🛒
After weaning myself from an increasingly enshittified Amazon (or trying to!) I remembered I had an eBay account and have been finding a lot of good deals on hiking and outdoor gear. Most of this stuff is really well made but expensive to begin with, and a lot of people sell hiking clothes they never used or that don't fit them anymore so you can buy them for a fraction of their original cost (and can in turn sell them on eBay yourself once they no longer fit you ... the cycle of life continues!) A pro tip is to limit your searches to fixed price/"Buy It Now" sales and add anything that captures your eye to your watch list. Most of the time — like 90% in my experience — the seller will message you an offer for an additional 10% or 15% off your purchase, making it an even better deal, and you don't have to worry about some jerk sniping something you've had your heart set on with a last minute bid that's bigger than yours. You save money, old clothing doesn't wind up in landfills, and you're not supporting Amazon anymore. Everybody wins!
Apr 8, 2024
Related Recs
From the thrill of discovery, making bids, the buzz of a score or anguish of a could-have-been, a random box showing up that has been packed by some dude in Minnesota… I love it. The best way to shop is either setting a hyper-specific alert for something and finding it five years from now or by typing in all the potential typos it could have, or either searching for a vague combinations of names and details and seeing what comes up. Embellished pearl sweaters? Art deco servewear? Plastic organizers? There’s probably also something good about reuse and sustainability here too. The only thing I don’t love is that my saved searches and watchlist are full so I have to keep deleting and replacing, but never change, eBay.
Jan 26, 2024
🛍
Trying to do most of my shopping second hand but eBay can get overwhelming he has so many tips I’ve never heard of
Oct 8, 2024
🔨
I’ve got all sorts of stuff in my eBay saved searches and if I’m patient, I can usually get exactly what I want at a pretty good price. A fun story I have related to saved searches is that awhile ago, a friend’s apartment was burgled, and very specific pieces of heirloom jewelry were taken. I saved some keywords and forgot all about it. A few months later, I got an alert and saw a piece that looked vaguely familiar, so I checked the seller’s items and realized they had EVERYTHING! I emailed my friend, and she ended up retrieving all of her jewelry. It was so nice to be part of a happy ending where I was crucial, but didn’t really do anything.
May 10, 2022
Top Recs from @jonnodotcom
Along with keeping a water carafe next to your bed and linen spray, making your bed every morning is one of the most effective and underestimated things for maintaining good sleep hygiene, which is so important! I will never understand people who don't make their bed because it's just going to become unmade again (it took years of patient positive reinforcement training to get my boyfriend to stop being like this.) Making your bed as soon as you get up is not only empowering and gets your day off to a productive start— look, you've only been awake for five minutes and you've already accomplished something! — but evening you will be grateful to morning you for allowing you the luxurious experience of slipping into a properly made bed every night.
Apr 6, 2024
Even though Peep Show always winds up on lists of the best TV comedies of all time it's still strangely underappreciated and not nearly as well known on this side of the Atlantic as it should be. David Mitchell and Robert Webb are comedic geniuses and raise cringe to a legitimate art form. Plus it's created and co-written by Jesse Armstrong, who later went on to make Succession, so it's better than anything else for filling any Succession-shaped holes in your life even though it's a completely different kind of show.
Apr 5, 2024
Rich people’s bedrooms always smell really nice (ask me how I know this) as do expensive hotels - and your bedroom can smell great too! Find a small empty spray bottle and fill it up with half witch hazel (everyone should have witch hazel in their bathroom cabinet; stay tuned for another rec on this) and half filtered or bottled water (Evian or Fuji if you’re really feeling it.) Add your choice of essential oil(s) – start with about 20 drops per every cup of liquid and increase from there if needed. I like a blend of mostly lavender oil with a couple of drops of peppermint oil to open nasal passages and vetiver oil for grounding. Shake well and keep the bottle on your nightstand. Make a ritual of spraying it a few times over your pillow and sheets right before you climb in bed every night and I guarantee you will fall asleep faster, sleep more deeply, and have dreams in which you live in a gorgeous apartment in Paris.
Apr 6, 2024