The Best Things In Life...

After watching Kirsty's Fill Your House For Free over the last few weeks I was inspired to get in on the action. Seeing all those items of furniture that needed a new home and a little love made me think of the bookcase and bedside tables we've been looking for, and not being able to afford, for the last few months.

So I joined the Exeter Freecycle group. One good thing about living in a city is that there are lots of people, and it's amazing how much stuff those people have. Every day I get lots of emails telling me what people have that they don't need anymore. From baby clothes to packs of roofing tiles, old computer monitors to lawn mowers. So far there hasn't been anything I felt I really needed although I was very tempted by the offer of assorted jam jars. There's always a use for jam jars...

But it's not just online where you can find unloved furniture. Recently we visited a family member who's just moved into a new house. The previous owner had left most of the furniture and it is now filling up the garage. There were several bookcases, an interesting looking wooded trunk, old computer desks, tables and a chest of drawers. It was all is pretty good condition and before it got sent off to charity shops and car boot sales we went through it and found a good sized bookcase and two (almost) matching bedside tables with draws. I would guess buying all these from a charity shop would have taken considerable hours of searching and about £40 minimum. Getting them for free, and as a surprise on a chance visit was brilliant! So it just shows that you should always be on the look out for potentially useful things, and make sure you're car's as empty as possible when visiting friends and family!

But it shouldn't all be able getting rid of things and bringing new things home. It's great when an unwanted piece of furniture can become a wanted piece again, but looking at what you have at home already is a good idea too. A (not very old) shower puff/sponge has unraveled this week, but a quick search online gives many ways to reuse it. My plan is to try and crotchet it back into a sponge again. Then we don't need to buy a new one and we don't have to throw the old one away, and I'm kept entertained for a few hours trying to crotchet meshing. I'll let you know how it goes!