I find great joy in finding deals on furniture and home goods which is probably why I love buy, sell, trade groups on Facebook. My family traveled to Houston this weekend to help my brother move into a home. He, his wife, and their son moved from a one bedroom apartment to a lovely three bedroom home. They didn’t have a lot for furniture so on Friday night we started shopping the buy, sell, trade groups and online garage sale groups in Houston via Facebook. We made offers and started arranging pickup for Saturday. We had a Uhaul trailer attached to our truck because we brought them some of our furniture. With a standard 48 hour rental we had plenty of time all day on Saturday to go pick up furniture that people were selling on Facebook via the buy, sell, trade groups. We did good!! My husband Justin and my brother Justin spent all day on Saturday picking up furniture my brother purchased from Facebook selling groups. They are probably really sore today because it was a lot of heavy lifting. I didn’t lift or carry half of what they did and I am very sore. My muscles ache today! But it was worth it! We found amazing high quality, solid wood, beautiful furniture.

When looking for items on buy, sell, trade groups and online garage sale groups there are some tips I have for you. These tips should help you find quality pieces that are from clean homes.

  • Look at the descriptions and ask questions. How old is the item? What is the item made from (“solid wood” and “wool rug” were two terms we were using in our search of quality item).
  • If the item hasn’t had any takers and it has been posted for more than 24 hours it is a good opportunity to make a reasonable offer. When you make an offer, let them know when you can pick up, that way they know you are serious. We did this and it worked! Again, provide a reasonable offer, so you don’t insult or hurt feelings. It make the experience more pleasant for all sellers. If something seems unreasonably priced, don’t bother, move onto another seller. Some people have a hard time parting with their items, as they have an emotional attachment, so they price items too high.
  • Ask if it is from a smoke free home. I forgot one time to ask this. Whoops. It took a lot of time and effort to get rid of the stench and from time to time I think I can still smell smoke.
  • Look a the background of the photos. Does it look like they live like slobs? Do they have heaps of garbage on top of dressers they are trying to sell? Does the carpet look filthy, like it hasn’t seem a vacuum in months? I want the items I purchase to be well cared for, so if they can’t even bother to take photos in a clean room how can I trust that they have taken care of the item I am looking to purchase?
  • Only contact sellers when you are actually able to purchase and pick up. Most sellers get annoyed when they post something on a Monday and a buyer says they want it but can’t pick up until the weekend. Sellers do not want to hold more than 24 hours. How do they know you are going to show up? If they hold for you and then you don’t show up they could have missed out on selling to someone else in the meantime. This happened with me when I was selling a triple stroller. Someone asked me to hold it for two weeks for them. I had two other buyers in line. My buyer backed out. By the time I found out (two weeks later) both of my other potential buyers had purchased from elsewhere. I had to go through the effort of reposting and selling all over again. Not cool.
  • Measure!! Measure the space where you plan to put the item. If they don’t have the measurements in their posting then ask them for measurements. You don’t want to buy a dining room set from someone and bring it home only to find out it doesn’t fit.
  • Make sure you don’t go alone to pick up, unless it is a porch pick up. If you are carrying items from inside their home take someone along. Be safe!

Below are some before photos of my brother’s home. Keep in mind they just moved everything from their apartment to the house the previous day and we were still putting items away.

Below are the after photos. These photos are from the main living room, dining room, and office area (being multi-purposed as a play space for their toddler as well as using as an office).