This Post Could Change Your Life by Brian

THERE WERE THREE THINGS I NEEDED in order to attend Harvard this semester: Job, accommodations, and furniture. Harvard housing said many students have great success on Craigslist. My landlord, from whom I rented site unseen, assured me that I could find a bed and anything else I needed for practically nothing on Craigslist and from neighbors. She was right, CL is practical and as free as it gets. My move from Irvine, California, to Cambridge, Massachusetts was a success.

Buy Cool T Now!

A network of recyclers, relationships between the haves and the have-nots, that's the driving force behind Craigslist's success. And that's what makes it so useful for college students, budgeted lifestyles, interior decorators, and do-it-yourselfers. The CL community governs themselves and converge on the things people need and want the most.

Warning: Craigslist is addicting. And when interior decorators discover that antique furniture, unique accent pieces, and functional furniture can be picked up for free, there's no telling what could happen.


Buy Now!

Here's How It Works

1. Go to www.craigslist.org

2. On the right-hand-side of the page, select your geographic area of interest. If you live in or around The OC, select Orange County, if you live in or around New York City, move. I'm kidding! I love New York.

3. You will find a "for sale" section near the center of the page. Click on "free" and start shopping.

Now, you need to thank me, thank Craig in San Francisco especially, find a friend with a pick-up truck and spare time, then go to town.

REMEMBER: If you have things you no longer want or need, there are probably plenty of people in your neighborhood who will use them. So acquaint yourself with the recycling-tendencies of the CL community and help someone out.

I'm going to reprint a Craigslist "Best Of" here for you now with the hope that you will search out your own favorite postings on CL. And I think we can all learn something from this person's attempt to give an upright piano away for free.

They say nothing comes easy. Well, apparently nothing goes easy either! This Post. Priceless.

Free Upright Piano

Date: 2006-04-21, 8:40AM EDT

1 Free upright Piano. Will need some reconditioning to return to good condition, but is marginally playable (and horribly out of tune) now.

Here's how it will work. You and as many of your strong friends that you can Tom Sawyer into this job will come by and move the piano off my second floor (1 set of straight stairs) into a vehicle of yours. I'm not lifting it, or providing a vehicle for it. I will help you gently guide it through my house so that I still have walls after you leave.

Now here's the part that I know will be hard for people to understand:

I'm not holding it for anyone without a $100 deposit for every week you want me to hold it. Not even if you ask really nicely.

The first person to show up and take it gets it. This piano was listed once before, and you wouldn't believe the number of homeless dying one-legged Mongolian orphans that just needed a piano to make life better. I heard some great sob stories (probably all true!) about why I should hold this piano for this person or that person. Well, I ended up holding it for the first caller, who never got it. Then I held it for someone else, and they never got it. Then everyone was gone, and I still had a piano.

"But wait!" you're saying. "Why should I put down a deposit on something that's free?" Well, if you want me to hold it, you can give me a $100 bill. I'll tape it to the piano. When you get the piano, you get the $100 with it! It's like getting paid $100 to take the piano! You won't find a better way to get your money back - *and* you get a free piano! If you forget, or get run over by a busload of orphans on their way to get a free harpsichord, I'm going to keep the $100. Want me to hold it 2 weeks? That's $200.

"But I don't trust you to keep my $100..." Well, I don't trust you to come back and get this oversized paperweight. I tried that before and it didn't work.

"But I don't have $100 and I really want the free piano!" OK, just come get it! It's really that simple.

"But I don't have $100 and I can't come by with a truck for two weeks..." No piano for you! Life sucks; get a helmet.

I don't really want the piano. It came with the house when I bought it. I play the flute, which I can carry in one hand. I've tried picking up the piano with 1 hand, and I can't quite get a good grip. Please, take my piano.

So, if you want it, show up and take it! Simple, huh?