I’ve really channeled my inner genius when it comes to using Craigslist. Selling and buying things are pretty straightforward. What I like most are those times I use it to help my fellow man out while helping me out.
One of the other things we wanted gone besides those two tons of rocks I sold on Craigslist was some very mature bushes growing near the fence. These things were huge.
Maybe if the previous owners planted them directly along the fence line instead of a zig zag pattern the bushes wouldn’t be as noticeable. We wanted them gone.
And while they provided privacy from our neighbors and our neighbors from us we realized we’d rather have the space for a vegetable garden. Plus, we get along with our neighbors. We don’t really see each other from that side of the house anyways.
How am I going to get rid of these things?
Craigslist of course.
This is the ad I came up with.
I posted it on a Sunday morning in the Free Stuff section and I received a text in less than an hour from someone saying they wanted all of them. And they wanted to come today to get them.
Holy Shit!! That worked.
I called the guy back, gave him my address, and he was on his way.
I was not prepared to do some digging that day and was expecting it would take a couple days to get some interest. Guess I was wrong.
Him, his wife, and their six year old daughter showed up with shovels ready to go.
Regular chit chat commenced with me telling them why we wanted them gone and he went on to say they wanted them to build a quasi privacy fence in their yard.
Turns out they lived in an older house in Rochester with a couple of acres. Somebody bought a similar yet old house next to theirs, knocked it down, and built a McMansion. One of those houses that is now the largest house on the street, looks out of place, and is gaudy.
They didn’t want to put up a fence and were looking for a cheap alternative. Hence, my bushes.
An hour later we had all five dug up.
He even helped me dig one up, dig a new hole, and drag it to a spot on the back of my property line. There was a gap between two bushes back there and I planned on moving it eventually. He said he’d be willing to help since I wasn’t charging them for the bushes.
Off to Home Depot he went to rent one of their trucks you can rent by the hour. Half an hour later he was back to load up the bushes which I helped do.
From the time I posted to the time he pulled out my driveway was less than four hours.
Talk about a win win.
And once it was done and the rocks were moved we were able to move our vegetable boxes there. Throw some mulch around them and the space looked a lot cleaner.
As you can tell from the picture there isn’t a whole lot of sun in that corner because of a giant oak tree in the middle of our yard that provides shade to most of the backyard. So we had to move the vegetable garden to the other side of the yard.
And two years has passed since the bushes were removed. Which means our kids are 3 and 4 years old now. Not babies. The space now has a sandbox and one of those Fitness Reality Ultimate Swing Sets.
My neighbors laughed when they saw me and that family digging the bushes up. Not sure if they like the current setup more as that means screaming toddlers are that much closer to their house.
There was no way in hell I was putting the swing set in the middle of the yard. Can’t be worrying about toddlers getting in the way of me playing my backyard golf course.
But what I am finding out with using Craigslist for something like this is you have to be willing to help. And if you put that in the listing I’ve found people are eager to move quickly if it solves a problem for them too. Which it did.
I’d probably have to pay a company $200 to dig them up and get rid of them. Or the same amount feeding my friends and family for help.
I’m sure I couldn’t get my friends or family together in the same time it took for that one guy and me to do all of this.