Not so long ago, I was a catalog company's dream date. Late into the night, I'd make eyes at the enticing fabric patterns, coo at the clever color names, imagine evenings we'd share by the fire-me and my Lancaster Leather Loveseat. And I went all the way: shelving from Pottery Barn, pool chairs from Frontgate, rugs from Crate and Barrel, storage bins from the Container Store, light fixtures from Restoration Hardware. For a while there, a new shipment arrived almost weekly.

And then I realized it wasn't working out. They all looked better on paper, my new crushes. In reality, they just didn't cut it. With all the matchy-matchy lined baskets in the kids' playroom, and the unimaginative alternating-width stripes on one too many bedroom rugs, my house had turned into some marketer's idea of a homey home.

Worse, it suddenly dawned on me what a huge contribution I was making to the landfills of the world. For nearly every item I bought, something perfectly good went into my Salvation Army pile. And when I brought it all for drop-off in the far corner of the store, I passed rows and rows of other peoples' castoffs. The items ranged from quirky to splendid, with a few totally uglies thrown in. I was incensed. "How can people just get rid of perfectly good stuff?" I wondered as I walked by a slightly chipped gilded-frame mirror and saw my own reflection.

Furnishing a home in America is laughably easy. Every conceivable category of furniture in every conceivable style is available to buy at every hour of the day. People in the United States spend $78.5 billion per year on new household furniture, and throw away 8.8 million tons of home furnishings to make room for it, according to a report on solid waste (PDF) by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

One way to keep from contributing to landfill buildup is to buy secondhand furniture. Whether you call it used or antique, resale furniture is super eco-friendly, has high potential for adding a creative flourish, and is often less expensive than new furniture. When my family and I prepared to move to a new apartment this spring, I committed to furnishing the place entirely with secondhand items. The process has tested my patience, yielded surprises, and sparked a new love affair-with other peoples' castoffs.

Like the retail market for new furniture, old stuff is pretty well organized by budget. Tag sales and flea markets are a boon for bargain hunters; estate sales, antique shops, and auctions cater to the middle and high-end markets and offer a wide range of quality. I've been an occasional consumer of antiques for more than a decade, but the decision to buy, from this day forward, only used furniture has been a challenge that has taught me some useful tips.

Without a doubt, regional shopper's guides and local-newspaper classified sections are still the best places to find out about tag sales. Go early, with a list of items you need and measurements if necessary. Plot your day efficiently and have a schedule of the sales you'll hit, and in what order. Use your judgment to determine which neighborhoods are likely to have the kinds of things and the quality you're looking for.

If, like me, you don't have much time to browse weekend garage sales for great finds, you'll probably find that Craigslist is one of the very best places to snag decent used furniture in your area. A few Craigslist enthusiasts came up with a site called Listpic, which pulls up only those listings that include images-a great help for furniture hunters.

EBay can be a treasure trove and is also searchable by region-if you find something within driving distance, you can save on the significant shipping charges (not to mention carbon output and energy use). Unfortunately, eBay is also awash in online merchants selling brand-new stuff. Type in "sectional," as I did in my quest to get a sofa, and up will pop an annoying number of eBay stores selling new sofas. And not just new sofas, Pottery Barn sofas. Do I really need that reminder of the woman I once was?

Antique stores are the holy grail of used-furniture sources. And while the word antique conjures up images of gold-inlaid Louis XIV sideboards and the like, there's no reason to be intimidated. Antiques run the gamut of style and price. To get your feet wet, it's worth attending a large antiques show that draws dabblers and serious collectors alike.

I did that this summer. As a working mother of four, I don't have nearly enough time to cruise around looking at antiques to fill my home. So the country's largest gathering of antique dealers seemed like a good place to get a lot of shopping done in a short period of time. And it was. At the Brimfield Antiques Show, in south central Massachusetts, I hit pay dirt.

Booty collected:

• Two modernish white halogen floor lamps, $30
• One mid-century Italian floor lamp that looks like a microphone, $350
• One ornate brass Turkish lamp from the 1920s that doesn't go with the other lamps and needed wiring, $500
• One old carved African table, $220
• One 30-year-old Chinese rice basket, newly painted, for holding magazines, $20
• One 30- to 40-year-old 8-foot-by-11-foot Heriz rug, $600

Sometimes, too, you find something that you didn't know you wanted. A throne-like chair, painted mustard yellow and upholstered in a plum-colored faux suede, was cast onto the curb in our neighborhood the other day. I might never have given it so much as a coy glance, but my kids have gotten the bug. They hauled it into our apartment and proudly unveiled it when I got home from work. "We got it for free off the street!" they bragged. We're keeping it.

Despite such successes, though, finding just what you want-in the size you want and at the price you want-is probably not going to happen when you want, and that's been the biggest frustration of my secondhand quest. Buying used stuff requires lots of time and patience. But then, don't all the relationships that matter? Those come-hither catalogs, with their glossy 24/7 charms, can try to lure me back into their clutches all they want. I'll choose a really great personality any day.

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