#SocialMedia To the Rescue – Furnishing my Apartment
#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @Rishegee
Everyone talks about how social networking is the new advertising, the face of marketing, the future of communications, the solution to all of life’s problems from world peace to what the hell is all that gunk that is clogging up my kitchen sink?
So being a new resident of the greatest city on earth, and faced with many crazy obstacles to overcome, I’ve become ever-reliant on these so-called tools of the future. With my Google Maps telling me where to go, my NYTimes app keeping me abreast of the news in the 3G-service-unfriendly subways, and Foursquare and Yelp making sure I find the Starbucks and kosher restaurant in my nearest vicinity, I can feel it – I am swimming in a sea of technology, and loving every second.
But here’s the challenge: Everyone says people are now connected, more than ever, through social media. I’m a huge proponent of this theory and will blabber about it incessantly when given the chance (I’m particularly talented at cornering the person most likely to fail at hiding their glazed over look while demolishing sushi at a cocktail party, in fact).
But I know that there are many who live in a blind universe, who don’t worship at the altar of SM as we do, and still prefer to follow the footsteps of their forefathers, papering the walls with their printed resumes, buying the Saturday paper to peruse the apartment listings, and combing curbs on the 1st to find furniture bargains.
Having already found my apartment (through online listings, natch) and job (through a friend of a friend, of course), it was time to face my fears of being unable to make it independently in New York – and ask for help.
Being independent is not about making it on your own, a wise man once said. It’s about being able to find the means to get help where necessary, without being bailed out. Or maybe that wise man was the little voice in my head, trying to make me feel better.
Either way, it was time to find something as basic as a bed and a cupboard – and not pay through the roof for it. In fact, ideally, I’d be paying nothing for these things.
Fabulous Tours of the Universe (TM, or not TM) are very efficient moneyeaters. They consume all your cash until there’s none left, not even an eensy weensy bit for you to tip the nice man who helps you carry the armoire up the stairs. So this girl had to get resourceful, and resourceful I did.
Part I – this Sunday morning.
I need a bed, I need a dresser, I need everything for my apt, and I’ve got none. I post the crisis call on Facebook.
“Taking all offers of free or very very cheap furniture in the Brooklyn area…”
Two minutes later, I have a response from a friend in my inbox. Her friend is moving out today and needs to empty a storage unit by 5pm – in my neighbourhood. Next thing you know, she has picked me up, shown me the goods and helped me transport back home a fabulous Urban Outfitters dish chair (so ridiculously comfy I want to cry), a grown-up looking Ikea dresser with a fancy glass top, a foam mattress topper so I can dream nice and comfy, and even a boxful of dishes, decorative stuff and – most importantly – wine glasses.
I’m carrying it up and down stairs into storage at my aunt’s place (the official move isn’t until October begins) and my cousins are sitting on the couch and falling in love with this stuff.
“How much did you pay?” they chorus, one ensconcing her baby in the dish chair, the other running her fingers over the fake varnished wood of the dresser, Ikea style.
I’m reminding them of the wonders of social media, and informing them of a promise to take the gorgeous donor out for a dinner in LA next time I make it out west, when my iPhone beeps with a new Facebook message.
It’s the girl from the Upper West Side, a Facebook acquaintance I met once or twice at a dinner back in February on my whirlwind NYC reconnaissance mission.
She’s giving away a queen size bed-frame, and an Ikea bookcase.
Queen nerd bookworm is mucho mucho excited by this news, and somehow all my ancient talents from managing corporate accounts comes into play, and I am the logistics coordination queen. Within two hours, I’ve arranged a tight schedule for the evening involving minivan borrowings, driver assistance, and landlord
cooperation – all without spending a dime.
We drove home via midtown, my furniture safely arranged in the backseat, and I felt a lurch of hope and – yes, finally! – excitement as I saw the lights of Times Square ahead of me.
This city has infinite possibilities. It’s the kind of place where you can furnish an apartment for free through the gifts of strangers, and call on the help of anyone and everyone who has ever done the same thing as you in this big, bad, city. Let’s do this, New York.
On that note: @rishegee is still taking all offers of furnishings, particularly closet/clothing/wardrobe storage items, for her new abode. Pretty and decorative things would be lovely, too. I also kind of need a clock. Let’s harness the power of the nerds and get the social media chain reaction going! Viva NYC!