Annie's Free Store.

About 5pm last night, after the extreme lameness of my yard sale, we converted to a free store. This is to say, we put an ad on craiglist that said Hi everyone! We had a yard sale and I'd like you to come look at my remaining items, which have been marked down to FREE.

Inside 45 minutes, people were loading up. We have a few things left and a few people emailed and asked me to set things aside. I'm quite pleased.

What I'm not so pleased about is the official email I received from craigslist chewing me out for putting up the ad. Arrange pick up times, it said. Because otherwise people want something and then they come and they're disappointed.

Um. Seriously?

To me, this is a little like the moms at Allison's school who don't think children should open gifts at birthday parties because it makes the other kids jealous. Jealousy, like disappointment is something you just need to learn to handle.

But apparently adults can't handle the disappointment of driving out to take free stuff off my curb and finding that other people have already snagged it.

The rationale starts with disappointment and then moves on to something that is trying to be a bit more noble: wasted fuel. We don't approve of wasting gas going to look for something only to find it gone. This wastes money and will eventually cause Florida to sink into the sea.

We shift focus from the moral failing of adults who can't deal with disappointment to the (imagined) moral failing of anyone who would encourage other people to waste fuel.

It isn't really about fuel, though. Immediately after mentioning the environment, the writer shifts back to disappointment. Imagine, if you can, someone coming to get the hurdy gurdy you left on the curb and just as they're loading it up, someone else pulls up, hoping to snag the item, and they see that someone else is loading it up. A fight might break out! Now, do you really want that on your lawn?

Apparently, this has been a problem. And somehow its my fault.

I don't know. It seems to me a better approach would be to warn people who are inclined to put free stuff on the curb of the perils--say, needing to call the police if a fight erupts over your crap--and tell everyone else who uses craigslist to dial it down, already. If you can't deal with the disappointment and frustration of not getting a free item you wanted, then just don't deal with these free ads, because there is no guarantee.

Meanwhile, there has been no violence on my grass. People came for stuff all evening and a few things went overnight or early this morning. Everyone handled their burning desire to have my junk--and it really was junk--in a civilized manner.