Lots of progress

[cjsmith]

All leftover cheese grated, flour-tossed, and frozen.

Books completely reorganized. Large armfuls moved to other rooms. Now there aren't stacks of books on the chimney and in front of the bookcase. Fiction, writing, and souvenirs (photos and travel books) are in this room and that's it. A major purge of all other topics (ahem, hiking and running and backpacking? sheesh) coming up soon.

Desktop computer area completely purged. I don't use any of that stuff. Out it goes!

Laptop "docking station" area set up. (Yeah, ok, I kept one mouse and a network cable.)

Couch cleaned up in the vain hope anyone anywhere might take it. What the heck do people DO with things like that? I don't want it. Its upholstery is torn and thus probably no one else will want it either. Yet it's a freakin' big thing to just throw in a landfill.

Cat snoring on nearby chair. Dinner coming soon courtesy of rfrench. (Sadly, bills still not paid.) I could happily use another day, but this is not too bad.

Comments

[jb98.livejournal.com]

You rock!

For the couch, do you have a local Freecycle group? It's amazing what finds new homes on that list. Just last week I saw a prosthetic breast go by.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. Four of them (we're close to a lot of town borders). Also Craigslist. Out of all that, one person responded & then didn't show.

It IS amazing what finds new homes! :-)

[platypus]

In decent weather, you can put a couch out on the curb (even without a sign saying 'free') and it'll be gone in the morning. At least, that's been true most areas where I've lived. It probably helps to have a university nearby, but in my parents' suburban neighborhood things disappeared pretty quickly too.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, we might wind up doing that. It worked for our NordicTrak. Man, NOBODY wants a NordicTrak, and that thing was gone the same morning.

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

Those places that always call you asking if you have any donations. Most of them will take a couch. Goodwill actually has a re-upholstery workshop.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Sadly, if I ask Goodwill about this, every donation center in my area will claim they don't have such a thing and I should be ashamed of myself trying to give them something so crappy. I wonder where Goodwill's re-upholstery workshop actually is, and how to get to it. The couch seems to have "good bones".

[shadopanther.livejournal.com]

A Goodwill donation station told me that they didn't take anything with torn upholstery.

I also have old furniture items to get rid of:
1) A couch with slightly torn (not in a spot that'd show with the cushions on) upholstery.
2) An armchair that's got upholstery damage in 2 places (and missing 1 of 4 feet)
3) A queen size bed frame (in need of clamps and glue for the laminate).

I think the Lazyboy couch I have also is structurally sound, but I have not found a place that will take it. Right now it looks like all 3 items above are sadly destined to go to the dump since I can no longer afford to fix them nor store them.

I attempted to give the couch and chair away free when I had a garage sale last year. The couch almost went but the taker didn't show back up to get it. I am very tempted to stick it out at the curb with a "free" sign on it, but with the coming rain (today, next 3 days) forecast... I'm hesitant to do that (especially since I'm no longer at the house where the old furniture is).

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

If I figure out how to advertise to Stanford students, I'll let you know too. O'course, from what I've seen of Stanford students, I suspect they aren't nearly poor enough to want my couch.

[shadopanther.livejournal.com]

So, today looks like the day that my brothers and I will take the old couch with dingy upholstery (plus a tear behind the cushions, a cushion cover that doesn't want to go on a cushion, and a tear near the piping), old chair (with 2 upholstery tears, missing plastic foot, and no lumbar support, and de-laminating at one time beautiful queen bed frame ...all to the dump.

I wish there had been another way. I hate taking such large items to the dump, I would have liked to have found another home or some place that would "recycle" them. ...But these items were too buried to photograph and try Craigslist before and I'm out of time, access, $, and storage space now. The access problem was one problem facing just putting it out at the curb with a free sign & hoping that they'd go (I'm not there to put it back in at night or if it rained). ...If I felt I could afford the storage space, I might have even stored them later & put them to my use when I get a place of my own (with slip-covers for the couch & chair. ...But, :sigh:, there is no space in my storage unit & I need to get rid of more stuff so I can shrink the size of the storage unit. -- So, when it comes time that I can afford a place of my own, I'll need to buy new or scour Craigslist myself.

At least I contributed to having given the couch and chair an extended life span vs. those 2 items going to the dump years ago. ...and the once beautiful bed frame does need a lot of work (and isn't quite my style). ...and I did try to get rid of the couch & chair free at my garage sale a year ago -- the couch almost went but the "taker" didn't come get it.

Sadly, no one seems to want couches and chairs if the upholstery is torn. Re-upholstery seems like a lost cause unless one is prepared to pay for it and keep the item. Searching through The Center for Development of Recycling (CDR): recyclestuff.org (http://www.recyclestuff.org) I found a lot of places that will take furniture for reuse (IF the upholstery is in good condition) and only mention of city bulk pick-up as "recycling" options.

...anyway, may you have better luck with your couch. (thanks for listening)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Aw, bummer! I wish there had been another way too. As I'm not under the same time/access constraints, I may be able to do the on-the-curb-free thing... but if that doesn't work I think I'll have to do the same as you: bring it to the dump. :-(

[shadopanther.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the sympathy, I do appreciate it. I think the couch was in the best shape of the 3 items, such as it was (even with cushions that liked to slip off a lot). At least the job is done.

Thank you for the comment reply -- it helps with not feeling so alone with this kind of furniture issue. Again, good luck with yours!

[aliceinfinland.livejournal.com]

Do you mean that you got rid of a desktop computer? What does one do with those?

(I take mine to a giant recycling station and I have no idea if they're dismantled or just landfilled after that.)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I cheated. I asked Rob to post to a local list asking if anyone wanted one. :-) Someone took one! The second one is still waiting. That may indeed go to the giant recycling station.

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

Yay! You must have a wonderful feeling of accomplishment to have those things finished! (Now if only I could get enough done to get that feeling...! =rueful grin= )

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It does feel pretty good! Too bad the room still looks cruddy. You can take a room with icky paneling and mismatched furniture and no eye for interior design, and you can clean up all the clutter, and it's still a cruddy-looking room. :-/

[butterfly-smile.livejournal.com]

you freeze your flour????

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Well, when it's stuck to grated cheese. ;-)

Here's how I make fondue: shred a bunch of cheese, shake it in a bag with some flour, and then melt it in just-barely-boiling wine (with nutmeg and a touch of garlic). I've done steps one and two. The frozen bags of shredded floured cheese should keep for a while... I hope!

[nosrednayduj]

Freezing your flour keeps the moths out, if you buy more than fits in one canister. And sometimes supposedly air- (and bug-) tight canisters aren't. We freeze all our grains. (We have a giant chest freezer; this helps.)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

My mom, a serious bread baker, freezes large quantities of flour as well.

Grains, plural? May I be nosy and ask what-all grains you buy besides wheat flour?

[nosrednayduj]

Different kinds of flour (white, whole wheat, sometimes rye, sometimes bread flour, sometimes two kinds of whole wheat -- I'm very fond of Arrowhead Mills Whole Wheat Pastry Flour to add fiber to cookies without giving them sawdust texture), several kinds of rice, couscous, barley, kasha, corn meal, corn flour, and I've probably forgotten some, being too lazy to go actually look.

But I have cooking as a hobby, so it's reasonable to have tons of ingredients "on hand just in case". My kitchen is to die for. It was billed as "having every possible appliance" in the ad for the house (it doesn't have a trash masher. Not that I want one, just that it's POSSIBLE ;-)

[nosrednayduj]

Oatmeal.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Wow, how cool!

I feel like a complete idiot for forgetting that rice is a grain. I'm not sure I ever knew what couscous was, exactly. I have only a little bit of that hanging around.

I am betting that you are just one eensy weensy step away from having a really good grain mill. :-)

[lkeele.livejournal.com]

You know, I've always wanted to teach myself how to reupholster furniture. The frame usually lasts a very long time on a couch, it's just the damned upholstry that gets all grotty and torn. First, I have to teach myself how to use a sewing machine. No, first, I have to acquire a sewing machine. :)

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

You're welcome to come pick up our sofa...

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of it is done with a staple gun.

[nosrednayduj]

About 25-30 years ago, the Stanford CS department had a grad student furniture pool. We had several things from it, which we dutifully cycled back after we had Real Jobs and could afford Real Furniture. Is it possible that reaching out to students will do the trick? Or are they all hooked into freecycle now and so you've done the best you can?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Some of the students are on freecycle, and I suspect some aren't. I wonder whether there's a good way to get the word out to a large number of students. Campus paper, maybe...