I am a sucker for free stuff.
I have zero qualms about answering craigslist ads or picking garbage off the side of the street if I think there might be a use for it.
In fact, some of my favorite belongings have been acquired by these means, and I don’t plan on getting rid of those items any time soon. I’m always happy to take items from family and friends, too, and those freebies have been some of the best scores I’ve ever experienced. For instance, my entire bathroom is decorated in hand me down decor, and it fits perfectly in the space. Once in a while, however, things don’t go exactly as planned and I wind up with some bad deals. Last year, my brother was heading out of the country for the entire summer and had no use for his apartment AC window unit while he was gone. He kindly offered to let me have the air conditioner totally for free, since he’d probably need to buy a new cooling system for his place when he got back. I was so stoked to have an extra air conditioning system around that I jumped at the opportunity. I installed the little cooling system immediately and enjoyed the cool, high quality air it supplied. For a week, that is, One day I returned home from work to find that the air conditioning unit had betrayed me; there was black water covering my entire floor, and it originated from the little cooling device. One professional carpet cleaning later, this free AC window unit didn’t seem like such a great deal anymore.