We helped these refrigerators find new homes!

So this weekend we cut the crap by selling 10, yes you read that right, 10 refrigerators.  Why on earth did we have so many refrigerators?  Well, let me tell you…

A close friend is in the appliance delivery business… as in, he owns the business and delivers, installs, and removes appliances all over the front range and into the mountains.  My hubby helps out from time to time as he can.  Last week our friend got a job removing refrigerators from a recently remodeled building.  This particular building had suffered fire damage in one section.  As part of the insurance agreement, he and my hubby replaced 11 refrigerators… even in the units that had not burned.  When asked what to do with the “old” refrigerators (they were only 6 years old and were in perfect working order), our friend and my hubby were told to “get rid of them”.  That was it.  Get rid of them. 

Our friend’s initial thought was to take them to the scrap yard and get about $150 for the metal.  Total.  For all 11 fridges.  My hubby pointed out that they were in perfect working order.  That would be a waste!  So, my hubby volunteered to thoroughly clean out the fridges and place an ad on Craigslist.  Our friend agreed. 

So, we washed them up and dried them out.  Not only did we put an ad on Craigslist, but we put some of the fridges out on the curb with "For Sale" signs on them.  We sold half of them that way!  My daughter even got in on the action!  She helped us clean the insides and made a little extra cash.  I'm hoping this will be a long lasting lesson for many obvious reasons, but she has decided to save the money she earned so she can buy her own iPod Touch.  

Within 4 days, we sold 10 and kept one for our garage.  Not only did we keep perfectly working fridges out of the landfill (at least the parts the scrap metal guy wouldn’t want), but we sold them to people who will continue to use them.  We made a little money, too!  That’s a win win!  I’d say we cut the crap on that one!  

 

Spoons.

When I started this blog, I said I would chronicle my family’s journey to simplicity.  I haven’t done much chronicling of my family life lately, so I apologize.  In fact, I’ve been doing some pretty lazy blogging by linking to articles that somehow fit the cut-the-crap bill.  Those are interesting, and I hope you enjoyed them.  Today I’m moving on to something else.

Spoons. 

Yes, you read that correctly.  Spoons.  And frozen yogurt. 

A new frozen yogurt place opened up near us that is pretty fun.  Yo Craze.  It’s an add-your-own-toppings place that has some yummy flavors.  They charge you by the ounce, so if you let your kids go crazy with the toppings, you’ll pay for it.  Anyway, they have these great plastic spoons in a variety of colors.  My daughter loves them. 

When everyone is done with their yogurt, they toss these spoons and the paper bowl in the trash.  The bowl I understand.  But these spoons are actually pretty heavy grade plastic.  To date we’ve saved 4 spoons from the trash.  Not a lot, mind you, but I figured we paid for them.  Why not? 

So this begs the question, why doesn’t Yo Craze recycle these spoons?  I’m not suggesting that they add the overhead of washing all of them and using them over… though, that wouldn’t be a bad idea.  But why don’t they just put a recycling bin next to the trash that says “SPOONS”?  There would be A LOT of spoons that didn’t make it to a landfill this way.  Every little bit counts.