Lost (One Mind) and Found (One Knob!)

This house no longer feels like ours. With a closing date of December 15th, our ownership of it is rapidly coming to an end. I’m getting a little misty about the ten years we lived here but also excited about our next place. 

Derek asked me to take a bunch of pictures of garage stuff for ads on Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji. Tools, wood, lamps, lamp parts, and assorted things I can’t identify. He had a very busy week with voice-work so he asked me to post everything with his phone number as the contact.

Sounds good, right?

But here’s what I’m learning. No one actually reads the ad! I stopped counting after fifty Facebook messages and more than a dozen emails.  They just kept coming and I was powerless to stop them. Along with several photos, here’s what the ad said:

Garage contents sale. Various tools and other items – best reasonable offers. Free project wood. First come, first served. Friday and Saturday, Dec 1 & 2, 4-7 pm. Please text or call (Derek’s number) for Byron address.

Messages flooded in to me. I received one that read: belt sander. I responded, yes, was there a question? He wrote back: how much. People told me there was no number in the ad and clearly there was one. They asked me to hold things for them. They wanted to come early, later, on a different day, right now. Let’s just say it didn’t quite go as planned!

Derek was delightfully unpestered while people were driving me crazy. Ping-Ping-Ping!

The moral of the story is:

1. Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji work.
2. People don’t read the ad. They look at the pictures and react on instinct.
3. Men will pay cash for stuff that looks like rusted bits of metal. (I suppose it’s as mystifying as women buying stuff at a spa!)
4. Teach a person to post on Facebook Marketplace and he can sell his own stuff. Post for that person and expect to be annoyed for several days.

On a happier note, I found the lever (with a knob) that turns on the gas fireplace in our new home. Only problem: It won’t turn. Several years of inactivity have rendered it immovable. We’ll get a guy out to take a look. I cannot wait to sit in front of a cozy fire there. Even if its’ just for a few minutes between rounds of unpacking!