The last couple weeks my life has been revolving around these 2 seriously dated chandeliers – shiny brass, cut beveled glass and little candle light bulbs. Very eighties. Mardi Gras time – glitzy was good. We loved fancy then didn't we? However, we hate fancy-schmancy now, and no one will even entertain taking them off my hands. Even the noble Habitat for Humanity gave them a pass.
So I tried Craigslist. Not a single nibble. Then I listed them on freecycle.org. No takers. These things were home upgrade orphans, decorating lepers. I was starting to get a little indignant. I mean after all, it wasn't THAT long ago they were hanging in my house. Was everyone secretly sneering at my light fixtures? What ELSE are they silently disdaining?
I became maniacal about avoiding landfill contributions after I accompanied my husband on my first trip to the dump a couple years ago. I got recycling religion after that. Big time. Trash on a massive odoriferous scale will do that to you. I had no idea what was really going on there. I was appalled. Literally mountains of trash being shoved around by earth movers. And a long line of cars waiting in line to deposit yet more trash. Every US citizen should be required to make a trip to the local dump and see for themselves what we are doing. I'll have to speak to Obama about that. Later.
Enter: freecycle.org
It is the best thing. If you have something you'd like to give away (it must be free), you list it and usually in a very short time, people who can use it respond back, and voila! You hand it off and it gets a second life. Conversely, if you need something that's just not in the budget right now, you advertise and someone that has a spare responds and your need is met. For free. It doesn't get any better than that.
In this case though, I had to get creative. No one wanted my dowager chandeliers. However, a delightful young woman was very pleased to get my 14 beveled glass panels for her craft projects.
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