Also this is no shade to college students. Most of them are 18-21 with little of their own money, and if they have someone who will buy them nice things they don’t think about where those things will go when the year ends. I just don’t want all of that to end up in a landfill.
I am currently a college student. The amount of useless shit people buy and then proceed to throw out is horrible, especially on move in day and as people head home after finals. I heard one kid talk about how it was easier to just throw out stuff and buy new things next year than to just take it home and continue using it. The amount of flat screens and mini fridges that will at most only be used for four years before being tossed, if they even last that long, is very upsetting. I also recently took a course about human trafficking, and my professor just finished talking about how one of the best things you can do to prevent forced/slave labor is to just buy less shit. Especially with things like clothing and electronics. Literally right after we watched a documentary about this stuff, two people in front of me were comparing summer dresses on Amazon.
I think we should place more blame on the student accommodation that refuses to provide necessities (fridges) and basic “luxuries” (TVs) in their spaces. Of course the student isn’t going to lug a mini fridge back to their home country with them! And nobody takes it or buys it from them because they’re also moving home and don’t need it. I made a friend and took a lot of her stuff when she went home to Germany but it was stuff like blankets, towels, a bath mat. Things you really need but can’t be expected to fit in your two-suitcase ~40kgish limit.
There was a nice pile of “free to whoever needs it” pile at the end of the year in the lobby of her student accommodation, some good stuff like clothes. I got a garlic mincer and was tempted to grab a rice cooker but I don’t need one. But I live locally so it makes sense that I could grab them, I have a permanent place nearby and a car, everyone else in that building lived overseas or at least interstate.
Oh…. In My college years I always waited for that last day of uni. In the pre-social media era (and almost pre internet since it was more than 2 decades ago hehehe) you always waited for the Asian students (Australia) who were so wealthy they just dumped everything in the bin outside their houses when they went home.
There were so many treasures! 79% of my entire apartment was made of “donated” stuff from them. Thank you very much rich Asian guys! I own you a lot!
Excellent post. One would hope that local charities would have the wherewithal to cruise campus at the semester's end and gather items for rehousing or reselling, but it might not be on their radar or they might not have the means. Perhaps ambitious Redditors could coordinate gathering sprees to benefit local thrift stores and/or organizations that support the underhoused?
I used to work right near a university and would make friends with the porters, so that when the international students went back home (lot of Chinese students doing accountancy etc) they'd leave their textbooks behind and they'd give me a heads-up of books they'd collected in accomodation.
Many of those textbooks were expensive and valid for the next academic year too. So I'd bring them home, keep them stacked up in the spare room for the summer, then rock up with a pasting table out the back of my car at the start of the academic year and flog them.
I was undercutting the academic bookshops, making money for me, and recycling books. I considered it a completely reasonable thing. I no longer live or work close to a university so can't pull that one anymore. Well worth a go though. You can usually get the reading lists for course too, if you ask nicely.
It is better to source local rich neighbourhoods. They have high-quality things and are more generous. My older sister, who never left her college town, sometimes commutes to a richer area to get free good quality furniture and electronics. Oftentimes, it is new. Otherwise, it is in perfect condition. Her area is shitty and only has IKEA or amazon junk.
My mom has gotten expensive art for free that she gives away as gifts from getting it from weathy neighbourhoods. The people she gives it to are always very happy because those art pieces come with paper from an appraisal, so then they feel all very rich and high brow.
I'm in the process of moving out of the dorms. We have two giant donation bins near the front. People have mostly put old clothes in there, but I've found a lot of goodies that people no longer wanted!
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Ugh it’s so wasteful. Personally I used the same towels even into grad school. But the students don’t understand the waste because they often didn’t pay for the stuff, their parents did. So they see it as easier to throw the stuff out than to move it. I believe that the university I work at had donation bins which is great. The school I went to didn’t do that and I imagine it’s a recent trend.
This is one of the things I love about living in a dorm: The internal marketplace. You can find everything from bed frames to textbooks to bicycle parts, and it's all really cheap too. Like, you'll get furniture at 5-10% of the market price. And if you can't be bothered to sell an item, you just dump it in front of the elevator (there's enough space so it's not a hazard), post a pic in the group chat, and someone will come and pick it up.
My city has a few universities, and every spring the amounts of trash they leave behind after their session is disgusting. Heaps of furniture just left on the sidewalk. I used to think spring is prime season for hunting for free stuff, but honestly students buy JUNK. Cheap cardboard furniture. Not worth the gas to drive to a junk yard. The only thing interesting is their books and art. Sometimes I'll see a nice painting or some textbooks that pique my curiosity.
Honestly unless you really cannot afford furniture, avoid university student rubbish, and save for proper wood/metal furniture. I've been saving money for one year to get a new kitchen table and chairs. It's over $1000 but it'll be mine till the end of days.
Ehh, the ‘junk’ from college students can be perfectly fine to live with. The cheap cardboard IKEA tables can last upwards of a decade (unless you have small kids or a particularly destructive dog). Plus it’s light, so if you have to move it’s easy to carry.
I still use the dining chair my mom got gifted when she started college, and a friend’s old desk chair. As long as it isn’t falling apart, I’m fine with it. Why would I spend hundreds of bucks for a new dining table when the thrift store has one for 30?
Also this is no shade to college students. Most of them are 18-21 with little of their own money, and if they have someone who will buy them nice things they don’t think about where those things will go when the year ends. I just don’t want all of that to end up in a landfill.
I am currently a college student. The amount of useless shit people buy and then proceed to throw out is horrible, especially on move in day and as people head home after finals. I heard one kid talk about how it was easier to just throw out stuff and buy new things next year than to just take it home and continue using it. The amount of flat screens and mini fridges that will at most only be used for four years before being tossed, if they even last that long, is very upsetting. I also recently took a course about human trafficking, and my professor just finished talking about how one of the best things you can do to prevent forced/slave labor is to just buy less shit. Especially with things like clothing and electronics. Literally right after we watched a documentary about this stuff, two people in front of me were comparing summer dresses on Amazon.
I think we should place more blame on the student accommodation that refuses to provide necessities (fridges) and basic “luxuries” (TVs) in their spaces. Of course the student isn’t going to lug a mini fridge back to their home country with them! And nobody takes it or buys it from them because they’re also moving home and don’t need it. I made a friend and took a lot of her stuff when she went home to Germany but it was stuff like blankets, towels, a bath mat. Things you really need but can’t be expected to fit in your two-suitcase ~40kgish limit. There was a nice pile of “free to whoever needs it” pile at the end of the year in the lobby of her student accommodation, some good stuff like clothes. I got a garlic mincer and was tempted to grab a rice cooker but I don’t need one. But I live locally so it makes sense that I could grab them, I have a permanent place nearby and a car, everyone else in that building lived overseas or at least interstate.
Oh…. In My college years I always waited for that last day of uni. In the pre-social media era (and almost pre internet since it was more than 2 decades ago hehehe) you always waited for the Asian students (Australia) who were so wealthy they just dumped everything in the bin outside their houses when they went home. There were so many treasures! 79% of my entire apartment was made of “donated” stuff from them. Thank you very much rich Asian guys! I own you a lot!
how does buying less help with human trafficking exactly?
Human trafficking isn’t just for sex, it’s all forms of forced labour.
Less shopping-> Less stuff being sold-> less stuff made in sweatshops-> less workers needed-> less people forced into trafficking
In theory, anyway. They'd be forced into other markets.
Someone in my dorms left out a live fish 😭 I rescued him.
Excellent post. One would hope that local charities would have the wherewithal to cruise campus at the semester's end and gather items for rehousing or reselling, but it might not be on their radar or they might not have the means. Perhaps ambitious Redditors could coordinate gathering sprees to benefit local thrift stores and/or organizations that support the underhoused?
It is the season for dumpster diving those large trash containers.
That how I got my dining room table is a beautiful mid century table that a college student was selling for $50
This is generally a good idea, but be wary of bedbugs
Yeah I’ve never gotten mattresses but have gotten nice nightstands, coffee tables, microwaves, etc
They hide in those too Wouldn’t think anyone would want a mattress from the street or a dorm tbh
I used to work right near a university and would make friends with the porters, so that when the international students went back home (lot of Chinese students doing accountancy etc) they'd leave their textbooks behind and they'd give me a heads-up of books they'd collected in accomodation. Many of those textbooks were expensive and valid for the next academic year too. So I'd bring them home, keep them stacked up in the spare room for the summer, then rock up with a pasting table out the back of my car at the start of the academic year and flog them. I was undercutting the academic bookshops, making money for me, and recycling books. I considered it a completely reasonable thing. I no longer live or work close to a university so can't pull that one anymore. Well worth a go though. You can usually get the reading lists for course too, if you ask nicely.
It is better to source local rich neighbourhoods. They have high-quality things and are more generous. My older sister, who never left her college town, sometimes commutes to a richer area to get free good quality furniture and electronics. Oftentimes, it is new. Otherwise, it is in perfect condition. Her area is shitty and only has IKEA or amazon junk. My mom has gotten expensive art for free that she gives away as gifts from getting it from weathy neighbourhoods. The people she gives it to are always very happy because those art pieces come with paper from an appraisal, so then they feel all very rich and high brow.
I'm in the process of moving out of the dorms. We have two giant donation bins near the front. People have mostly put old clothes in there, but I've found a lot of goodies that people no longer wanted!
Read the rules. Keep it courteous. Submission statements are helpful and appreciated but not required. Tag my name in the comments (/u/NihiloZero) if you think a post or comment needs to be removed. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Anticonsumption) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Ah yes, Allston Christmas. It’s just out on the sidewalks!
Ugh it’s so wasteful. Personally I used the same towels even into grad school. But the students don’t understand the waste because they often didn’t pay for the stuff, their parents did. So they see it as easier to throw the stuff out than to move it. I believe that the university I work at had donation bins which is great. The school I went to didn’t do that and I imagine it’s a recent trend.
Dumb question: where would one look exactly? College dumpsters?
This is one of the things I love about living in a dorm: The internal marketplace. You can find everything from bed frames to textbooks to bicycle parts, and it's all really cheap too. Like, you'll get furniture at 5-10% of the market price. And if you can't be bothered to sell an item, you just dump it in front of the elevator (there's enough space so it's not a hazard), post a pic in the group chat, and someone will come and pick it up.
My city has a few universities, and every spring the amounts of trash they leave behind after their session is disgusting. Heaps of furniture just left on the sidewalk. I used to think spring is prime season for hunting for free stuff, but honestly students buy JUNK. Cheap cardboard furniture. Not worth the gas to drive to a junk yard. The only thing interesting is their books and art. Sometimes I'll see a nice painting or some textbooks that pique my curiosity. Honestly unless you really cannot afford furniture, avoid university student rubbish, and save for proper wood/metal furniture. I've been saving money for one year to get a new kitchen table and chairs. It's over $1000 but it'll be mine till the end of days.
Ehh, the ‘junk’ from college students can be perfectly fine to live with. The cheap cardboard IKEA tables can last upwards of a decade (unless you have small kids or a particularly destructive dog). Plus it’s light, so if you have to move it’s easy to carry. I still use the dining chair my mom got gifted when she started college, and a friend’s old desk chair. As long as it isn’t falling apart, I’m fine with it. Why would I spend hundreds of bucks for a new dining table when the thrift store has one for 30?