Oh heck, I just wanna Freecycle everything now. Once the sofa, loveseat and coffee table were gone, I felt liberated. I like my minimalist living room. Suddenly everything that’s left around my blissful empty space feels like clutter. I see my kids’ toys and I throw them in the toy box, even if they’re still playing with them. I’m just kidding. I don’t do that. I throw the kid in the box too along with the toy. They like it. I really am kidding although my friend’s kid jumps into the toy box all the time and he’s okay.
Getting rid of large items via Freecycle is not that easy. All Freecyclers know that for every good and reliable pick-up there are at least one or two no-shows. I know from personal experience that if I respond to a post for an Amish-made, 12-foot cedar cabinet, I better be prepared with my Budget Rent-A-Truck, my husband and one or two foolish friends. You’re giving away free stuff and people flock to your porch, right? Not always. There are some ungrateful bastards out there.
The coffee table got lots of interest, and I wasn’t into giving it away initally so I just ignored all the requests for it until it was clear that I really had to let it go. It sat for about two years on my porch until I realized that having a sharp, steel table around babies was a bad idea. Then last week when we moved the couch onto the porch for someone to pick it up, the table was relegated to the driveway. I looked out the window one night after a huge thunderstorm and I felt horrible. I didn’t want it to suffer needlessly through all the rain that has plagued us for weeks so I finally gave it to some Craigslist dude who clearly knew how valuable this table was as he picked it up almost immediately. Sniff, sniff.
The loveseat, the flowery number up there absolutely had to go. Our house is pretty eccentric and there is no room for a couch like that in this place. The only reason it stayed so long was because it had a sweet twin bed in it that my Aunt Yoli slept in every time she stayed over. We also kept it covered with an Indian patterned sheet to camouflage its true identity.
The sofa was ancient but incredibly comfortable. It’s an Ikea Ektorp sofa and a full sleeper rolled up into one cozy package. This sofa belonged to my friend Geoff’s parents who gave it to us right before they moved out West. We were still huge garbage pickers at the time and were thankful that we knew the owners of the couch instead of having to trash pick an item like this. Many things happen on couches that no one wants to know about, right? At least an Ektorp has a removable, washable cover and we knew the previous owners.
So many people wanted this sofa yet no one came to pick it up. I had responses coming in from both Freecycle and Craigslist (I posted it in the Free section) and time and again, the pickup fell through. I even got into an email volley with some crazy man who worked at the Marina and emailed me at least nine times a day, only to not show up at the scheduled time after three days of emailing back and forth. Being the Queens, New Yorker that I am, it was very difficult to craft an email that would convey my frustration yet not sound as though I wanted to clock him with my brass knuckles for disrupting my attempts at green living and recycling. I finally settled on this email:
You had been in touch all morning and afternoon about this couch. You said you were coming to pick up. I took time out of my schedule to return every email and I stayed home from 3 o clock onwards, all for a couch I am getting no money for. If you decided not to take the couch, at least have the courtesy to inform me.
Two days later he countered with:
Hello-
when we were in touch the other afternoon i requested your phone number so i could call you when i was outside. I never recieved a number and I was outside of your house.
Okay…I emailed him back, told him I’d given him my number and asked why he hadn’t rung the bell and POOF, the guy’s a ghost.
Needless to say, the couch was eventually picked up by a lovely Freecycler and that leads me back to my original thought. Thanks for hanging in there…If you’re on Freecycle and someone chooses you to pick up their junk, hop right into your Prius or whatever and get the beep over there without delay!
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