September 16, 2008

More successful bike moving

I have furnished my apartment exclusively from other people giving me their stuff or selling it to me. No trips to Ikea! That's something I'm strangely proud of, and it's also the reason why the curtains in my bedroom don't really fit the window. An amazing resource for picking up free stuff is Amsterdam Freecycle.

Last night I went to pick up 2 nice black chairs from someone in de pijp who was giving them away. When I left work, I first stopped at the market to pick up some food, and filled up my bike-messenger-type bag with cans of beans, vegetables, pasta, and bread. When I got to the apartment where I was picking up the chairs, the (Dutch) guy who was giving them away said "How are you getting these to your place?"

The same way I've gotten pretty much everything to my place (including the large, heavy set of bookshelves that now sits in the living room) - my bike. So in another bike-moving victory moment, I managed to put 2 chairs (upside down) on my luggage rack and sort of just hold them in place with my left hand as I rode to my apartment while carrying a bag full of groceries on my back. The fact that a Dutch person thought I was kind of insane for tying to do all that at once made me feel a huge sense of accomplishment.

I think I'll feel even more accomplished when I finally get some proper bedroom curtains, hang some pictures on the walls, and paint some of my stark-white furniture to be any color other than white.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I belong to Amsterdam Freecycle as well :) I just unloaded a MASSIVE mirror on there that the person who lived in our flat before us had on the bedroom wall.

It's definitely a good place to keep an eye out for stuff, for sure!

Another American Expat said...

oh man, and here I am looking for a massive mirror! wish I had caught that. :)

Nomadic Matt said...

sounds like a better craigslist..