A Purveyor of Free Stuff

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I am, unabashedly, what an internet ad about filing your taxes recently referred to as “a purveyor of free stuff.” It was an unskippable ad on YouTube during a CinemaSins binge, and after 15 seconds of viewing, I realized, “I resemble that remark.” The ad featured a young man who lived in a city and he apparently walked to a lot of places; he frequently passed items put out to the curb with a “Free” sign, and would bring many of these things home to his apartment. Yes, there were parts that were slightly unrealistic (like, seriously, some items just would not make it up those stairs), but as the guy decorated his small apartment with decent secondhand furniture, lamps, rugs, and knickknacks, I could absolutely relate.

It started after Covid lockdown; I’d find myself taking the long route home (since getting out of the house had become such a novelty), and as I took side streets and drove right at the speed limit, I looked around me. And as I did, I saw that more and more piles of cardboard boxes or plastic bins of clothes, books, dishes, toys, and various domestic items were hanging out on the sidewalks in front of people’s homes, a Sharpie-lettered “FREE!” piece of paper duct-taped to the nearest tree trunk. At first, I couldn’t imagine what was going on — why not just call the nearest thrift store and have them grab your unwanted objects? However, me being me, when I searched the internet for a reason to the new trend, I found several threads and articles explaining that thrift stores were overwhelmed. Everybody was taking the time at home to clean out their garages and basements and attics, and now there was literally no place to put it, since the thrift stores were taking on thousands of new items — while they’d been told to reduce open hours and staff and how many customers were in the building at one time. And after I learned this, I paid even more attention.

I started stopping at the curb on my way home; I’d take a few minutes to investigate the offerings, and see which houses were putting out actual junk that just should’ve been hauled to the dump, and which ones were simply wanting to offload their outgrown clothes/unused furniture/extra office supplies without the hassle of a yard sale. Then one day, I finally brought some of these offerings to my own home.

The tipping point for me came when I took Muffin to the park one afternoon, and saw one of the houses across the street was having an estate sale — just, for free. There were rows and rows of barely used linens, unpackaged curtains, dishes and lamps and small appliances, bunches of ottomans, nightstands, and kitchen chairs, boxes of stationery supplies and cookbooks and electronic accessories. I started packing towels, washcloths, flannel sheets, birthday cards, and one adorable magazine rack into my car, and topped it off with a pole lamp and a coffee table that screamed 1970s, but I did not care.

95% of those items I still use to this day.

No regrets.

At all.

It set off a pattern for the next 2 years of pulling over to the curb when I spot a pile of yard-sale-leftovers, ran-out-of-space-in-the-moving-truck stacks, or please-just-take-this-off-my-hands piles. It has helped me obtain much-needed day-to-day items that I definitely can’t afford new on my very meager budget. My grandest acquisition recently was a cat tree for Alex, which Alex loves.

I’ve found this hobby to be an interesting way to balance one’s karma as well. The clothes that don’t fit, the books that don’t hold our attention, or the storage devices that end up not pulling their weight in my cabinets or closets get donated to charities and non-profit organizations. Multiple times after doing this, in the next haul I’ll find something I’ve actually been looking for or hoping to get a replacement of. I know I’m not making a huge difference in the world by putting somebody else’s outdated paperbacks in a Little Free Library, or by passing on those Christmas mugs I’d never use, but I hope I do manage to bring a little joy to other lives.

Becoming a purveyor of free stuff has brought a lot of joy to mine.