One of the simplest ways to be live more sustainably is to buy second-life goods instead of new. Not only does it save you money, it also reduce the amount of waste we generate it also saves resources that would go into making new items. A veritable win, win, win.
We all know that charity shops can be a great source of second-life goods but where else can you source them? Well look now further. This article lists sources for pre-loved of every imaginable description
Nothing mentioned in this article has been sponsored. It’s all just my own personal opinion. If you like your sources to remain independent then please;
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Photo by Liam McGarry on Unsplash
Clothing, Shoes, Accessories
Check out my article Where to buy Second-Life Clothes in Ireland for this info
Furniture
Check out my article Second Hand Furniture & Home in Ireland for this info
Electronics
- Refurb.ie
- Techstar.ie
- mintplus.ie
- envirofone
- CEX Stores
- Wisetekstore.com (based in Cork)
- musicmagpie.co.uk
- Swappie is a Finnish website that sells refurbished iPhones
- Cloney Audio (audio equipment – Blackrock, Co Dublin)
- Amazon now has a refurbished electronics section
- Apple also sells refurbished Apple devices on it’s website
- adverts.ie
- ebay
Electrical Goods
- Second hand furniture & Electrics Dublin Facebook Group
- Second hand furniture & Electrics Cork Facebook Group
- Budget Appliances – Drogheda & Dublin 9
- TVAE Electrical Goods – (Refurbished – Cork)
CDs, Books, Games
- Opening Minds (school books – online & multiple outlets)
- Book Haven (school books – online & multiple outlets)
- High Street Books (school books – online & Cork)
- The Shelf (school books – online & Cork)
- Banner Books, (Ennistymon, Clare)
- The Secret Book Store, Dublin 2
- Marrowbone Books, Dublin 8
- Tony Clarke (school books – online & Limerick)
- MW Books (Galway)
- Charlie Byrne bookshop (Galway)
- Kennys, (Have second-hand option for some titles, online & Galway)
- Bookshop.ie, (Thurles, Co Tipperary)
- Readers Paradise Bookshop, (Wexford)
- Bookworldireland.com (online)
- Thriftify.ie sells books, CD’s, and movies on behalf of charities and social-enterprises
- Keith’s Cactus Books (gardening books – UK)
- Betterworldbooks in an American website that sells old Library books destined for landfill and redirects the profits back to supporting libraries.
- Bookshop.org is a US based climate-neutral Bcorp that supports authors and local bookstores. They have sites for the UK and Spain too.
- Book Finder is a great tool for finding hard-to-find books.
- CEX Stores (games, movies)
- Game Cycle in a UK based sharing platform where you can earn points for trading games, which you can redeem against games you want
- The Rage (vinyl – online, based in Dublin 8)
- Freebird Records (CDs & vinyl – online and in store, Dublin 2)
- Spindizzy Records (CDs, vinyl & DVDs, online and in store, Dublin 2)
- Records and Relics (West Cork)
- musicmagpie.co.uk for (books, movies, games and music)
- Your local charity shop
- adverts.ie
- ebay
Wedding
- See my article on Sustainable Ethical Weddings
Sports / Bikes
- A lot of bike shops like the Cyclesuperstore in Dublin 24 sell second-hand bikes alongside new ones.
- ReCycle (bikes – Dublin 18)
- Rediscovery Centre, (bikes – Dublin 9)
- Rothar, (bikes – Dublin 7)
- Belfield Bike Shop, (bikes – Dublin 4)
- Frontline Bikes, (bikes – Dublin 8)
- Bicycle Recycle, (bikes – Balbriggan, Co Dublin)
- Cork Community Bikes, (bikes – Cork)
- An Mheitheal Rothar, (bikes – Galway)
- Renew Enterprises, (bikes – Waterford)
- Usedbikes.ie, (bikes – online marketplace)
- Outdoor Gear Facebook Group
- You can buy second-hand wetsuits for kids from the Great Outdoors. And you can return it to them and get a discount voucher for another one when you’re done with it.
- Pool Ireland (pool tables- Limerick)
- adverts.ie
- ebay
Horticultural Equipment
Toys
- Your local charity shop
- musicmagpie.co.uk (lego – UK)
- Preloved Wooden, Vintage & Educational Toys
- Preloved Plastic Toys Ireland
- Preloved Toys Ireland – Imagine, Create, Build
- adverts.ie
- ebay
- Brick Link (global secondhand lego marketplace)
- Young Planet is an app dedicated to helping to rehome kids stuff. Based in UK but there may be users in Ireland
General
There are quite a few second-hand marketplaces online now including
- Adverts.ie
- Facebook Marketplace
- DoneDeal.ie
- Gumtree.ie
- ForSale.ie
- The Dealer.ie
- For a list of Buy & Sell Facebook Groups check out this listing on circularliving.ie
E
living lightly in ireland 
Hey Elaine, Love this latest one..As I’ve a memory of seeing it when it happened too..The psychology of it is interesting. Would you be interested to do like a lunchtime talk in the Abbey Group sometime on Refuse..Reduce..Reuse and supporting local..to promote your blog, sustainable living and for people in tourism to link in and promote sustainable travel/tourism. Later in the week would normally work best like a Thursday/Friday even Wednesdays would probably be better than a Monday.. Anyway,let me know your thoughts..We can link up for that coffee /tea / hot chocolate hopefully if you may have a Monday in December suitable..In passing I spoke with Coffee Roasters café manager Laura in the last week, she’s trying hard to introduce sustainability but struggling to find the ways..with which mugs ..composting.. waste management.. packaging etc.
We’ll all try and middle through together for this planet we are borrowing from those of future .
Best wishes, L.
On Fri 22 Nov 2019, 06:02 living lightly in ireland, wrote:
> livinglightlyinireland posted: ” This blog post was born after I was > called ‘tight’ (Irish slang for mean with money) in a Freecycle group for > asking for something inexpensive. The rude commentator expressed amazement > at my request for an item that could be bought for €5 in a shop. ” >
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Hi Linda. Thanks for your lovely message. Would be delighted to do a talk. Will send you an email on it. Would it be worth putting Laura in touch with Sorcha from the conscious cup campaign. She’s a wealth of information on sustainable when it comes to cafes.
Elaine
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Looking forward to receiving your email 😊 I dropped the Conscious Cup poster in to Laura . I’ve subsequently heard of IADT & Bounceback cafes doing €1 deposit returnable reusable coffee travel mugs.
All the best,
L.
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Tell Laura to give Sorcha a call. They’re running events at the moment for cafes so have lots of extra info. NCAD has those deposit return cups too! E
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Sorry you had to go through that, Elaine.
I’m determined to wear most of my clothes for as long as possible, so I occasionally have to deal with social slights, like a pointed glance at a hole in my sweater. I think a lot of us waver between feelings of shame and defiance when faced with judgement, but we should never feel shame for trying to help the planet!
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Ah, thanks. Being judged for frugality can be so uncomfortable but I’m heartened by all the support I got when it happened and now, having published this blog post. From now this is a shame-free spot!
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Such good points and thank you for the links to the furniture shops – as I could be looking for a new sofa in the next few years (my initial idea of making one from scrap wood is slowly dwindling here).
its hard to get by the ‘just buy it’ mentality – I know I will often mention to colleagues they could rewild their garden (and mow a path thru) when when complain about having to mow lawn and considering purchasing a ride-on – it is viewed in horror, or when I suggest fixing things yourself – it is met with cant do it / dont have time etc (even when I suggest the repair cafe I volunteer at). The time thing is ironic to me as if we consumed less (ie shopping) there would be a lot more available time….
Funny thing about ‘the new’, apparently in public schools in the UK it used be viewed as a ‘no-no’ for kids to show up in new brogues etc at beginning of term, as it was seen as ‘new money’, where as to turn up in resoled brogues and worn hand me down barbours was the ‘thing’
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Glad the links will come in useful.
I think the resistance to change is all about the comfortableness of routine and fear of anything that seems abnormal. We’ll just have to repeatedly expose them persist to our abnormal ways to desensitise them.
So true about the additional time. I always think it’s funny how people pay for a gym and then power tools or devices that reduce the physical demands on chores. If we all mowed our lawn with push mowers none of us would need a gym.
Interesting about the new shoes thing. Is that currently the case or from years ago?
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