Almost shower fail

[Stagleton]

The pipes in my building are rotten, so all the bathrooms are getting redone. As a result, we no longer need a shower cabinet. When they asked me what I wanted to do with it, I told them to just chuck it, but my girlfriend said I should try listing it and see if someone wants it. Turns out the cabinet new costs $1700; I listed it for $100 and have 4 people that want to buy it in 12 hours.

Don't throw away, sell!!!!

[Papa bear]

I sold old toilets from my remodel. People will buy anything. 


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[Gekko]

I renovated a house and listed the 20+ year old dishwasher on craigslist. It worked but was pretty nasty and the racks were rusting out. A guy bought it within a day or two for...get this...a new boutique restaurant he was opening. I made a point to never eat there.

[HairyUpperLip]

I sold old toilets from my remodel. People will buy anything. 

This is true. I convinced my little brother of this and he has been selling items on ebay for chump change as opposed to just donating it to Goodwill.

[Stagleton]

So as an update I sold:
My ugly old stove - 100$
Bathroom sink - 50$
Old toilet is going to my girlfriend's parents' cabin

Still need to list and sell kitchen ventilation fan, fridge, dishwasher.

*As a side note, when I tried to sell the shower,  I said the buyer needed to dismantle the cabinet. The first buyer broke a valve to cut off the water supply in the wall which would have been really costly if the bathroom wasn't already getting redone. It's important to be stingy and save money but don't cut too many corners or trust some idiot off Craigslist.

[lakemom]

I sold old toilets from my remodel. People will buy anything. 


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That's because old toilets are still 5 gallon flush and lots of people despise the 1.5 gallon ones that are available these days.  Ours are 3.5 (still better than 1.5) and I'd buy an old one off of craigslist in a heartbeat if the tank lid was intact and compatible with ours.  Dh broke ours 2 years ago and glued it back together but the crack is visible and annoying (but not as annoying as a 1.5 flush!).

[KCM5]

I sold old toilets from my remodel. People will buy anything. 


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That's because old toilets are still 5 gallon flush and lots of people despise the 1.5 gallon ones that are available these days.  Ours are 3.5 (still better than 1.5) and I'd buy an old one off of craigslist in a heartbeat if the tank lid was intact and compatible with ours.  Dh broke ours 2 years ago and glued it back together but the crack is visible and annoying (but not as annoying as a 1.5 flush!).

Really? My 1.6 gallon flush (or less? I can't remember) is amazing. And it was just a cheap $100 one. Way better than the old one from 1980 that it replaced. I think you should give them another chance.

[MayDay]

I sold old toilets from my remodel. People will buy anything. 


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That's because old toilets are still 5 gallon flush and lots of people despise the 1.5 gallon ones that are available these days.  Ours are 3.5 (still better than 1.5) and I'd buy an old one off of craigslist in a heartbeat if the tank lid was intact and compatible with ours.  Dh broke ours 2 years ago and glued it back together but the crack is visible and annoying (but not as annoying as a 1.5 flush!).

My father broke his tank lid, and glued it back together.  Just because he thought that would be less work than swapping out toilets.  It looks awful!  We make fun of him mercilessly.  But I would totally do it to save money on buying a new one, it is the laziness we harass him for :)

You might look into putting in a dual flusher.  They are cheap and plentiful these days, and that way you can do a low flush for pee, but still have a high flush when needed. 

[deborah]

My goodness, you guys really know how to waste water! Our toilets use 1.1 gallons on full flush, and .8 gallon on half flush (dual flush toilets are mandatory). This was one thing that absolutely amazed me in my recent trip to South West USA. No composting toilets (there are quite a number of National parks and roadside stops in Australia where these are the public toilet you are provided with). No dual flush toilets. In a region that doesn't get much rain.

[WildJager]

My goodness, you guys really know how to waste water! Our toilets use 1.1 gallons on full flush, and .8 gallon on half flush (dual flush toilets are mandatory). This was one thing that absolutely amazed me in my recent trip to South West USA. No composting toilets (there are quite a number of National parks and roadside stops in Australia where these are the public toilet you are provided with). No dual flush toilets. In a region that doesn't get much rain.

Yeah, any thought towards being environmentally conscious in the US makes you a weird hippy (or a liberal, which is the same thing to some people).  Sad that we're so polarized by politics in this country that we force ourselves to reject sound lifestyle choices due to what is expected of us as a result of our chosen party.  There is no middle ground for the communal good, which is a bit depressing to be honest.  I work in the military which is staunchly republican and most people literally can't comprehend my motivation for some of the trivial things I do (bike to work, air dry clothes, don't use the dishwasher [someone called me un-American for that one], cook from scratch, grow a garden, etc).

[frugalnacho]

My goodness, you guys really know how to waste water! Our toilets use 1.1 gallons on full flush, and .8 gallon on half flush (dual flush toilets are mandatory). This was one thing that absolutely amazed me in my recent trip to South West USA. No composting toilets (there are quite a number of National parks and roadside stops in Australia where these are the public toilet you are provided with). No dual flush toilets. In a region that doesn't get much rain.

Yeah, any thought towards being environmentally conscious in the US makes you a weird hippy (or a liberal, which is the same thing to some people).  Sad that we're so polarized by politics in this country that we force ourselves to reject sound lifestyle choices due to what is expected of us as a result of our chosen party.  There is no middle ground for the communal good, which is a bit depressing to be honest.  I work in the military which is staunchly republican and most people literally can't comprehend my motivation for some of the trivial things I do (bike to work, air dry clothes, don't use the dishwasher [someone called me un-American for that one], cook from scratch, grow a garden, etc).

Ugh, go back to russia you communist!


I was talking to my buddy about a bunch of old shoes I have:

Me: Cleaning out the basement.  I have a whole box of old shoes I need to get rid of.  I honestly don't know why I even have them, I think they just got boxed up and moved in a hurry when I moved in.  Some of them are actually your old shoes.
Bud: Don't toss em, sell em on ebay.
M: Nah man, they are old and used up.  And they were all cheap to begin with, no one will want them.
B: Someone will want them.  My wiife has been selling her old shoes on ebay recently.  Totally worn out pieces of shit, and yet every pair is getting bought for at least $4.

I figured it was just some freak with a weird foot fetish buying worn out women's shoes.  I still think that might be true, but I have been thinking I might try to list all my old shoes to see what happens. 

[I'm a red panda]

Glad to hear you sold it!

We made a similar 'mistake' earlier in the year. We gave away a broken glider chair, and my husband was going to bring his decade old mountain bike to goodwill since he only does roadbiking now and we had a 3:1 bike ratio at our house. I told him to give me a second and let me list it in craigslist. We had $75 in hand within an hour.  But the buyer also saw the glider in the driveway and said "is that for sale too?"

Unfortunately, we had already promised it to a neighbor :(

[Merrie]

I feel like selling anything less than $50 on CL is a waste of time. I don't like hassling with strangers over chump change, or spending the time to put up a listing and not getting any serious hits. My time is valuable too. These days I mostly just donate stuff for the tax writeoff.

[WildJager]

I feel like selling anything less than $50 on CL is a waste of time. I don't like hassling with strangers over chump change, or spending the time to put up a listing and not getting any serious hits. My time is valuable too. These days I mostly just donate stuff for the tax writeoff.

CL can be hit or miss.  I kind of agree, it seems that higher priced items sell way faster because only people that are serious apply.  It always blows my mind when I set a price for something ridiculously cheap on CL just so I can offload it, and I get the hawks rolling in with "Will you take $10 for that snowboard & helmet & bindings & case?"  Of course it simply gets sold to a legitimate person, but I am curious if this behavior actually amounts to anything beyond wishful thinking for those who seem to have no concept of fair trade value.

[paddedhat]

The whole 5 gallon flush thing amazes me. It's been decades since these wasteful units were last made. There is plenty of reviews and testing online for any currently available toilet. It is also possible to spend very little, at a big box store, for a top performing replacement toilet that will save hundreds of thousands 0f gallons of water over it's lifetime, and flush better than the 40 year old toilet that some knotheads insist on hanging on to.

Reminds me of all of the friends and neighbors I know who get a new fridge, and drag the old one out to the garage as a spare. Wasting $3-400 a year in electric to have more space to store food before you throw it out............... 'Merica, it's how we roll.

[Papa Mustache]

Probably depends on where you live. If you are in the Southwest then trying to capture the morning dew is probably worthwhile.

Here it rains for a week straight and there is never any water rationing.

Now in some of the big metro areas like Atlanta - then yeah, they've outgrown their water reservoir and the water conservation is a necessary thing.

[acroy]

YEAH! old crap = $$
Sold my dad's ancient Samsonite briefcase for $55
Ancient scratched up 'sleigh bed' for $200. Probably underpriced.
I have an ancient set of Ray Bans setting on my desk, may be worth $300+

Amazing.

[shelivesthedream]

Probably depends on where you live. If you are in the Southwest then trying to capture the morning dew is probably worthwhile.

Here it rains for a week straight and there is never any water rationing.

Now in some of the big metro areas like Atlanta - then yeah, they've outgrown their water reservoir and the water conservation is a necessary thing.

But surely using water is a lot like spending money: one looks for optimal value and efficiency, whether one can "afford" it or not.

[BlueMR2]

It amazes me how some of you can manage to sell just about anything.  :-)

I've got some pretty nice stuff that I've been trying to get rid of for years.  Not only can I not seem to sell any of it, but I can't even give it away.  On the rare occasion I get some interest, the people just never show up to get the stuff.  I haven't thrown it out yet just because it seems to wasteful for perfectly good, nice (but not useful to me) stuff to end up in a landfill.

What are your secrets?

[Apples]

Probably depends on where you live. If you are in the Southwest then trying to capture the morning dew is probably worthwhile.

Here it rains for a week straight and there is never any water rationing.

Now in some of the big metro areas like Atlanta - then yeah, they've outgrown their water reservoir and the water conservation is a necessary thing.

But surely using water is a lot like spending money: one looks for optimal value and efficiency, whether one can "afford" it or not.

Ehhh.  We have our own well.*  I live in a area heavy on surface water, low(ish) on deep ground water.  The only time of year we worry about water conservation is summer with a drought.  And that didn't even happen the last 2 years.  We have a spring-fed pond across the street next to our well.  We live at the bottom of a hill, so all the runoff of every rainstorm hits that pond and our well.  We are considering getting a rain barrel but that's just to sit next to the vegetable garden so we don't have to lug a bucket of water the 100 ft from the pond to the garden.  We're the water equivalent of a huge income with a crappy savings account (no deep water resources, and it keeps raining). Finally, our own septic system runs off the side of the house, so the water we do use goes into the ground water under our yard, which depending on the location either ends up back in the pond/well or down at our neighbor's pond.  Unlike a municipality, it doesn't really go away to a different location.  So to me there isn't a whole lot of value in efficiency beyond a few weeks a year.  And free things like take a shorter shower, use the dishwasher and don't soak dishes, and don't do extra laundry seem to be all that's really necessary.  But people in cities and dry areas certainly have greater value in finding efficient ways to use water.  Just not every single one of us in the same way.

*For the record, it is probably over 150 years old, hand dug, 4 feet in diameter, and 20 feet deep, oh and rock lined.  Usually the water sits about 12 feet down.  It used to be connected to a spring that sat next to it, but that has been closed off.  It's pretty legit for 1800's.

[Hunny156]

Our last home was a spec house.  Carpet everywhere.  We were relocating halfway across the country, so hubby lived in the new house w/the carpet for 6 months before I got there.  I had shipped the vacuum, but I found it still packed in the box.  We had planned and budgeted to replace the carpet anyhow, so I moved up the timeline a bit.

I wasn't sure where we'd go to dispose of all that carpet, but I had an idea.  So I asked hubby to not cut the carpet into tiny strips when we removed it.  Yes, it would be more of a pain, but the goal was to salvage as many big pieces as possible.  Rolled up all the padding and tack strips in with the carpet, along with whatever else was in 6 month old un-vacuumed carpeting.  Tossed it all in a big pile in the garage, and threw up a quick listing on Craig's List.  No pictures, just the rough sq footage, explaining that there were several big pieces in the pile, and the first $100 takes it all.  The next morning, I had like 30 e-mails about it!  I gave my address to the first five, and told them all, first come.  30 minutes later, a guy showed up with a truck and a $100 bill.  Problem solved, a little cash in hand, and it still blows my mind that I sold used carpeting.  :)

[Stagleton]

Almost paid to have someone put my old kitchen cabinets in a landfill!!!!!! Luckily I decided to advertise a free kitchen and the "buyer" just needed to dismantle it. I had a few people contact me very quickly and I helped a guy dismantle the old cabinets and he took everything. Free for me, great for him, and also good for the environment.

I sold the dishwasher and kitchen fan, and the refrigerator went to my girlfriend's apartment. I got her old fridge which fits in my storage unit in the basement and I plan to add a temperature controller to it so I can use it to brew pilsners.


But, I am a bit ashamed to admit I paid some guys to put up plasterboard on the old kitchen walls.......:'(