This post is part of a 31 day series – “31 days to decorate your home on a budget.” You can read all the posts in this series here.
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I am sure you have all heard of Craigslist. It is like an online yard sale! Search by category or by your city to find items people are trying to sell. Everything from cars, to furniture, to household décor, and even things listed for FREE!
Now you might be thinking, “I am little skeptical of Craigslist.” Don’t worry, I have my reservations about it too (anyone heard of the killer associated with Craig and his list? – yeah, scary!) But there are safe (or safer) ways to go about buying things from Craigslist. Try to meet in a neutral location. Bring your husband or a second person with you. Email/call back and forth several times with the seller beforehand. Bring cash, but only enough for what you are buying.
Probably the worst part of Craigslist for me is having to go pick up the items. You have to drive a long distance hoping that once you get there the item will be described correctly and it will be worth your trip. Then trying to even arrange a good time for both parties to meet – yeah, definitely not my favorite part. I usually only search things that are available in my immediate area.
I bought my kitchen table and chairs off Craigslist and I sold my previous table on Craigslist. And I love it!
When I do search Craigslist, I use this app called CraigsEasy. It allows you to search pictures on Craigslist (almost like Pinterest!) instead of searching titles with little bitty pictures.
You can install CraigsEasy here.
So how about you?
Do you like to shop Craigslist or scared to death to try? If you have used Craigslist, what has been your favorite buy? Any other tips for making it a safe experience?
{cj}
Laine chambers says
Craigslist is wonderful! We have sold tons of stuff on there, it’s been great! We’ve only bought a few things on there though, mostly big items that we’ve been looking for. My favorite buy? My kitchen cabinets! We bought a set of used cabinets from a very upscale home. They are SO nice and made the highest quality materials. My husband reworked them and painted them for our kitchen. So after 8 months of no kitchen cabinets, finding them for $600 was SO worth it.
Long story short, I LOVE craigslist!! =)
Christina says
wow – YHL has bought cabinets before on CL but that is amazing, Laine! I want to see them – you should post them!
I need 2 cabinet doors. You will see in a future post, 2 of mine were missing when we bought the house and we can’t get any to match now 🙁
Maybe I should check Craiglist! Even if I had to buy the whole cabinet for just the doors – it might be cheaper! 🙂
Karen Nogosek says
Fall is the best time of year to decorate! It really gets me in the mood for Halloween and Thanksgiving…Plus you get months out of it rather than any other holiday where the decorations only apply to one day.This year I made a center piece out of dried branches/leaves. I arranged them in a tall vase and filled the vase with achorns. It looks great in my all wood livingroom:)
Christina says
You know, I think you are right! There is so much you can do with fall that involves nature – that really helps cut down on the cost. Plus it is sort of 2 things combined in one – fall and Thanksgiving.
I need to collect some acorns – that sounds pretty! Did you bake them or anything to make sure they were de-bugged?