Despite a hectic work week, ST and a friend drove out to Carroll Gardens to pick up the newest addition to our kitchen – a new island! It’s the Värde from IKEA and we purchased it gently used for $100 from a nice guy on Craigslist. It retails for $300 so we feel very good about our first purchase for our renovation project.

Prior to this, we were using a bar table from IKEA to hold our appliances. We stuck a little table ST had for added organization. Clearly, it was fancy and effective.

While ST and our friend were in Carroll Gardens lugging our new island into the car, I cleared away all the junk under the table, disassembled the bar table, and scrubbed all the grime from our appliances. Kids, you should clean your appliances more frequently than once every two years.

The Värde makes such a difference. Its three drawers are huge – they hold pots, pans, bags of rice, and tupperware. The only problem was that we had to shove it through the door to get it into our apartment. The door, door frame, and Värde were all slightly damaged in the process.

As a result, there were unsightly scratches and white paint along the counter top. So we went to Lowe’s and picked up sandpaper for $4. I sanded all the paint out and then rubbed the sanded areas with olive oil. Scratches? What scratches? It looks as good as new.

While the Värde isn’t perfect (a stain in one of the drawers, fingerprints on the metal) it was affordable and meets our needs completely. This was our first time purchasing a large piece of furniture from Craigslist and it won’t be our last. I’m hooked – I even bought the Craigslist app for my Kindle Fire so I can troll more efficiently.

Total cost of this project:

• IKEA Värde draw unit – $100

• Sandpaper – $4

Total – $104

What sorts of things have you purchased from Craigslist?