I was feeling down in the dumps the other day. My husband was too. But you know what? We went home with a heavy car and $20 less in our pockets and smiles on our faces.
No, no... don’t call mental health services on us. We went to our local –dump- landfill drop-off point and made off like bandits. For a "donation" of a 20-spot, we got a brand new fireplace screen, still shrink-wrapped in the box; a foam head and sturdy card table for doing my summer craft show circuit; a 30-slot electrical panel still in its original box (missing the door latch, big deal); about 15 capstones for cinderblocks (also make good paving stones) and a cool old funky galvanized bucket for my basketry or to put a plant in.
(More below)
Behind the dump, past where the giant Easter bunny is positioned for the dump guys to aim golf balls at when they’re bored, is a nice area of native stone that happens to break along very square fissures to make perfect building stones. I know of another area where the rocks just fall out of the hillside along the road, and after asking the county if it was okay, my husband and I have been picking up these beautiful building rocks for absolutely free – these will become steps, retaining walls, a greenhouse and outdoor benches.
The bottom line is, if you’re in the market for any kind of home and garden supplies and get sticker shock even at the big box stores, there are many and sundry ways to get some very useful and just plain way cool stuff for very little or even free.
A lot of people know about Freecycle already, but in case you’re unfamiliar with it, Freecycle is an organization started several years ago in Arizona by Deron Beal. The idea is to keep stuff out of the landfill by gifting it to other people who may want said stuff via Yahoo Groups. Freecycle is now international, with 3,171,364 members and 3,949 communities around the world (as of this morning, anyway).
There are only three kinds of posts allowed on Freecycle: Offer, Wanted and Taken. That way there’s no chitchat clogging the list and it sticks to business, which is nice for time-constrained people like me! I’ve gifted people with storage shelves, a propane stove and huge windows and received a microwave, filing cabinet, outdoor bamboo plants and a bunch of other good stuff.
Another great place to get doors, windows, sinks and other building materials is the thrift store. Well, not just any thrift store – the trick is to ferret out the few that have these things. In my area, Mother Lode Christian School has one of those types of thrift stores and we bought an entire set of kitchen cabinets for my MIL’s new cottage for (I think, I don’t quite remember exactly) about $50, and a large cast iron double kitchen sink for $10. I know some thrift stores are hiking up their prices these days, but fantastic bargains are still out there if you hunt hard enough.
You might not suspect getting great bargains at regular retail stores, but
if you’re lucky you can score some fantastic deals. Some friends of ours went to order some windows from a window store, but it just happened that someone had misordered some new double-pane windows and the store wasn’t sure what to do with them. Not caring what size the windows were for their new cabin, my friends snapped them up for about 1/3 of what they would have cost new. Window stores are also an excellent source of free sliding glass doors, which can be used as-is if the frame is still intact or can make a great greenhouse or sun room.
Hubby and I recently discovered a stove shop a ways north of us that takes out old wood stoves and replaces them with new EPA certified ones. Since the old stoves cannot legally be sold in California as wood stoves, they are sold as "yard art" for between $50 and $100 for a perfectly good (if non-EPA) stove to heat your home.
For more ideas on where to shop for bargains, ask around! Get chummy with the good people at your local hardware store (don’t bother asking the big box drones) because they may have freebies on occasion such as used buckets, broken bricks for landscaping, dent and scratch, returns, and so on, or they may know where to get cheap or free materials.
Ask at construction sites or where someone is remodeling – if your neighbor Marge is tearing out her kitchen cabinets or carpeting, ask if you can have them if you help her do the work. Free plants can be had through landscaping companies that change out seasonal plantings – you can save some perfectly good plants from the landfill.
The man who manages the –dump- landfill drop-off point told me, "you would not believe the stuff people throw away. It would shock you. People move into furnished homes or go through a storage unit, and then hire someone to throw it all away because they don’t want to deal with it. Brand new stuff... it just makes you sick." Well, one person’s trash is another’s treasure – we now have a new fire screen, electrical box and other cool stuff because it was being thrown away. And where is "away" anyhow? In the case of those items, it was our house. Ha.
Okay, now it’s your turn – where have you found your best home improvement/landscaping/repair supplies for free or cheap? I love hearing stories of peoples’ bargain hunting triumphs!