My First Freebie: A Throne!

I have not yet finalized a design for the bathroom, but I have started collecting some pieces!  The first piece, and how appropriate: a white toilet. Yes, I started with a toilet, but it was ivory.  And you don't mix white and ivory pieces in a small room!  Having a white toilet allows me to go work with whatever I can find of the harder to find items- a shower or toilet.

I grabbed this a couple of weeks ago, before I went public with this project.  I had been scouring my favorite place on Craigslist-the free page- looking for items.  There it was . . . the magic throne . . . Okay, that's a bit weird, but I responded and it was offered to me.  But it was on the north side of the metro, and I live on the south side.

I justified the 50 mile round trip because there was another listing nearby for several free household renovation items.  Unfortunately, that listing featured several items set out in front of the guy's garage: first come, first served!  The first lesson you learn from Craigslist is that if an item is sitting in front of someone's house, first-come-first-served, it will be gone within 1 hour if it is at all desirable.  In my case, I showed up 3 hours after the listing posted and it was all gone!  In the end, I drove 50 miles for a white toilet!

My first piece of advice for getting free stuff on Craigslist:  respond to ads quickly, tell them the earliest available time at which you could pick up their item, assure them that you will be there on time, and ask them to hold the item until you get there.  Then make sure you show up on time!  Most people who put free items on Craigslist learn quickly that humans are liars as they endure no-show after no-show.  Eventually they toss their items in the driveway, list their address, proclaim first-come-first-served, and conveniently leave out their phone number and email address.  

Luckily, my toilet donor left the porcelain throne on his front porch before leaving for work.  I showed up, as promised, and now I am good for toilets!