To Thrift or Not to Thrift: Coffee mugs loved for the last time
Filed under: Food, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Shopping
If you enjoy a hot beverage once in a while, you've probably felt it: the conviction that a lovely mug would make you happy. Do you know the domestic bliss encapsulated in that tableau; a clean surface, a project you enjoy, a mug that signifies your style? It's the still-life art as life.But there's a dark side to this scene of homely perfection. Mugs break. And if you're clumsy like me -- or if you have a houseful of roughhousing children, like me -- it's a good bet that your tableaux are often shattered (figuratively, literally, noisily) by an errant elbow, an exuberantly tossed pillow, a swift brotherly punch. (I'm trying to break the boys of their fighting but, troublingly, they're boys.)
It's why buying mugs from thrift stores, is the better way to go. Never troubled by a chipped or crackled mug, I delight in discovering the lonesome pottery or ceramic that might make my coffee table complete. I pay a dollar, or less, per interesting colorful vessel and it brightens my life, until it breaks, without depressing my wallet. I don't have to commit to just one look, either; I can choose the speckly one with coffee, the green one with tea, the snow-flake-covered one with hot chocolate. Thrifting mugs? It's a win-win.This post was written as part of a series on how to thrift shop smarter. Read more on what to buy, and not to buy, at thrift stores.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-28-2008 @ 11:19AM
geebee said...
Only buy unchipped; crackling is okay, but cracks are not. Bacteria can lodge in cracks and chips; public health inspection rules forbid the customer being served food and drinks (especially hot drinks) on table ware with either. Just FYI; I agree with you about buying usable odds and ends instead of expensive new ones, which will inevitably become crackled or chipped anyway, in time. (I save damaged ones to break up and decorate clay flower pots with, mosaic-style.)
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2-02-2008 @ 9:09AM
marian davis said...
Some mugs can have bad posion materal in them when heating them
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2-27-2008 @ 6:16PM
H. Dixon said...
Everyone should know that the LEAD we keep hearing about being in the children's toys 'MADE IN CHINA', is also in any coffee mugs and ceramic dishes 'MADE IN CHINA'!!! So, if you're drinking from these mugs, or eating from the dishes [made there] you are ingesting LEAD and poisoning yourself, little by little (it may not kill you, "all at once") but it will slowly ruin your health and set you up for cancer, kidney damage, and many other diseases and/or disabilities! I bought some pretty ceramic bowls once, with a lovely flower painted on the inside bottom of the bowls. After I brought them home, and started to put them in the dishwasher so I could start using them, I noticed the label stuck on the outside [bottom] of the bowl that actually said: "NOT TO BE USED FOR SERVING - DO NOT USE FOR EATING - FOR DECORATIVE USE ONLY, LEAD CONTENT MAY CAUSE CANCER"!!! I swear that's what it said, it STATED the word CANCER right on the bowl!!! I bought them at Wal*Mart and took them back -- a "ROBOT-TYPE" Clerk said, between her gum-chomping; "Do you want a refund then, Ma'am?" The only thing I could think of to say was; "DUH-HHH???!!!" -- I got my money back and left (knowing that those bowls would go right back on the shelf, to be sold to some unsuspecting customer that might not take the time to read the warning label, and would be serving her children cereal from those bowls the next day!!! We all must be aware when buying anything (especially made in China)!!!
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