I really love upcycling old furniture and giving it new life. There's so much of it, after all - it's easy to transform someone's kerbside trash into something unique and fresh. With settlement of our new house at the beginning of next month, we're thinking of how to furnish it so that it's a unique space with practical solutions that look good.

And there's no way I'm ordering crap online.

Fast furniture might seem cheap and tempting, but we really have to weigh that against the real cost. Did you know that every year Australians through out 30,000 tons of commercial and office furniture, the majority of it going to landfill? In places like Sydney, households throw out 24kg of wooden furniture every year. In Tassie, the tip at South Hobart sees 50,000 tonnes of low quality, flat pack furniture - laminate and chipboard that's hard to recycle. It's not just about landfill either - the very production of this shit fuels greenhouse emissions and depletes forests, let alone the toxic chemicals from glues and other chemicals.

It's not just Australian - the US is worse - over 12 million tons of furniture are thrown out every year - a 450% increase since 1960. Have a look at anything online about 'fast furniture' and you'll find the figures for yourself - they always freak me out, and no one seems to talk about it. We buy chipboard side tables from KMart, MDF and chipboard chests of drawers from Temple and Webster or Ikea, because we want our houses to look Instagrammable for cheap.

I'm talking about this mainly because I feel victorious for buying a vintage or antique (the lines blur) via Facebook Marketplace for $75 AUD. It came from a really cool double story gothic house in Geelong, where two old people wrangled it into the van for me when I couldn't lift it myself with my back. They said they had two hundred people message, but I was able to pick up first and fast. The trick is, you have to say you want it and will pick it up immediately when you get the alert, even if you change your mind. Marketplace can be an artform.

This same chest of drawers has appeared before, but for between $200 and $500 dollars. That's not something I can afford or want to pay, so I thought even if it's not quite what we want, I can probably sell it on and make a profit.

But it was exactly what we wanted, having two more drawers than our cheap pine chest of drawers, plus, I love the little drawers so I can have one drawer only for my bras. That seems like luxury to me - I couldnt be happier. This morning I got up, showered, and exclaimed: 'I have a BRA drawer!'. Now that's worth $75 in itself.

Of course, after bringing it home, I gave it a good vaccuum, wiped out the cupboards with orange oil, sprayed some lemon essential oil in, allowed it to dry, and then got to work putting some lovely peel and stick wallpaper in each drawer. I mean you won't see it under the clothes, but it makes for a smooth, clean surface that covers up the old plywood. Plus, little glimpses of hyacinths and birds and butterflies are quite delightful, don't you think?

With space in our new home being a premium, I'm thrilled to have picked up this dresser, giving us more storage space in a warm, unique piece of furniture that won't ever go to landfill. Cared for and loved by us, I'm sure it'll end up in some one else's bedroom on day, for them to caretake for the next generation.

The delight in slow furniture has no price, in my opinion.

Now to find one for the spare room..