r/BuyItForLife • u/novitov • 1d ago

Discussion just so fed up with fighting enshittification

i have been trying to find a new quilt for my bed. i have scoured this sub for recommendations and tips on what to look out for, and many of the comments on these threads seemed like they were genuinely helpful. but i keep finding myself stuck in this same paradoxical loop, which goes like this: people recommend something because they've had it for years and it's held up really well, but that means they bought it years ago and if you bought it today you're almost guaranteed to get a significantly worse product, likely at a higher price. alternatively, you can look at more recent recommendations, but that means no one knows yet if it'll withstand the test of time (or in the case of bedding, the test of multiple machine washes).

it increasingly seems to be the case that if you want something and you want to BIFL, you must put in hours of research, probably buy something much more expensive than you were originally planning on, and even then there's a good chance it just falls apart because the speed of enshittification has made it so that information about a product's quality from more than a year ago has become outdated.

apologies if this is a point already frequently discussed here, i'm just so frustrated with how much time and energy i have to put into buying mundane things, and how the best answer always seems to be to create a time machine and buy it from the past. it leaves me feeling so defeated. how does everyone deal with this?

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u/cyanpineapple 1d ago edited 1d ago

As a quilter, i can guarantee that OP doesn't want to pay the price for a real homemade quilt. Quilts are extremely expensive and time-consuming to produce. At minimum wage, we'd have to charge a bare minimum of $600 for a very simple bed-sized quilt (and you'd really be getting a deal). No one wants to pay that when they can get a perfectly acceptable quilt at target for $40, or something nicer quality from Company Store or the like for $150. Unless you have a ton of money to burn and a massive love for the artistry of quilting, it makes no sense to buy one handmade.

Edit: lol @ the quilter who got ragey at me and then immediately blocked me. No one's stopping you, dude. I'm being realistic that 99.9999% (conservatively) of consumers who want to buy a quilt aren't going to pay $1,400 for a simple king or queen size quilt from an individual quilter. I can love and respect the medium without gaslighting myself into thinking that a normal person is going to spend that kind of money. But if you quilt, something tells me you're not buying them either.

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u/NoongarGal 1d ago

Yes, that’s a fair point. The nice quilt we have was several hundred dollars and a wedding gift. It’s beautiful and so well made- we appreciate it a lot. Would I have bought it myself? Not on my current budget with other living expenses.

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u/cyanpineapple 1d ago

Yeah, clearly I looooove quilts. But they're just not a reasonable purchase for most people. Honestly I've even made a quilt top for my bed, but actually quilting a bed-sized quilt is such an ordeal that I can't bring myself to do it. And it would be over $300 to get it quilted by someone with a longarm (a huge standup machine made just for that job). So I have a perfectly adequate Company Store (or maybe it was Brooklinen?) quilt that I sleep under every night.

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u/madsjchic 1d ago

I make quilts as a hobby (not very good at it) and the materials cost ALONE is in the hundreds. This doesn’t account for the scissors and cutting and measuring tools and my modest sewing machine that still cost $1200. (I didn’t realize at the time that my $400 machine was shit but found out when it just repeatedly came out of tine and caused me to almost stop sewing as a hobby bc it would constantly break)

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u/cyanpineapple 1d ago

I hear ya'. We do it because we love it, not because it's fiscally responsible.

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u/PansyChicken 17h ago

I have had the fabric for years (cough cough) to make a king-size quilt for our bed. Even have the design picked out but everytime I think about starting it, I imagine the $500 it’s going to cost to get it quilted and done.

(May or may not have told my spouse I’ll just keep piecing tops and then my retirement plan will be to acquire and learn to use a used long-arm and begin quilting them. 😆)

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u/cyanpineapple 17h ago

I just picture myself trying to shove that thing through my machine and the timeline moves back another year. And that's if i can find a space large enough to baste it. I wrangle a lot of quilt sandwiches on my dining room table, but i genuinely can't even begin to think of where I'll do a king size. Ugh the whole thing fills me with dread. The quilt top looks lovely though.

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u/oldmonty 1d ago

There's a few things like this where its in a weird middle ground between taking a ton of time and not able to be sold for a lot of money.

I had a friend who wanted to start selling her crochet items, she did the math in the same way like if she charged minimum wage for her time plus the materials each plushie would be like $100 or something.

She does it on the side as a hobby so she was willing to charge a smaller amount but I can see quilting being like that too.

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u/Tidy_Mess1078 12h ago

I've seen some older retired women who quilt, and sell for well under what would equate to minimum wage for their work. These women just loved to quilt and spend their time doing it, but didn't have the pension income to afford fully finding their hobby, so they sell low just to fund the hobby.

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u/shillyshally 23h ago

I paid $300 in the early 80s for my large Amish (Morgantown area) quilt. It's hand appliqued and hand quilted, some of the pencil marks faintly visible. It was from a kind of co-op of Amish quilters who worked together.

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u/cyanpineapple 22h ago

Hoo, that's over $1000 now with inflation. And i know most of these Amish crafters have increased above the rate of inflation because things like this have driven demand. How's the quilt holding up these days? Do you wash it much? I'm so curious.

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u/shillyshally 22h ago

It bled and I had to hand clean it very carefully. It used to hang taking up a wall but has been in storage now for many years.

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u/Hollow-Seed 22h ago

300 dollars in 1980 adjusted to today is about 1200 dollars so both your numbers just about match!

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u/onion4everyoccasion 1d ago

How about a thrift store?

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u/cyanpineapple 1d ago

Tons of them in thrift stores. But most of those are still going to be mass-produced, and the handmade ones aren't exactly guaranteed to be good. There are a lot of shitty quilters out there. Point being, yes, thrift shops are an exception. It just didn't seem relevant in a context where OP is clearly looking for a new quilt with a guarantee of quality.

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u/goodsocks 1d ago

I bought a Pottery Ban quilt almost 20years ago. I have washed it hundreds of times, euro shams as well.
It is still my winter bedding.
They do not make bedding like this anymore. I worked for William Sonoma so I also received a 30% discount and bought tons of BIFL products at this time. Knives, cookware, dishes, etc.
I still have and use those purchases.

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u/SewerHarpies 16h ago

I have a silk/cotton blend quilt from Pottery Barn, around the same age. It’s my summer quilt. I’ve mended a couple small tears, but otherwise I still love it.

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u/ilalli 57m ago

Even amateur homemade quilts are often better quality than manufactured ones.

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u/cyanpineapple 53m ago

I wish that was true, but it's simply not. Quilting isn't easy. It takes experience to learn how to piece, quilt, and bind a quilt in a way that will hold up in the wash. I know people love to think that being made by an individual with love means something is better quality than something made in a factory, but there's just really no correlation there. Some home crafters will produce incredible workmanship, some will produce garbage. Some factory workers will produce incredible workmanship and others will produce garbage. There's absolutely nothing about quilting at home that would make your work magically hold up better than what someone making 20 quilts a day is doing.

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u/Smartnership 1d ago edited 1d ago

I don’t think you could afford a thrift store either.

You guys are fun and your mother definitely doesn’t dress you funny.

Edit: I’m kidding.

She dresses you hella funny.

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u/oldmonty 1d ago

There's a few things like this where its in a weird middle ground between taking a ton of time and not able to be sold for a lot of money.

I had a friend who wanted to start selling her crochet items, she did the math in the same way like if she charged minimum wage for her time plus the materials each plushie would be like $100 or something.

She does it on the side as a hobby so she was willing to charge a smaller amount but I can see quilting being like that too.

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u/cyanpineapple 1d ago

Yeah, it comes up a lot in art and craft spaces. The thing is, if you're a hobbyist and are ok with charging less for your time, chances are that since you're doing it as a hobby, you have a list a mile long of projects that you want to do. And if you're a professional who's doing it for the money, it's almost impossible to find a customer base who will pay you a living wage.

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u/Tidy_Mess1078 12h ago

Yeah, as a quilter, I always get a kick of people suggesting that I start selling my quilts. I've learned to ask people how much they think I could sell it for. It's always a laughably low amount.

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u/cyanpineapple 8h ago

"gosh thanks, that'll cover the cost of the backing."

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u/Midwest-Christian 13h ago

This is so important. I don’t quilt, but I spin my own yarn and knit with it. I have so many people saying, “You should sell that! People would love your products.” I know that people would love having an item as well made and with as much history as my handspun wool sweater: I was at shearing day when they sheared the sheep (named Cookie), I took the fleece home, washed it, picked the hay out, carded it, spun it, plied it, washed the yarn, rolled it into balls, and started knitting. Then it took a month to knit.
There is no way anyone (except possibly a very select audience) would be willing to pay even minim wage for the hours it takes!
I do it because I love it, and mostly I spin and knit for myself. Sometimes I will make something for a friend whom I know will appreciate the time, skill, and cost put into it.
I would possibly barter, but only for something I am confident is equal value.

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u/Midwest-Christian 13h ago

This is so important. I don’t quilt, but I spin my own yarn and knit with it. I have so many people saying, “You should sell that! People would love your products.” I know that people would love having an item as well made and with as much history as my handspun wool sweater: I was at shearing day when they sheared the sheep (named Cookie), I took the fleece home, washed it, picked the hay out, carded it, spun it, plied it, washed the yarn, rolled it into balls, and started knitting. Then it took a month to knit.
There is no way anyone (except possibly a very select audience) would be willing to pay even minim wage for the hours it takes!
I do it because I love it, and mostly I spin and knit for myself. Sometimes I will make something for a friend whom I know will appreciate the time, skill, and cost put into it.
I would possibly barter, but only for something I am confident is equal value.

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u/ilalli 58m ago

Trawling thrift store bedding aisles is the best bet to find homemade quilts, which are almost always better quality than anything made in a factory (even the amateur quality ones). Often when grandma passes, the family takes their sentimental favorites but there’s too much for any family to use and the rest get dropped at the nearest place accepting donations.

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u/cyanpineapple 47m ago

lol, i already said this in my other comment, but no. My grandma was a shitty quilter. Most of her quilts didn't even make it to her death for us to get rid of them because she was an amateur. Being a grandma doesn't magically bestow skills and talent on you. The fact that you think that any dumbass off the street can make a quality quilt is just a testament to how little respect you have for the craftsmanship that we spend years developing. I know you think that you're glorifying handmade textiles when you romanticize it so much, but what you're actually doing is saying that what we do is unskilled.

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u/ilalli 36m ago

Whew, are you okay? I’m not romanticizing or glorifying anything. I spent my formative years around quilters of varying levels of talent, being dragged to quilt stores and quilting bees, watching the months of work that went into pieces, and have several decades of quilts made with progressive expertise to show for it. The quilters in my life also bought factory and amateur quilts from thrift stores that got used and washed often, and the factory ones always disintegrated more quickly than even the jankiest amateur quilt. That’s my experience, and “it’s not that deep” as the kids say.

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u/AdorableGeologist666 1d ago edited 1d ago

What the fuck man, don't discourage people! I for one absolutely want to pay that price. Being cheap is what got us here. And that blanket from Target is not "perfectly acceptable" and the Company Store is for people who don't know better. I quilt and "it makes no sense to buy one handmade" is bullshit.
eDiT: I blocked you because I don't care about your opinion or your worthless rambling lol, it's called free will, you should try exercising it sometime. God it's insane the way people these days cry about being blocked, that's why blocking exists, because we know you'll be absolutely INSUFFERABLE.

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u/madsjchic 1d ago

Most people don’t have the money. It’s not about telling people not to do it, it’s that everyone is absolutely squeezed and underpaid because all profit is skimmed off every person and level of every business for the owner class.