In with the old and out with the new [Free Dryers]
Earlier this year, I almost killed myself repairing our dryer. Unfortunately, I never did get it fixed, but fortunately Stacie’s coworker had an extra dryer which she kindly gave us.
But for the last few months, the dryer has been squeaking like a mouse caught in a trap, only the mouse is an elephant and the mouse trap is more like a giant bear trap. Yeah, the noise was pretty bad, but it still dried the clothes. When my father-in-law visited a few weeks ago, we tried to fix the dryer. However, we couldn’t crack the dryer safe after 2 hours of work, so we decided to give up and put it back together.
Knowing that the same coworker had yet another unused dryer, Stacie asked if we could have it. That’s when we learned more about the history of the first dryer. Apparently the one she gave us was her old one and it had been squeaking for a year when she owned it! But the second dryer was in the house when she moved in and is even older than the first one she gave us. I didn’t care, as long as it works.
So last week, I took OUR old dryer (the one with the blown electronics) to the recycling center (for free) to make room for the “new” dryer. We went to Virginia today to pick up the new dryer, brought it home and tried it out. After the dust burned off the vents, it seemed to work perfectly fine, even if it’s from the time of Abe Lincoln.
Posting the “old new” dryer on Freecycle
Now that I spent about 2 hours rearranging and cleaning our mudroom, I realize that there’s no reason to keep the first free dryer. If this second free dryer dies, then we’re committed to just buying a new dryer. Therefore, I decided to post the dryer for free on freecycle.org. I did state that it squeaks and probably needs either the belt replaced or bearings oiled.
I see the moderator already approved the ad, so it’s only a matter of time before my inbox is flooded by tons of takers for the dryer, especially since it still works. The faster I can get it out of the house, the faster I can finish my work in the mudroom.
Thanks for the pointer to Freecycle! I may actually put an old saw on there. My wife and I were blessed with a free washer/dryer at our first apartment and giving them away is a great way to help out someone in need.
A former co-worker had an extra STOVE, if you can believe that — a friend left the state and dumped…uh, GAVE him…a bunch of stuff. This friend was walking down the hall at work and someone from another department was talking about how there was a bad kitchen fire in his place and he and his wife were scrounging around for new appliances. Like a stove.
My friend pounced. Stove? You need a stove? I have a stove! A couple of days later they were able to cook and he had more room in his garage.
And for those who don’t believe in appliance karma: Another friend of mine had a large, perfectly good television that she needed to get out of her living room so she could put her new wall-mounted one up. I suggested she call this other guy, who is big and strong and has a big-and-strong son, to move it for her. What actually transpired is that he and his family are keeping her TV and moving the current TV into the basement so that No. 2 son and his friends can watch dumb movies without driving the adults completely nuts.
Stove given away for free, television received for free — give and ye shall receive.
I love Freecycle, too.