Facebook Marketplace

 

At the end of last year, we moved to the west end to get a bit closer to the shop, and we’re settling in and getting used to living with stacks of unpacked boxes in the living room. It’s nice to no longer be playing chicken with who will unpack and just accept that they will stay there forever.

 

When we first moved, Jon tasked me with the thankless and endless job of scrolling through Facebook Marketplace to find “deals” for the various things that we needed—shelves, furniture, etc. It turns out, this is extremely difficult. The “deals” on the specific things you need on Facebook Marketplace are all really far away, in Mississauga or Vaughan and by the time you drive up there to pick up your $30 nightstand, you might as well have gone directly to IKEA and gotten some meatballs at the same time.

 

And then because the things we need are furniture and I am but a spring flower, I need to liaise with Jon about pick up, and these conversations do not usually lead to a successful transaction. Should we buy this wood treasure chest in Pickering that might make a good Christmas present for Caleb? I tried to get these two IKEA ottomans that also have a hollow space for the cats, but Jon needed to “think about it” and I missed it.

 

However, what is infinitely more interesting and fun is finding random stuff that we don’t actually need.

 

Here is a small selection of things from Facebook Marketplace.

 

This white rack that now sits in the shop. What a steal! This was one of my very first purchases and I feel it boded well for my future harvests. That being said, both of the people I asked to guess how much I paid for it guessed less than I actually paid for it, so I’ve stopped asking people to guess. It was $15, which I now understand to not actually have been “a steal” but it was from a place on Clinton Street. I sent Jon to pick it up, and it turned out the person gave me the wrong house number on Clinton, so small snafu there in pick up as Jon stood facing a non-existent number, reinforcing the slow, years-long simmer of doubt in my logistical organizing skill, but all was quickly cleared up, and now look at this beauty of a display.

 

 

Large box of short coffee cups from Starbucks. Yet another small snafu from Jon picking this up as there were fewer cups than initially sold in the listing, but we are nothing if not flexible.

 

 

Ah! Another sprite to join our home. A monkey lamp that actually  works!

 

 

And another lamp. Vintage and also a little crooked. Perhaps one day we will take pliers to it to attempt to straighten it out, but it’s sort of fragile. And who am I kidding that’s never going to happen.

 

 

A brand-new tin box of Crayola crayons from 1993. One of my favourite finds so far. Some years ago I saw this tin at the Riverdale library, holding (of course) crayons for the children’s area. What a lovely tin, I thought. And now I have my own! I’m not sure what I will do with it—the crayons will go to the children, of course, but the tin will hold some treasures yet to be determined.

 

 

And one of my biggest finds: this metal cabinet for my office. Ah, what a beauty. I am slowly sorting through my piles into these drawers, a meditative act that may take me years. Junia is already filling them up with her own various things, and I’m discovering them as I go.

 

 

And so I continue on, panning the marketplace for gems. Detachable hula hoop, heated trouser press, Santa Claus slippers, VHS tapes. It's untold panoply!

 

A metaphor for life. Things you need, things you don’t, things at all sorts of prices you may or may not be willing to pay. It’s been a micro hobby, driving around an admittedly somewhat small radius of the city. I’ve picked up French magazines and manga sets for the kids; Jon found a leather sofa that’s now in my office; I’ve collected more stools than I probably need. And it’s been fun to meet people across the city, and it turns out people are nicer than you expect sometimes. Dog crate people are wishing the best for our puppy they’ve never met and will never meet, parents everywhere have new winter gear that their kids grew out of before they could use them. All of us here in the city of Toronto, just trying to make it the best we can.