Apartment Living : a series

Welcome back to my blog! My posts have been a little spread out recently because some big things have been happening. Last weekend I moved(!) into a cute little one bedroom apartment in SE Portland. I have been looking for an apartment for months and I finally found the perfect one for me. I wanted to start a series about all of the things I am doing to keep my apartment as low-waste, minimal, and just as generally sustainable as can be. This is part one of who knows how many posts and I want to start off with my favorite topic... drum roll please... THRIFTING!

Yes, a very basic premise such as thrifting has become one of my favorite activities and I have done my best to get as much of my apartment stuff secondhand as I possibly can. There are a few things I will draw the line at and prefer to purchase new, but in general, I have had a blast rummaging through all of the goodwills and vintage stores in the Portland Metro area and I have had some goooood finds let me tell you.

I'll go through just about every room in the place (there aren't many) and chat about things I have been able to thrift as well as those products that I have purchased new and why.

Let's start with the kitchen. I think I have a total of 8 plates, 6 bowls, 4 cups, a variety of mugs, and a few wine glasses as my collection of dish-ware. Two of my plates I bought 5 years ago when I left for college, so those were not secondhand, BUT they have lasted me 5 years and I plan to keep them until they shatter. The rest of my plates came from Goodwill. I found a beautiful set of white Pottery Barn plates for like $1 each and a couple of other smaller plates for close to the same price. If I had bought these at Target or another big store they likely would have been more expensive and worse quality. Additionally, now those plates are getting a second life and again, I plan to keep them until they shatter. My bowls are not secondhand, but they are a few years old, so I am cutting myself some slack there. All 4 of my cups are from goodwill and they may be among my favorite finds, they are colorful, well made, and should last me quite a few years. My mugs are mainly gifts from friends and family over the years, I can't remember the last time I bought myself a new mug. Two thirds of my wine glasses are thrifted and the other one third are from an old set my mom had (thanks mom). Another thing I love about this apartment is my ability to hang stuff on the walls using nails rather than command strips. This has allowed me to hang my cutie little (thrifted) house-shaped shelves to display my favorite candles and cookbooks. AND, how could I forget, I have been on the hunt for a full length mirror and I had the best luck to find one for FREE in the trash room. Not in the trash, but in the corner with a sign that said it was free. I love this place.

I guess I probably don't need to go into detail about each and every thing in my kitchen so I will just pop a list below with what is thrifted vs new.

Silverware - all from goodwill

Wooden spoons, spatulas, whisks (and their holder) - all thrifted or gifted

Utensil drawer organizer - goodwill

Fruit basket - goodwill

Bulk food storage containers - probably one third new, one third thrifted, and one third free

Trash cans - one my parents were getting rid of and one I upcycled from my childhood bedroom

Small appliances - mostly new because I either couldn't find them or was afraid they wouldn't work

There are probably a lot more items in there I could talk about, but for now I don't want to get up from my table (also thrifted).

Let's move on to the living room! I am not done filling up this space yet, but I will chat briefly about each piece in here. My YELLOW chair is secondhand from my amazing co-worker that I had never met in person until last week, oh! she also gifted me a food processor (thanks!). I am a little wary of buying cloth furniture from goodwill or other thrift stores because they can be hard to clean and you don't know where they came from, but I was happy to accept this chair from someone I trust. My dining table is from goodwill ($20 and maybe better quality than anything else in this apartment) and the stools I have paired with it are also from goodwill. My WFH station is not secondhand in any way, shape, or form, but the desk has lasted me well through the last three years and is only broken in 3 places.. thankful we are going back to the office soon to take some strain off of her. My ottoman is also not thrifted, but I plan to keep it around for a while and it has already lived with me for about 3 years as well. That is all the furniture in the living room so far, more to come (hopefully secondhand) in the future.

Now my bedroom, the coziest place on earth! My bedroom is full of thrifted and secondhand items. My bed frame was purchased used 3 years ago from Craigslist, both of my bedside tables are second hand, and my dresser and most of the current decor are all thrifted. My bedroom is also a main area where thrifting scares me. My mattress is new and so is all of my bedding. Sheets wouldn't be too bad to get secondhand, but for some reason I prefer to know I am the first person to use them. My dresser is probably my favorite piece in the entire room. I got it at my favorite vintage store in Gresham and it is gorgeous and great quality and will likely last forever. On my dresser I have my thrifted round mirror (from the same vintage store in Gresham), three candle holders (also from the same store), candles, and vases (one of which is a growler I have never used as a growler). I am currently on the hunt for secondhand lamps and lampshades, but those tend to be iffy because I won't actually know if they work until I get them home, but I also am not finding any cute new ones.. so we shall sit in darkness for now.

Another important part of the bedroom is the closet, I would say a good portion of my clothes are from goodwill or random Portland thrift stores. Recently, every time I hang out with my best friend we end up at a few thrift stores and find clothes we need... well... clothes we want. I still buy clothes at Target or American Eagle if I feel like it is something that I need in a pinch, but I have been doing a lot better about choosing quality and/or used products over fast fashion brands.

I am not sure that anything in my bathroom is thrifted, but I feel like that is to be expected. That being said, most of the items are leftover from college so I am still extending their life rather than swapping them out for new. I try to keep that space pretty minimal with only a few extra towels for the rare occasion I may have guests and only the products I need.

I think I covered just about everything, like I said my little space is.. well.. little. I'm trying to keep it uncluttered and when I do need new products to check my local thrift stores before buying new. I am so so happy with how my apartment is turning out and I hope that y'all are in for a journey through my other low-waste practices. I have no clue what will come next, but tune in next week for more exciting sustainability content.

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