw cute little outfits from the 70s, I’d stuff them in those bags and hide them away in my drawers picturing the day I had a daughter running around in those little dresses and rompers.

Friends, by the time I had a daughter, it was 17 years later. I had kept ONE of those little dresses; I don’t know why because by then, I actually didn’t think I’d ever have a daughter. When that daughter was big enough to fit it, I tried to wrangle her writhing body into it, and she put her fist through the back of the dress, tearing a rip the whole way down the back of it. It was then that I knew she was her own person and would always do things her own way. I folded the little dress and tucked it back into my drawer. I still have it.

Over the years, my love of second-hand shopping has waxed and waned. My taste in clothing changed, and to be honest, I think the whole op-shopping vibe shifted. Somewhere in the last decade, maybe even before that, it became cool to scour the op-shops to see what designer or labelled clothes you could grab for a bargain. And then the op-shops caught on and hiked their prices. Man, some of the prices I saw today were stupid! I know that these shops raise money to help people and the community, but not everyone who shops in a second-hand shop is doing it as a choice. For some, like my mum back in the day, it is the only way you can afford things.

A lot of the time when you go to look on the shelves, whether it be for knick-knacks, clothes or shoes, so much of what is around is cheap tat that is not much cheaper than what it is sold for brand new. And hey, I am not above cheap stuff. I love cheap stuff, but not cheap stuff that has definitely seen better days and that maybe should have been recycled or put in the bin.

Many times, I’ll pop into the op-shop with nothing I need to buy but more that I crave the feeling of being amongst shelves of old books, or I just feel like a bit of a hunt around. Maybe it’s a call back to my youth, and I am chasing that feeling of finding something that will become your new favourite thing.

It’s also nice to look around my house and think, “Those shelves are old wine crates that came from the trip to Kalamunda with Larissa” or “Those bottles are from a vintage market in York”. Not everything in my home is second-hand these days, but I like that not everything is brand new. My husband often complains that our home is not cohesive, but that’s exactly why I think it feels like home; it’s all over the place, like me

Most days, I will walk out of the op-shop with books; that’s what I head to first. Then I peruse the shelves of Knick knacks, looking for salt and pepper shakers to add to my collection, mixing bowls or little things to add to the house. If I have time, like I did today, I’ll scour the racks to look for clothes or shoes I feel are missing from my wardrobe. Sometimes, I might be on the hunt for a specific thing, like that time I really wanted a cake stand with a cover, so I was always keeping an out for one of those. (which I eventually found after months for $12!).

I currently have a list on my phone of specific things I want to find secondhand. Some of the things on the list are books and authors I feel are missing from my collection, a chair for me to sit and read in, a specific style of bag I’d like ( a black leather saddle bag is what I’m looking for) throw blankets for the lounge to hide the ugly black leather Tim INSISTED we have, and fabric to make napkins from. I could go to any store and buy all of these things brand new, but that’s not the point. I love the hunt. I love the bargains. I love the experience of shopping in op-shops, chatting with people and watching what other people buy. It’s fun

When I was a teenager, I had this smelly old jacket that everyone but me hated, and they’d always ask why I bought old clothes. My reply was always the same: “My clothes have lived a whole life before I found them. I love thinking that perhaps my jacket was worn in Paris or on a long train ride to visit family”. It’s nice to think about belongings having a story, even if that story is someone who bought this dress in Kmart, wore it once and decided it wasn’t for them.

All four of my kids enjoy secondhand shopping to a certain extent. Zane, my eldest, does it sporadically. Isaac, my newly minted 22-year-old, loves it and is always searching for clothes he deems cool. Blake will tolerate it and loves to find matchbox cars. And Sades, the one who pushed her arm through the cute vintage dress, will come and search for clothes when she feels like it. When she was 3-5, she loved buying all the grandma tchotchkes. She loved little animal statues, gaudy jewellery, and porcelain baskets to hold things. I loved watching her find special things.

In the same way I feel that being a reader and sourdough baker is part of my personality, I think being an op-shopper is part of who I am. These days, it’s not just the charity shops I search in; it’s Depop, eBay, gumtree and Marketplace too. But pulling up outside a Vinnies or Salvo’s and feeling that little jolt of joy, wondering what goodies you’ll find when you step inside, is still my favourite.

Tell me, friends, are you someone who loves to shop secondhand, too? Or does the smell give you the ick? What’s your favourite secondhand buy?

Talk soon xx