I should add that Elizabeth and I had splendid success with our trailer-assisted shopping mission. We went to two used furniture stores, each of which had a nice huge easy parking lot for the trailer. We found a loveseat in great condition, very comfy, $60—and the tag was the color of the day, so it was 50% off and we got it for $30. We spent more than that on an end table: $35 for a solid-wood (HEAVY) end table in great condition, with a drawer and a little cabinet and a magazine rack; as we were pointing it out to the clerk so she could put a sold tag on it, another customer good-naturedly but sincerely said he had been just about to go up and buy it, which was gratifying.
We bought three smallish dining room chairs, nice sturdy dark wooden ones with a chunky floral carving on the backs. They’d been reupholstered, and the person who reupholstered them had centered a different element of the fabric pattern on each one. It was $16 for the set of three, and when we got up to the front it turned out they were 75% off, so we got them for $4. We got them as occasional chairs—the kind of chair you just sort of scatter around wherever they’d be useful, like next to the door where you put on your shoes, and then you have extra chairs to gather up when you have people over.
We got a nice sturdy metal mesh wastebasket, and two table lamps; $4 for the wastebasket, $12-down-to-$8 for one of the lamps, $12 for the other lamp. A gallon bag of assorted office supplies: several tape dispensers, several hole-punches, several staplers, all nice and heavy—$5 for the bag.
Our mission was pretty fun, because NONE of the four roommates had brought any furniture (the one who arrived first did buy a shower curtain, a thing of dish soap, two tiny folding chairs that looked more like plant stands), so all we were trying to do was FILL ANY OF THE GAPS. We weren’t trying to buy ALL of it; and we weren’t the fourth roommate trying to fill the specific gaps left by the other three; we just had to check off SOME THINGS. Which reminds me, we also contributed a recliner: the day we were loading up the trailer at our house, our neighbor put it out on the lawn with a FREE sign and we nabbed it. So for the living room of the college apartment, we were able to contribute a loveseat, a recliner, an end table, two lamps, and up to three occasional chairs.
Then we went to a couple of non-used stores, and we bought a kitchen trash can and kitchen trash bags, a recycling bin, a bath mat, a 30-pack of toilet paper, a 6-pack of paper towels, command hooks, two hand soaps and a hand-soap refill; bread, peanut butter, jam, milk, cheese sticks, granola bars, goldfish crackers.
It feels like that shouldn’t have taken all day, but it did: we started at 9:00 and we finished just after 5:00. We did, however, take MULTIPLE restorative breaks for food and drink and sitting in the air conditioning, so that we would not lose our motivation or our mood. We had medicinal coffees and ice creams at about 3:00, right before we needed to wrestle the furniture from the college parking lot all the way into the college apartment (non-air-conditioned), and then bring her boxes (which we’d unloaded into the living room) upstairs to her room. We were quite sweaty and worn out by the end of it, but we felt triumphant.
Then I got to DROP OFF THE TRAILER, which in some ways was like the relief after giving birth. Except then the UHaul guy talked to me for almost half an hour about the AI assistant he had programmed using AI, and how AI is just a neutral tool that can be used for good or for bad, and how AI is happening whether we like it or not so there’s no point resisting it, and how anyone who is against AI should be taking into account the uses for people with disabilities. He said it all with the tone of someone making good and fresh and interesting points.
After that I went and got a giant sub sandwich and a four-pack of a spiked sparkling water I’d wanted to try, and I went to my hotel room and turned the a/c down to 65F, and I watched reruns of The Office. A great, great day.
This is just thrilling. Getting just the right things- and for 50 or 75 percent off!!! And it sounds like some of the things were cute, good quality, and useful. I am now having fond memories of going used furniture shopping with my dad as he helped me move into a grad school apartment… my roommate and I had such cool stuff in that apartment! Fun times. I will selectively forget about moving it all up to the 3rd floor on the hottest weekend of the year!
What a satisfying, successful day!
So great to have people to give you unsolicited and detailed views about AI.
That sounds like a really fun and also pretty tiring day!
The UHaul guy / AI conversation gave me a good laugh!
That sounds very productive and tiring. I like the idea of medicinal coffee and ice cream.
This is an outstanding update of your adventure!
WELL DONE! Those are some great finds, and wrangling it all up to the apartment without AC: whew.
I would, incidentally, note that elderly people looking to downsize + college students needing an entire apartment are basically a match made in heaven; person looking to get rid of stuff (dishes! kitchen gear! furniture! bedding!): it will all be used and appreciated! person receiving stuff: so, so much less buying necessary! But this does require a Downsizer (or Upgrader) and a Starting Out-er to be connected with each other and that rarely happens, unfortunately.
When we lived in grad student housing, it was *fabulous* because there was a furniture and household items recycling system where, okay, someone is graduating and they are moving far enough away that it’s not worth shipping all the Stuff: things go by dumpsters if they are still working and *in* dumpsters if they are not. Need a lamp? Watch the dumpsters for a week, you will find one. Decide you want a different kind of lamp instead? Keep an eye out to see what shows up, and put out the prior lamp when you find a new lamp. I loved that low-waste system. (there was also a table in the laundry room for when people moved out or didn’t like something; nearly-full bottle of dishsoap! detergent someone didn’t like the smell of! oh shoot bought cinnamon and opened it but already had one in the cupboard: one goes to the table! and grad students who were really scraping by [esp. those with families] could just grab whatever they’d use and knock their grocery bill down by that much.
(also AI guy oy vey. Decreased cognitive and social abilities after AI use demonstrated live just for you! I nearly choked at “He said it all with the tone of someone making good and fresh and interesting points.” AND you didn’t punch him! Even though you’d been dealing with that trailer for days!!!)
The U-Haul guy! It’s not like he should be starved for conversation during this busy season of college drop offs. He needs a bit of EQ coaching from his best friend Claude.
WHY is it so fun to hear about furniture acquisition for college apartments? It always is! I enjoyed these descriptions, and also I love the idea of kicking back at the end of such a satisfying day.
What a huge success! Honestly, when I read “it sounds like that shouldn’t have taken all day” my jaw dropped because I had assumed it was spread across multiple days. That is ALOT for one day! You must have been so exhausted but also so satisfied.