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When I moved frequently I bought an inflatable bed or cot. I didn't buy a king sized bed and throw it out every two years. That's insane.
by Retra 7y ago
When I moved frequently I bought an inflatable bed or cot. I didn't buy a king sized bed and throw it out every two years. That's insane.
- seem_2211 7y agoI think the answer is there are different options for different people - some people (like yourself) are happy buying an inflatable bed and sleeping on that. Others would prefer to rent a king sized bed. I don't think one is necessarily right or wrong. Choice is a good thing!
- mehrdadn 7y agoI think the distinction of interest in the parent comment wasn't inflatable vs. king sized, the distinction was throwing away king sized every 2 years vs., well, not doing that.
- Retra 7y agoWaste is not a good thing. And when choice leads to waste, it is not so simply a good thing either.
- diminoten 7y agoI refuse to use a cot or inflatable bed as my primary location for sleeping. Sleep is too important to cheap out on it.
- Izkata 7y ago> and throw it out every two years. Um, they're not throwing it out. Someone else uses it afterwards.
- maccard 7y agoI'm a little skeptical of this - I know for car leases this is true, but is there really a market for 2 year old ex-rental sofas?
- Veen 7y agoThese days I tend to buy big furniture items — sofas and the like — second hand. I can't afford really high-end quality furniture new, but, if you're careful, you can find well-made furniture at low prices in charity stores. My house is furnished with a mix of crappy Ikea stuff and very nice second-hand furniture; I much prefer the latter.
- mehrdadn 7y ago> if you're careful, you can find well-made furniture at low prices in charity stores. My house is furnished with a mix of crappy Ikea stuff and very nice second-hand furniture; I much prefer the latter. But this illustrates exactly the problem. "If you're careful" -- meaning you wouldn't want the average one you see. Meaning there's going to be considerably more waste when people have to buy second-hand than if they just kept their own that much longer.
- Veen 7y agoI wouldn't want the "average" new sofa either, especially not in a price bracket I consider reasonable. I agree that it would be more efficient if people kept their sofas for a decade, but they don't, and me buying the sofas they don't want is a better option than them ending up on a trash heap. Plus, I'll probably keep them for ten years. I buy high-end furniture second-hand so I can do exactly that, rather than getting a new Ikea piece of junk that falls apart in a couple of years. I suppose the ideal scenario would be for manufacturers not to make rubbish and for people to be able to afford good furniture that lasts for decades, but we don't live in that world.
- mehrdadn 7y agoI think you misunderstood the point of my comment. I wasn't criticizing your approach or debating buying first- vs. second-hand. That's not what the discussion was about at all. The question was about renting and "updating" every couple years "because you want to" vs. actually owning your stuff, and how much additional waste that generates. I was pointing out that even if people like you exist who buy second-hand, they (naturally) won't necessarily be interested in doing that for most items, so that still results in a ton of waste instead of increasing re-use as someone else claimed. That's what this discussion was about.
- esoterica 7y agoSleeping in an inflatable bed for two years is what’s insane. When I crash on a friend’s air mattress for a weekend I feel like death afterwards, but two years? I’d rather buy and throw away 10 beds and then withdraw the equivalent amount of cash from by checking account and set it on fire than sleep on an air mattress for 2 years.