Many of us start out in our first apartment with furniture our parents generously handed down to us because well frankly, they needed something to sit on when they visited.

To fill in the blank spaces we salvaged curbside finds and scoured for garage sale bargains. And that old milk crate was never just a milk crate, but a module shelving unit. Our mismatched outfitted apartment was more like a rite of passage than an intentional state.

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As we settled into adulthood, the store credit cards started to arrive in the mail. We fell in love and partnered up and suddenly we required more square footage. It was then that our first-apartment possessions weren’t good enough. “0% interest for 2 years” and “Get a free love seat when you buy a matching sofa”, the commercials sang. The music hit us and we felt no pain.

Years in, we woke up one day to ask ourselves, “Where did the days of butterfly chairs and beaded room dividers go?”

Or not. Maybe you kept and reupholstered the hand-me-down couch. Maybe you and your partner found a mid-century modern dresser on a curb and carried it home. And maybe you’ve even taken a weekend carpentry workshop and DIY-ed your own coffee table from pallet wood. Or Lego.

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The point is, you’ve always known spaces don’t necessarily need to be filled with things that come in big boxes and matching sets or packaged in 50-gauge thick plastic from overseas. Back-in-the-day your choices and resources were limited so you got creative and made do. Today with more income—and with that more choices—you still make and make do. And this time it’s intentional.

As we approach Black Friday and Buy Nothing Day, SCW says “Hip! Hip!” to all you thrifting youngster at heart. SCW sees your craftiness and youthful spirit! Stay thrifting. Stay young.

What do you say? Does a thrifted home keep us young?