Craigslist logistics

[FiguringItOut]

I see craigslist mentioned here a lot - just now somebody mentioned getting cheap refrigerator from craigslist in case of emergency need to replace one.  And I will be the first one to agree that there are great bargains to be had there.  However, I also find that there are limitations and I am not sure if it is just simply my own situation or it is more prevalent for others as well.

Anyway, here's the deal.  Few months ago my clothes dryer died.  Husband found one on craigslist for $75, went and brought it home in our minivan.  Not really sure how he got it into the minivan in the first place.

Once home, I helped him to bring it down into the basement.  Basically we had to sort of carefully slide it down the steps as neither of us can lift it plus the stair are very tight with a turn.

Once in the basement, the issue was or unhooking the old gas dryer and hooking up the new one.  Husband had no clue how to do that.  Somehow we ended up with plumbing problem two days later and husband called the plumber who fixed the problem, but while plumber was over husband also asked him to hookup the dryer.  The additional charge for just the dryer work was around $100.  So the dryer ended up costing $175, still a bargain over new ones from Sears or Home Depot. 

Now, the old broken dread dryer is still sitting in the basement.  Husband and I attempted to haul it up the stairs for free bulk garbage pickup, but we can't.  We physically can't get it out of the basement, so there it sits.

In theory, I could ask a male friend to help husband with the dryer, however, my friend won't do it because when I asked another friend to help with our furnace last year, husband was an a$$ to him and now other friends won’t help if it is even remotely related to my husband. (as I've posted before, we are in the process of divorce, so a lot of these problems will go away).

But, I guess, what I am really asking is how do you deal with these bargain, but very heavy and bulky items in terms of getting them into and out of your house? 

Right now my plan is that when I move out this summer, if I will get movers, I'll just ask them to get the dryer out of the basement and pay extra for it if I have to.  But if I won't get movers and will have have my friends help me, the dead dryer will just sit there in the basement and will be entirely husband's problem.  Whether or not I get movers will depend on how much furniture I will take with me, and that is still up in the air as will depend on what apartment I will rent. 

Anyway, does using craigslist imply that you are handy with all appliance and always have friend on hand to help with heavy lifting? 

[ZiziPB]

You and your husband need to hit the gym and work on your lifting ;-)

All joking aside, can you pull the old dryer apart to get it out?  Or maybe list it on Craigslist (for free) in the hope that someone will pick it up for parts?

[Spork]

Is a dolly out of the question?  An appliance dolly is optimal (and I suspect you can rent them)... but even a plain dolly with soft tires and a strap will move even the heaviest, bulky items with one person.  (Not sure how hard a corner on a stair would be... but still seems like it would be easier than brute force.)

For me: yes, I would have just done the gas hook up myself.   Flex pipe + pipe dope + wrench + dish soap to check it afterwards.

[Zamboni]

No, when I have listed heavy objects on Craigslist, I have always wrote explicitly at the end of the ad that the buyer must have appropriate muscle power (another strong adult with them) to get the goods up the stairs and loaded in their vehicle without my help.  It has worked out fine. 

If you don't say that, then you will have buyers who need help with the moving.

[sol]

If you post "free broken dryer" on craigslist, somebody will be by shortly to haul it away for you.  They will carry it up the stairs.

[Jack]

I'm the one who mentioned the Craigslist refrigerator, so I should probably answer here too.

Neither my wife or I are very strong, but we manage to get buy with team lifting/moving straps (not that "as seen on TV" brand; that was just the first descriptive URL I found) and a hand truck (which in that case actually is the particular model we own). An appliance hand truck works even better than a regular one, but costs more. And if you don't need them often enough, they can be rented from companies like U-Haul.

[FiguringItOut]

Thank you for suggestion. I'll try to get rid of it via parts or scrap metal add.

Still, regarding craigslist, with my living on my own and with having only a small car available, I feel that many opportunities via craigslist would be out of my reach. 

[ShortInSeattle]

If you can't get someone to haul it for free, try a service like taskrabbit to hire someone to haul it away.

[MillenialMustache]

Maybe look for ads where people are willing to deliver. Maybe I should start putting that in my craigslist ads, as we would be willing to deliver for a small fee ($20 or so if within a town or two). If I ever had a dryer for sale on craigslist, I would be willing to haul away the person's old one for free.

For sure someone will take that dryer off craigslist for free. I bet you will have someone within a day.

[arebelspy]

I just email the people selling them and ask if they will deliver.  Typically it costs an extra $20-$40 depending on how far, just price it in.

[MayDay]

Before we got our van, we once balanced a large entertainment center in top of our civic, tied it on as  tightly as we could (not very tight) and drove home at 5 mph. 

My van was a gift, and is older with a lot of miles.  It doesn't make sense necessarily for us to own a van since we only have two kids and we could get by with a rear rack or roof rack or something on the civic.  But dang, I'm glad a friend gave us that van because it is awesome for stuff like CL.  I've hauled home so much stuff- dining room table, bed, set of 4 chairs, stack of 25 moving boxes, etc.  Before the van we just couldn't do stuff like that unless it was close enough to the house that we could use the tie it on top of the civic method. 

[Argyle]

There's a service called Junk-Be-Gone — I believe it's a widespread franchise.  I called them to haul some big old appliances like defunct washers that were sitting in my basement from when I bought the house.  In our town, it turned out to be a husband-and-wife team, and they were very experienced and manhandled the stuff right up the narrow stairs and into their truck.  I believe it cost about $75, but I was happy to pay to get that stuff gone.  I know there are also other companies with similar names that do this.

[Goldielocks]

If you post "free broken dryer" on craigslist, somebody will be by shortly to haul it away for you.  They will carry it up the stairs.

+10. This works awesome for all appliances, and some utilities give you $50 for your old fridge to boot.

Furniture, junky stuff, you need to call the junk dealer/removers, and they haul it to the dump/ recycle center.