How to Be Good at Craigslist

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Justine Lorelle

You guys. I don’t want to brag (especially because I know that the second I do, this will stop being true)(rhyme!!!), but I am pretty dang good at Craigslist.

In the last couple of weeks, I have bought and sold about six pieces of furniture, which will make moving easier (sayonara, mammoth china cabinet) and make our new apartment prettier (he-llo, gorgeous leaning bookshelves from Crate & Barrel). Here’s a quick round-up of my favorite success stories:

1. Bar cart from Crate & Barrel
Original price: It’s not on the site anymore, but given the price of similar ones they have listed, I would guess at least $125.
Price paid: $25

We picked this baby up from a chic apartment building in one of the most desirable areas of Brooklyn. (Was the guy we bought it from wealthy? Put it this way: He had a doorman who was exactly what you would get if you combined Arthur and Lucius and who when we said who we were there to see told us to “knock because of the baby.” You know you’ve made it when you have a doorman who knows your personal life despite living in a 15-story building.)

The guy was nice as can be and had two adorable 6-month-old twins. He was obviously just selling the rack because it was easier than throwing it out, and his lack of concern about money was our thrifty gain.

Lesson #1: Try searching by the names of brands you like. I wasn’t actively searching for a bar cart (even though we would need something like this eventually), but searching for “Crate and Barrel” brought me treasure.

2. Black bookshelves from IKEA
Original price: They’re about $90 each on IKEA currently, but I’m pretty sure they were on sale when my roommates and I bought two of them almost four years ago.
Sold for: $90 for both, including delivery.

I listed these at $40 each, but a woman offered me $70 for them both and I took it. (I am always willing to engage in a reasonable haggle.) When she came to pick them up, though, she only had a small car and they didn’t fit. I offered to drop them off at her house the next day, and she threw in an extra $20. Win-win.

Lesson #2: Craigslist is supposed to be like a community. So if you’re polite an neighborly, you might end up getting more money than you even planned to charge.

3. Leaning bookshelves from Crate & Barrel
Original price: $130 each
Price paid: I’m getting two for about $100 total.

I wanted to find two slim, ladder-style shelves like the ones at the link above, but I wanted white ones. Target had a version for $80 each, but I really wanted to thrift something and I was confident I could find a better price (and quality) with a little patience.

Then yesterday, I found two sellers that were each selling one white leaning shelf from C&B. I contacted them both and offered each $50 (they were asking for $75 and $100 respectively). Both agreed (one of them actually turned out to be a girl from work who is moving to California…small world), and we picked them up on Wednesday.

Lesson #3: Patience is a virtue. (Although Joey might argue that I’m not that patient. He has asked me to please not buy anymore furniture until after we officially move.)

4. Coral rug
Original price: It’s now listed for over $200, but I paid around $90 because it was on sale and I had a coupon.
Sold for: $60

I was honestly starting to think this rug would be my downfall in terms if my Craigslist success. I’ve been trying to sell it for a couple of months, but people are understandably skeptical of purchasing fabric-based goods on Craigslist. So even though we only really used it for about a month, it was hard to convey just how good of condition it was in on a (sometimes sketchy) website.

I lowered my price and renewed my listing last week without much hope it would sell.

And then — here’s where a choir of angels starts singing — I go an email from a woman who wanted to put it in her kid’s playroom. She haggled a bit, and honestly I was nervous she would turn into one of those Craigslist phantoms that says they want your stuff and then just vanishes into the night. But she didn’t. And she even emailed me for follow-up information because her aunt loved the rug and wanted to see more pictures. And she’s coming to get it on Sunday.

AND I’M THRILLED.

Lesson #4: Don’t be afraid to lower your price. The alternative is just donating the item for free, so any gain is still a gain.

Bonus Lesson #5: Take time with your ad. I always try to write them in a business-like-but-friendly voice. I want shoppers to know I’m legit — a real person who probably takes good care of her stuff.

In the same vein, don’t just post crappy photos you snapped in the dark with your phone camera. It’s just like selling an apartment on Craigslist; clean it up, use good lighting, style it a bit. I always try to include one atmosphere shot of the item in my home (another reason why taking photo tours of your home at its best is a good idea.

So those are the big transactions so far. All I have left to sell is our dining room table and chairs, so hopefully we can move those pretty quickly. Our move-in date is most likely going to be the last week of March, but I just need to get the old table unloaded before April 1st. Wish me luck!

What are come of your favorite Craigslist lessons and tricks?

Round-up.

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Justine Lorelle

Ughhhh. February, We get it. You’re the worst month ever. You have the worst weather ever. You can dump 30 inches of snow and then encore with freezing rain. We get it.

Now knock it off, okay?

For those of you not enjoying the splendor of this winter ~~nightmare~~wonderland, here’s what I am staring at as I type this:

Gorgeous, non? (Answer: Non.)

Soooo anyway, now I’m cold and wet. It’s magical.

You would think having grown up in the Midwest, where this kind of weather is an all-too-common occurrence, I would be used to it.

Spoiler alert: I’m not!

Whatever. I’m over it. (Mostly.)

Anyway. This weekend was good, at least. After traveling so much over the last couple of weeks, the hubs and I finally got to hang out. Yesterday we had a zombie-themed day (quite on accident) when we saw Warm Bodies (hilarious, by the way. You just have to go in expecting ridiculousness. And “forget what you know about zombies”, as my husband hilariously put it. Just try to out all that wizened, scientific knowledge out of your head that you have garnered from The Walking Dead.) and then later, incidentally, watched the “mid-season premiere” (ugh) of TWD.

We also had dinner at my in-laws’. But that wasn’t zombie-themed. (Unfortunately.)

Next weekend, we’re having a couple of people over for dinner, and then it will officially be the end of guests in our current apartment because it will be time to start packing it up. Eeee.

I’m excited and preemptively stressed out at the same time. That’s a thing, right?

So…you wants to come help me bubble wrap things next week? Eh??

Stuff.

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Justine Lorelle

I’ve always been one of those people who can’t help but plan ahead.

Sometimes this annoys my husband. He’s worried that my constant planning means it’s impossible for me to ever just enjoy a moment when it finally arrives.

He might be right sometimes.

However, at this point, planning is a crucial part of my personality that I’ll probably never root out completely. And given the amount of peace it gives me to plan, I’ve accepted that.

By that I mean, I’m less of a crazy person when I feel like I have a plan. And with our upcoming move this spring, there’s obviously a lot to figure out.

One of my least favorite parts of living in New York is the moving process. First of all, you better not even dream of looking at an apartment until you are practically getting kicked out of your current place. So while I’ve been keeping tabs on certain neighborhoods and have an idea of how much I’m going to end up spending, I won’t really know where we’ll be living until a week or two before.

I do not like that.

The other thing I hate is that, given the strict timetable, you are forced to move very quickly. (I also hate feeling rushed.)

This wasn’t so much of a problem when we first moved into our current place, but now moving requires transporting several large pieces of furniture and a lot more breakables. I get a little stressed just thinking about it.

Having moved a lot myself in the last five years, I kind of have it down to a science. And I know that one of the biggest parts of moving is getting rid of tons of stuff while both packing and unpacking. (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had the thought, “Why the heck did I pack this?”)

So, while I cannot do much actual planning for the move, I’ve decided to do as much organizing an stuff purging before March as possible. Starting with every closet.

And hoo-boy, you guys. Did I get rid of a lot of stuff.

There’s also a giant IKEA bag of stuff on the ground, you just can’t see it.

So…yeah. I needed to do this.

But besides helping me prep for a (hopefully) seamless moving process, it also gave me the opportunity to organize my clothes. Which, I don’t know about you, but I love doing. I seriously get a very similar thrill to what I get when I buy new clothes. I’m a freak.

I also color-coded everything. I’M A FREAK, OKAY?

I also organized my underwear drawer (with new drawer inserts I picked up from IKEA), but my friend Taylor convinced me it would be indecent to post that photo. Because y’all are a bunch of prudes or something. Or maybe it’s just that I would someday regret broadcasting a photo of my underwear drawer to the internet…whatever.

So anyway. I’m feeling much better about moving my clothes. My next projects are the desk area, the scary dark corner cabinet in our kitchen (everyone has one, right?), and the bedroom as a whole. Should be interesting.

Drop me a line.

Posted on August 29, 2012 by Justine Lorelle

So I promise I wasn’t lying to you when I said I wouldn’t be doing a lot of posting this week. I really am busy.

BUT.

Yesterday, I posted a photo of my new work desk.

It’s fairly barren, which is to be expected, but I want to dress it up a bit down the line.The only thing that was currently on my desk was a card (featuring narwhals) that I got from my dear friend Susan a while back.

One of my regular blog commenters and Instagram followers, Courtney, had the BRILLIANT idea that I should petition my readers to send me postcards to decorate the back wall of my desk.

Um…I love that idea. Like, really.

So basically, what I’m asking is: Would you guys do that? Post cards are cheap, right? And you would totally be famous. (Kind of.)(In my world.) AND, if you have a blog, just include the URL in the postcard message and I’ll even feature you here. On my OWN blog. Kind of meta, right? We’ll call it Blog-On-Blog Love. Because who doesn’t love a scandal?

Anyway. If you are interested in sending me a super awesome postcard (remember, this is going to be displayed in my super cool new office…make me look good), please leave a comment with your email address and I’ll be in touch with where you should send it.

This is going to be fun! (Promise!)

What I did today.

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Justine Lorelle

Fair warning: I feel a bit exhausted as I write this. There’s a good chance it will make not that much sense. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED.

So! It’s my first day of my time between jobs. Which, obviously, means I have a lot I plan to get accomplished.

Fortunately for you folks, I’ve decided to spare you the long list of things I plan to do and instead just tell you when I’ve accomplished something. AREN’T I GENEROUS AND BENEVOLENT?

Yeesh. All-caps are apparently a symptom of exhaustion.

Let’s get in to why I’m exhausted, shallll we?

So I had my list of things I planned to accomplish. Here’s a run-down of my day thus far:

1. Woke up with the hubs around 8. Days off don’t start themselves.

2. Hit up a nearby trail to knock out a 5-mile run. (Ahhh, half-marathon training. Missed ya.) It was also a good opportunity to break in my new shoes AND get some use out of my new favorite app, Nike+ Running.

3. IKEA RUN! Okay, so we can all agree that IKEA can be a beast. It’s pretty much impossible to walk in without wanting to just give the IKEA gods all of your money. Fortunately, I was armed with a list. And I can honestly say I only bought the things on the list. And one was for a gift. SO GET OFF MY BACK.

Woo. Lost it for a second there. Let’s blame it on the IKEA hangover. Anyway.

I also learned things at IKEA. For one, the store part doesn’t open until 10. (I got there around 9:45.) Fortunately, I also learned that the cafe opens at 9:30. Hooray! AND I learned that coffee is free in the cafe before 10 a.m.! Hooray, again!

4. Then it was a quick stop at the craft store for thread. (What’s that? Did I just hint at a sewing project? GUESS YOU’LL HAVE TO WAIT AND SEE.)

5. Finally, I FINALLY made it to Goodwill to donate the pile of crap that has been sitting on my dining room floor for quite literally months. We have so much room for activities now!

6. Then I got home and finished the bathroom decor! No really! It’s done! Check it out:

Cute, right? It officially feels like a real bathroom in there. As opposed to a dorm bathroom, I guess. The point is, it looks nice in there, and it’s officially done-done. Only took me a year and five months. And it’s still only the second room in our 1-bedroom apartment I would consider done-done. (The other is the kitchen. Mostly because there’s only so much I can do in there.)

So now I’m sitting at the computer. I had plans to start on the afore-hinted-at sewing projects, but I can’t find the pedal to my sewing machine anywhere. It’s maddening. (But it has to be somewhere, right? RIGHT?)

On the bright side, I’m actually super tired, so I’m learning to appreciate having nothing I can do right now. (Plus, I already cleaned the bathroom and kitchen so I literally can’t do anything else right now.)(I’m a freak, okay?) And I’m going to a boot camp class tonight, so I should probably conserve energy anyway.

What do you usually get done on your days off? Anyone else a crazy overachiever like me? Also, any guesses where that sewing machine pedal is?