I remember my first interaction with the internet. I was 10 or 11, and CDL had hooked up her new PC to CompuServe, the charge-by-the-hour predecessor to AOL. Although we didn't enter a credit card number, we thought that we had accidentally clicked the wrong button and somehow purchased something. Back then, the internet was new and unknown, and who knew what you were doing when you clicked different buttons?
To try to remedy the situation, her father called their customer service number and without introduction, told them that whatever he had bought, he didn't want it, and please cancel the order. Needless to say, no surprise package arrived on their doorstop (though our online surfing was subsequently restricted).
The internet--and my understanding of it--has come a long way since then, and the internet is now frequently the first place that I look when I want to buy something. One of my favorite sites for shopping online is craigslist.org.
Craig's List (CL) plays an important role in the furniture evolution of young people today. When we're first starting out, all of our furniture comes from other people, usually family and friends, who take pity and provide hand-me-down beds, tables, and couches. Eventually, we move up to paying for used furniture, and that's where CL comes in. CL lets sellers post descriptions and pictures of their items for free. Prospective buyers can email--also for free--to negotiate price and pickup information.
When I wanted to buy couches for my living room, I turned to CL (we still have them, and people are amazed that we bought them secondhand). When I became obsessed with folding bookshelves, I turned to CL. Our table and chairs, KitchenAid mixer, coffee/end table set, and TV stand also came to us by way of strangers who posted on CL.
I've since bought new furniture (from real furniture stores), but I always troll the CL pages first to see if a used (and cheaper) version is available. When I wanted to buy leather chairs, I turned to CL. However, one of the limitations of CL is the abundance of it-wasn't-that-nice-when-you-bought-it-thirty-years-ago furniture. Nice pieces that match our furniture styles are, unfortunately, at a wicked premium--both in availability and cost.
My years of buying from CL have waned, and now I find myself on the other side of the ads--I am posting and trying to sell impulse-buy furniture items that turned out to be less than useful.
First on the to-sell list is our Ikea bureau. Ikea prices are sometimes better than those on CL, so the store is a great alternative to the world of used furniture. We bought the bureau soon after we moved into our condo because keeping B's tee shirts and boxers in an open wooden cube structure didn't seem adult enough. We bought a bedroom set the following year, so the bureau was no longer necessary (though is still somehow filled with clothing...will have to do something about that before our prospective buyers come tomorrow).
Next up on the list is a set of table lamps. When you buy a house, you receive great coupons in the mail from furniture stores, including $100 to spend any way you want at Jordan's Furniture. Unfortunately, you have a limited amount of time to use the coupon, so we redeemed ours under a certain amount of duress and went home with the cheapest lamps that we could find. The total cost to us was about $18, and that's about the same cost of the 2 Target lamps that we wanted to replace. Unfortunately, we like the Target lamps better, and they received the place of honor in our bedroom, while we moved the Jordan's lamps from room to room, hoping that they would fit somewhere (they didn't). The lamps settled in the living room but look out of place, and we rarely turn them on, instead preferring the WalMart floor lamp that we got when we needed light to paint the living room after we bought the place.
I had been wanting to upgrade our lighting for a while, so when I found a couple of table lamps that I liked a store that wasn't Target or WalMart, I wanted to jump on the opportunity. Luckily, B liked the lamps, too, and we picked them up yesterday. The new lamps are in our bedroom, and the Target lamps have graduated to the living room (where they look lovely, even though the wood is chipping on one of them), and the Jordan's lamps have moved to the guest room, aka the holding zone for CL items.
In addition to the bureau and lamps, we're also trying to sell a desk, partially completed mosaic coffee table (long story), wall lamp/sconce, and desk lamp. What will we do with all of the space that we create? Why, fill it with new furniture and lighting, of course. But this time, we will be more careful about what we pick up.
