Living sustainably might be challenging. So might be finding furniture, kitchen utensils, food and clothes. Especially in a good condition and price. In this blog post, we’ll share with you information about our favorite second-hand stores located in Espoo and Helsinki and a few online options.

• Fida

The first chain of second-hand markets you must know about is called Fida. In Fida, you can find a variety of different items. Everything you need for you and your home is there. From books and boxes, through furniture and curtains, to clothes. Fidas are located in Espoo and Helsinki. The closest Fida is in Leppavaara, around 15 minutes away from Aalto University.

Fida store located in Kamppi.

• UFF

A similar second-hand chain you should be aware of is named UFF. In an UFF store, you can find lots of clothes. Prices vary usually between 7 and 14 Euros depending on the item. You can look there for shirts, dresses, skiing jumpsuits, sweaters, skirts, blazers, trousers, bags. The garment is organized in male and female departments and sometimes even in style like animal pattern or sparkly chic. There are many UFFs in Helsinki and a few in Espoo.

• Relove

If you’re looking for fancier and more high-quality clothing, you should visit Relove. Relove sells a few garments designed by themselves, too. It is not only a store with used clothing, but also a café. You can find there items from Marimekko, Hugo Boss, and Samsoe Samsoe. However, prices are much higher than in UFF or Fida. For example, you can pay for a dress around 20-40 Euros.

• Arkadia International Bookstore

One good place to find pre-owned books in Helsinki is Arkadia International Bookshop. This bookstore offers a huge collection of books written in English, Russian, German, Swedish, Finnish, some titles in Japanese, Polish, Chinese, Lithuanian, and a few other languages. It is surprisingly a large store with one room upstairs, and 5 rooms downstairs. I bought in Arkadia a Polish novel for 4 Euros, one book in English and one in German for 1 Euro.

• Rescue and Reuse

Rescue and Reuse is a worth-mentioning initiative located on the campus. At the center, you can get free furniture and décor items, buy small appliances and rent home textiles and kitchenware. Rescue and reuse accepts donations. To rent kitchenware and home textiles, you can directly visit Viako.

• Kierrätyskeskus

Kierrätyskeskus is a non-profit organisation, where you can find secondhand items and learn about sustainability and circular economy. They run many stores across the metropolitan area of Helsinki, as well as an online store nationwide. What they sell is a mix of reusable household goods and furniture that the public has donated, second-hand art/craft supplies and their own range of recycled furniture, clothes and accessories. Every year children, youth, adults, communities and businesses learn from their environmental educators about sustainability. They also provide work experience, career prospects and potentially fresh or sharpened skills as a social enterprise.

• Fiksu Ruoka

Fiksu Ruoka Oy is a Finnish-owned company that was founded in 2016. Through their online store, they strive to reduce the amount of food waste in Finland and at the same time offer their customers a wide range of affordable food and consumer goods. The items they purchased have not found their way to the store shelf for certain reasons and are therefore in danger of being destroyed. This may be due to, for example, a product being discontinued, a new sales package, too much stock, or an approaching best-before date. So instead of throwing them away they sell them for a very cheap price on their website.

• Matsmart

This online store has the same working principle as Fiksu Ruoka and both of them provide delivery services.

• Tori.fi 

Tori.fi is an online buying and selling marketplace. It publishes classified consumer goods free of charge. For business users, a tori-shops service is available that allows the site to be used for business.  There you can find absolutely everything, but the website is easy to use since everything is well categorized and there is an opportunity to message the selling person directly.

• ResQ Club

ResQ Club is a Finnish company that connects customers who love eating affordable, nutritious food with sustainable restaurants, cafes and grocery stores. Through their proprietary location-based mobile and web service, ResQ partners’ goal is to significantly minimize food waste, as it helps customers to locate and rescue surplus food near them. You can buy food with 50-60% discount especially after lunch and in the evenings.

Katarzyna Wojdalska
Functional Materials

Madina Muratova
Chemical Engineering

Aalto study options
Contact email aaltosquad(at)aalto.fi