Buy it for Life

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A place to share practical, durable and quality made products that are made to last, with an emphasis on upcycled and sustainable products!

Guidelines:

Things that are well-made and durable (even if they won't last a lifetime) are A-Okay!

Unlike that other BIFL place, Home-made and DIY items are encouraged here, as long as some form of instruction is included in the body of the post.

Videos links are not allowed as post titles, but you may use them in a text post.

A limited amount of self-promotion is accepted, IF the item you are selling aligns with this criteria:

The item must be made with sustainable or recycled materials.
If electronic in some way, the item must be open-source.
The item must be user-serviceable (if applicable).
You cannot be a large corporation.
The post must be clearly marked with a [Self Promotion] tag in your title.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

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Is BIFL Still Possible Today? (lemmy.blahaj.zone)

submitted 5 hours ago by rosahaj@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/buyitforlife@slrpnk.net

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Hi there, I came here to the BIFL Lemmy out of suspicion that the reddit posts are just unlabelled marketing, and I was wondering the possibility of sourcing goods that are more to a BIFL standard? In my area, second hand goods tend to be really quite poor in quality (reselling fast fashion) or otherwise not present, and I have not inherited anything that does last. So I would apprecite advice or reccomendations for finding goods at a BIFL standard. I was also wondering if maybe there would be anyone with good advice for finding sustainable, local textile production so that I may be able to tailor what I need without having to buy from the poor selection aforementioned, does anyone know of any of this?

TL:DR I am suspicious that a lot of what is claimed as 'BIFL' has been enshittified, and would like advice on being able to search for sustainable goods for a local area (not specified because I'm hoping for advice with searching, not exactly for specific reccs)

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[–] David_Eight@lemmy.world 7 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

Is it possible, yes. There are almost always options for BIFL in whatever product you're looking for (sans tech etc.). It's mostly from small niche brands that you've never heard of and can't find in stores that specialize in quality but isn't cheap. How you treat you're stuff also plays a huge role on if it will last a lifetime or not, a lot of stuff requires maintenance that people don't think about. The Iron Snail is a great YouTube channel that covers that type of clothing. And if you're ever looking for something specific, make a post here lol.

[–] rosahaj@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

I've never been good at finding these things, would you know any methods or resources for finding these 'small, niche bramds'?

[–] David_Eight@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago

Honestly, no. There's no easy way to find these brand. It takes a lot of time and effort to find the right brand or product to buy. It has to be basically a lifestyle choice\hobby to buy quality goods. Every time I buy something I'm not familiar with will take hours of research to find one company that makes a decent version, or sometimes not finding a single one.

Over time you can find trusted sources for honest reviews and comparisons in specific fields you can go back to for recommendations. There are some short hand that can help. Like where a product is made tends to make a difference, no company has ever moved production to China to improve quality lol. If a company is privately owned is also a good sign but neither is a guarantee.