Free Stuff: Dont' Be Afraid to Ask

There is a seminary in Hyde Park that recently moved. I know folks there so I asked if they had any bookshelves. They said yes, I asked how much and they said, free. I was thrilled. The first visit, we got three new bookshelves and two lateral file cabinets. It was awesome. Now I am working on getting all my books organized into them.

A couple of days later, after their big movie, we went back because I wanted another bookshelf. By then the facilities folks were pitching stuff like crazy because they needed to be out of the building the next day. I asked if there were any office chairs available. They said, it's all fair game. Crazy!!!

Sooo, we got a few things:

office chair for my office at church

leather(?) chair for guests

another lateral file

a shop vac (it may or may not be in working order but my husband knows how to fix vacuums)

a coat tree (I hope to refinish it this summer but I might just clean it up and leave it as is)

a reading lamp, black

a torchiere lamp, white

a laminating machine and the laminating sheets*

a case of paper

book ends (metal library kind)

African cloth (I don't understand either)

a tote bag

a side table

*Okay, when the laminating machine and the case of paper was still there I got worried so I double checked and it was, in fact, fair game.

That's the thing about moves. Folks get tired of moving stuff. The person who buys all the new stuff doesn't care about the old stuff and the clean up folks and the purchasers are rarely the same people. I'm not even sure if they have a conversation! Things to remember when coordinating a move for a company or family.

Things I wanted but couldn't fit in the van or my house:

cute little wooden file cabinet

nice gray couch

another black leather chair

gorgeous heavy wooden desk that I have no space for at home

a sideboard with drawers and doors

another sideboard with doors and a space for a fridge

a fridge

another bookshelf

another office chair for the home office

I would like to suggest that business and organizations, coordinate their moves with smaller, poorer business, organizations and people so that they can benefit from this phenomenal opportunity. It would leave workers and movers with less work, it would benefit people who can't afford stuff, it would make clean up easier, etc. Now that you mention it, I could make a whole business out of coordinating the "disposal, donation and sale" of items such as these. All I need is a storage unit, a truck, and a website. I'm not sure I have time for that sort of thing, honestly, but it's wildly appealing. It would feed my desire for free stuff, my love of logistics and my dream of giving away cool stuff to people in need and selling stuff to people who need a deal. That would be so cool! I could become a job creator because goodness knows, I don't have time to do something like this full time. Ooh, ooh, ooh, gonna have to pray on it!

Now about my free stuff, I'm still organizing but after I get it all together, I think my office and my house are going to be very cute and well organized.

The next time you see someone moving, and you are in the market for a few items, just ask if they have them? You might get a deal or even some FREE STUFF!

Juicing, Day 1

Sooo, I watched a movie called Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead and loved it. In it a very unhealthy, overweight man with an auto-immune disease decided to start juicing to detox, lose weight and get healthy. He went on a 60 day juice fast and traveled the U.S.A. sharing his story and his juice. He got super healthy, helped some other folks get healthy and now he has a website and endorsements. As I was watching it, it dawned on me that I had a juicer that I wasn't using. I purchased it last fall for $5 and it was sitting in my office doing nothing. At that point, I decided that I was going to juice.

Now it took me a few days the get going. I brought it home on Wednesday, after staff meeting, I went to the health food store (organic) and a produce mart tonight and I made my first juices. So cool!

First, I made the Mean Green Juice recipe from the movie. Here is the recipe:

6 Kale leaves

1 Cucumber

4 Celery stalks

2 Green apples

1/2 Lemon

1 piece of Ginger

I peeled the lemon before I juiced it, as instructed, and I totally forgot the cucumber. It was good. Neither my spouse or the Captain liked it and I didn't offer any to Sir. I will make this again tomorrow. Next, I offered to make a apple kiwi juice for Lewis. He accepted and the Captain suggested we include lemon and lime. So this is what we juiced:

2 apples (whatever was in the house)

1/2 lemon (organic from Sunrise Foods))

1 lime (Pete's Produce)

2 kiwi (also from Pete's)

We did that and the Captain loved it but Daddy thought it was a bit tart. So I tried it again with two apples and two kiwis. I couldn't taste the kiwi at all but the apple juice did not taste like store bought apple juice. It tasted just like apples. I thought that was really cool! I prefer that the store bought apple juice. Now the question is, how many kiwi do we need to juice to balance the apple flavor? I will try it again this weekend and let you know.

I'm really excited. I am not planning to go on a full juice fast but I am hoping that I can use juicing to fill me up so I don't eat as much junk and processed foods. I need to get drink container that seals so that I can make and take juice with me on my travels. I hope to chronicle what I am doing here to keep track of the recipes I use and the ones I create myself.

I look forward to doing this daily. Also wondering what to do with all the by product that I clean out of the juicer afterward. I wonder if it can be used for something? I'm looking that up now.

If you want more info on juicing, there is stuff all over the internet. I used myjuicecleanse.com, shout outs to them for having the Mean Green recipe and three other variations.