Ask the Readers: Your Best Dumpster Dive?

It’s that time again.

The air is getting warmer. It’s still sort of light outside when I leave work. And I find myself taking shortcuts through the alleys.

Why?

You know why.

Has it happened to you? That pulse quickening that happens when you think to yourself, “It can possibly be… left out for garbage?” But it is. So you quickly look over your shoulder, over the tall fence that separates the dumpster from the property owner — and not a soul in sight.

Just you. And your incredible dumpster dive.

I’ve rambled on about the best thing I’ve ever found in an alley.
What’s yours?

Ask the Readers: Craigslist Etiquette

I got this question from a reader the other day and I thought I would put it to you — the readers.

Hi Katherine —

I know you sell a bit on Craigslist and I was wondering if you might answer a question for me. I have a sofa on Craigslist (my first CL posting) and I made an appointment for someone to look at it tomorrow afternoon.  I have now been contacted by someone else interested – do I make the appointment with them but only after the first guy has a shot?  Is Craigslist sort of a bird-in-the-hand situation where it’s first come- first served and the early bird gets the worm?  This might be an interesting topic for Back Garage as well – I’d imagine there are other CL dolts like me out there. Thanks for any advice you might have.

-Poppy

Woah — such a good question. My quick two cents. When I’m selling on Craigslist I don’t respond to the first inquiry immediately.  I wait a few hours until I get a few responses and then I respond to whoever has it together the most (well-written email, details on time and place and contact info). Sort of like interviewing for a job — I get to know who is interested and set up interviews I think will pan out.  Does that make sense? Maybe it’s sort of a jerk move on my part, but it works really well for me and avoids broken hearts. However — I do think if people make an appointment you should honor that even if someone else contacts you.

So conversely, my advice when buying stuff on Craigslist: send coherent emails.

Okay, a quick anecdote before I open this up to audience feedback. A while ago I was selling some lamps on Craigslist. I had a pair listed for $80 and someone wrote to offer $60. I said, “Sure, okay, come by and get them.” And this person wrote that they’d come get them on Thursday — which was 5 days away.

In the meantime another person wrote saying they were the perfect lamps she’d been looking for for weeks and she could get them the next morning for $80. So I said, “You know what — sure. Yes. Come get them.”

When the $80 lady came for the lamps I wrote to the person wanting to pay $60 four days later and said, “I’m sorry to do cancel, but someone came by who was willing to pay full price for the pair, so I let them go. My apologies — I hope you understand.”

And came the response:

No I don’t understand, It’s unfortunate that you were not able to honor our agreement for 20 bucks but I guess that’s just a reflection on your character.

Classic! Sure, selling those lamps to the higher bidder wasn’t the most honest thing I’d ever done, but this is Craigslist, people: not Sotheby’s. And furthermore — don’t send me vitriolic emails because I will eventually publish them here under the guise of “asking the readers” about them.

So seriously — what do you guys think? What are the best practices for selling stuff on Craigslist? Do you have to be totally democratic, or highly selective? Honorable, or willing to break an appointment for an extra $20?

How do YOU navigate the minefield of etiquette that is Craigslist?

Ask the Readers: Do Your Xmas Lights Stay Up?

I love the look of Christmas lights.  Year round.  Indoors and out.  I’m glad that people have started putting out orange-colored lights at Halloween and keep their “winter lights” up until Valentine’s Day.

When I was younger — in high school and in college — I kept Christmas lights up in my bedroom all the time.  I got the idea from some classic Gen X movie, and went with it, stringing up hot chili pepper lights over my wicker headboard.

Trouble is, Christmas lights don’t look so hot when the lights aren’t lit.  Just a tangled mess of wires.  Of course, manufacturers have gone out of their way to make the wires look prettier and prettier each year — but they’re still just wires.  They look tangled and messy — downright drab — during the day.

Still, nothing beats that unique style of light — the glow cast by Christmas lights.  No desk lamp or table lamp or swag lamp can really compare.

So my question to you: do your Christmas lights stay up?

Is the look too juvenile?

Does it only belong in bars?

Or is there a place in our home year round for Christmas lights?

Ask the Readers: Your Ideal Space?

When I was little — really little — I remember wanting to live in a house with a long living room that poked out over a forest.  I realize that maybe I saw pictures of Falling Water and decided that’s where I would live when I grew up.

Nevermind any practicalities.

Then of course every movie ever made that showed people living an urban lifestyle had them living in lofts.  So I thought I wanted to live in a loft.  I still sort of do.  Sort of.  Although you have to be really good at arranging space when you don’t have walls.  And I’m not really that good at arranging space.

Now when I see mid-century architecture I dream of owning one of these retro two-flats in a west Chicago neighborhood, rehabbing it so it looks super modern and organic in the interior, and renting to a tenant.

Either that, or a storefront.

There I would be, living above a little store that I would operate, selling vintage furniture.  The only thing you can see is my Astro van parked out front.

Oh!  I almost forgot: my question!  Readers: what do you consider to be your ideal space?  Has it changed over time?  Where do you see yourself living in the future?  And where do you live now?  Is there a huge gap between where you are and where you want to be?  What has created that gap and what can be done to bridge it?