Free Couch

We're trying to give away our couch (pictured below with puppies on it).

The only caveat is that it must be picked up from our Princeton apartment.

Leave a comment if you want it.

Note about Previous Post

I meant to put the last post "Herbs" on my other blog, VanStrudel, and inadvertently posted here instead. I'm keeping it here, because I thought you would enjoy seeing the garbage-found pot for the basil plants. In future posts I'll show off the rest of the pots we've rescued from the garbage.

Herbs

A few weeks ago I picked up a packet of chive seeds and a packet of basil seeds. I wasn't expecting much; we've tried unsuccessfully to grow herbs in our last few apartments. Luckily, our new place has much better light and outside space for the plants.

They've gotten quite impressive over the last few weeks (thanks to a lot of rain).


Special note to GarbageVan fans - the above pot was rescued from a nearby dumpster shortly after moving into our new place.

The Negative Side of Ikea

I recently ran across this article about how detrimental Ikea is to the environment. (Via The Consumerist.)

One of the arguements the article makes is that people buy cheap Ikea stuff and just toss it out when they get new or better furntiture. I think this is probably particularly prevelant on college campuses; the things I see in the dumpsters around are often Ikea furniture or of a similar quality.

We only have one piece of furniture actually purchased new from Ikea, our coffee table that we have now had for over 3 years. We've inherited a large desk, bookshelf and two desk chairs (we exchanged one dumpster desk chair for another) that we know were certainly from Ikea, although other furniture we've gotten secondhand may be Ikea as well.

With most of our dumpster treasures being part of this Ikea cycle of buying and throwing away, I have hard time hating Ikea the way I can hate corporate megoliths like Wal-Mart, but I can definitely see the harm that having disposable furniture poses for the environment. I still love Ikea and long for their furniture.

Typical Dumpsters After the Kids Move Out

We finally figured out how to get pictures off of our new phones and I ran across this one that the Jar had taken of some dumpsters around campus right after graduation.

This is a milder version of what the trash situation can be like. As you can tell from the picture though (I hope) there are at least two chairs and a bookshelf being thrown away.

The Jar and the Van Don't Buy Rugs: Part I

As I mentioned previously, we acquired a few rugs when we moved into our new apartment. Our old apartment was completely carpeted; our new one is completely not.

Here are pictures of the two bigger rugs we got that are now in our bedrooms. They were both clean and dry when we found them in our complex, just in need of a little vacuuming. We prefer the blue and brown stripped rug, but the green rug is nice too. Up next: hallway rug and under the desk rug.

Garbage Van Family Visit

Last weekend the Garbage Van's parents came to town and did a little dumpster shopping of their own!

Garbage Mom made off with this beauty of a breakfast-in-bed tray which she believes will suit her crafting needs greatly.




Garbage Mom also scored a nice mirror but ran off with it before I could photograph. She tipped us off to a nice rug as well, which I will post about next time in my new series: "Garbage Van and Garbage Man Don't Pay for Rugs."

For now, enjoy these pictures of puppies on our second (actually third) hand couch.