Monday, June 22, 2009

Trash or Treasure

Well, I have done it again and bought some garbage.  Oh, and some weeds.  I went to another estate sale on Friday and found what I thought was another manifestation of my gift for thinking of something I need and then finding it right before my eyes.  That actually did happen when I walked in and saw a long row of cookbooks and thought, "I wonder if  The Joy of Cooking is here because I have been looking for that for a while."  I started at one end of the row and towards the end there it was, twiddling its thumbs, waiting for me to find it.  It is a lovely hard bound edition from the 1960's and is even marked with some favorites for us to try.  This experience made me cocky as I meandered around the house so when I came upon a small chest freezer in the basement I didn't hesitate to snatch it up.  It was only $10 which should have been my first clue that something was not right.  We couldn't get it at that moment so I went back later with Matthew and Charles.  We hefted the thing out of their basement, up stairs, around corners, through doorways and then drove it home and were negotiating around our own tricky corners when I noticed that the seal in back is torn and there is quite a large space for air to get through.  Now, I wasn't completely negligent and did check to see if it worked.  It was plugged in and there was ice in it as proof that it did actually freeze things, but I hadn't noticed this one little flaw.  Matthew and I had a conference as the freezer teetered on the stairs.  How much might it cost to run with air billowing out the back?  And how long would it take to just save the amount that it would require to buy something new that was more energy efficient?  And why did I just pay $10 to strain my back, get my car dirty, and bring something else into my life that I now need to get rid of?   I don't want to just throw it in the garbage since I hate the idea of filling up the landfill, but at the same time how environmental is it to be wasting so much energy with old appliances?  Hmmm.  Craig's list here I come.

More on weeds and the environment later.


4 comments:

AndieF said...

I bought a cool cookbook at the Homeschool sale on Saturday too. Sorry about the freezer! I was all excited for you too! Lisa and I almost did something similar. She found a freezer for $50, but couldn't get it in her car. She called me to see if I could go get it, and we were going to share it, but it would live at Lisa's. I said I couldn't get it yet, but I would in a few hours. Meanwhile, she checked with her hubby, and he did some checking online on the model, and found it was quite old, and probably wouldn't work that great, so we decided not to get it.

Hit and misses are all part of the garage sale game!

The Queen Bee said...

Bummer! I sometimes get stuff and then get home and think... WHY did I buy that? You had such great luck the last time maybe it was time for some misses.

Emilie said...

Oh, yes, it's easy to get caught up in the moment and make a questionable buying decision. Yay for a vintage copy of Joy of Cooking, though. I love that cookbook. Was this the M&J sale in Northpointe? I didn't make it there on Friday, but did some damage on the 50/75% off on Sat. :)

Melba said...

Oh dear, I think I just donated my mom's old copy of "The Joy of Cooking" book to D.I. - wish I would have known you were looking for one!

I'm really "clearing out the clutter", so if there's anything else you're looking for, let me know!

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