All the almosts

Almost every piece of furniture I buy is off of craigslist, for my home-house and The House of Goodwill too.  I am not on Facebook, so the Facebook Marketplace is not available to me, but I have seen the site and it’s even better than craigslist.

I made a Facebook account solely to use the marketplace, but apparently unless you are a person who is “very active” on Facebook (according to what I have read online), Facebook will not allow you access to its marketplace. 

I guess it wasn’t meant to be.  I try not to think about that.  About some other episodes too.

Like Sunday afternoon at The House of Goodwill.  I was scrolling through the local craigslist there, only to find the PERFECT furniture for the living room at the PERFECT price.  It was a la-Z-boy sofa with two chairs and ottomans, excellent condition, perfect colors, etc.  All for $300.  And I just happened to be at the house with an empty trailer, available to make the hour long drive to go pick everything up.  So I emailed the lady with the ad, checking all day long for her response.  We had to drive two hours back home that evening.

Of course, I didn’t get a response until 9pm, when I was back at home and we had returned the rented trailer.  I responded to the seller and told her I wouldn’t be back in the area for four more days, but I would check with her then to see if it was still available.

I got an email the next morning that she had just sold everything.

And the day before, while we were still at the House of Goodwill, we were driving through the town after a WalMart trip (for all the things we forgot to bring from home), when I spotted the sign for an estate sale.  

It was already done for the day, but would start again the next afternoon.  I saw pictures online with all kinds of things we needed for the house, including a dryer and a hot tub.  (Ok, so we maybe we don’t NEED a hot tub, but wouldn’t it be nice?)

We got there as soon as it opened the next day, pulling up a block away because of all the parked cars.  The house was swarming with people.  And wouldn’t you know it, the washing machine was still available, but the dryer had sold the day before.  And the hot tub too.  (For $300!!!)

We still managed to get a lot of little kitchen-y things the house needed, for $34.  (Half off because it was the final day of the sale.)  But it still felt like we were a day late and a dollar short. 

2 thoughts have stuck with me after this weekend:

-Estate sales are where it’s at!  Great useful stuff!  And cheap!

-When you buy from used resources, there’s usually only one of whatever you want.  And sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.

So maybe we lost a few times this weekend, but overall I know we’ll come out ahead using our thrifting resources.