Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Hostess gifts for all

I have recently become obsessed with the Free section on Craigslist. It's awesome. I've been able to get a utility sink we plan on making into a new worm bin, a glider mechanism for our broken glider and siding for the chicken house. I obsessively check it now worried that I'll miss out on a super deal, like the Viking 6 burner range (though that was probably a scam). I may not be entirely pure in my addiction. I like to see what other people are giving away, and sometimes, because I'm a little twisted, I let my imagination run with me a bit. Much in the same way I used to fantasize about messing with my wine snob friends by offering to bring the wine to a dinner party, then showing up with Mad Dog 20/20, I have started to have fantasies about free section items.
I'm starting to feel compelled to pick up some of the more useless stuff and bring it as hostess gifts when I visit friends. Why? No idea. I just think it's funny. See, some of this stuff is junk. I don't know why someone took the time to post an ad in hopes of coordinating an exchange and sometimes even photographing the junk for the listing. I mean, if you've ever sold anything on craigslist, you know there is an especially high flake factor. People set up meetings then don't show, or they show up really late, or they keep rescheduling until you really have no time left to deal with them. It's actually quite a chore to sell something, and when you do that, at least they give you money in exchange. For the free stuff, these people have taken time to do all of this just to get rid of their junk. Sure, some of it is reusable and that's great. Some of it is really good stuff, and that's super great. But a lot of it is unusable and they are more or less hoping someone is suckered in to haul it away free of charge.
For my purposes, I'd mostly like stuff that falls between useless and useful. Things that aren't totally broken, but things that most people wouldn't drive across Seattle to pick up. Yesterday it was a wall mounted toilet roll holder. Sure, it's in working condition, but who sees that and says "hurrah! A 1980s toilet roll holder, it'll match my other toilet roll holders. I must have it!" No one, that's who. But here I am, daydreaming about showing up at someone's house with this very same toilet roll holder in a nice gift bag.
This is probably part of the reason I don't get invited out too often. Sigh.

3 comments:

Tress said...

This is my first time dropping by, and I confess I got a little startled at the mention of a "worm bin", whatever that may be...but anyway, cool blog! I may stop by again sometime!

followthatdog said...

hey Tress, a worm bin isn't anything scary, it's for composting food waste. Like a compost bin, but with worms! Please don't let my worms scare you away.

Beth said...

Hey, I'll bring the MD 20-20 if you'll go get that toilet roll holder. We really could have some fun!

I'm jealous now. I've ALWAYS wanted a worm farm.

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