Shoutout to the free box at my local library for saving my coffee table

I had this weird problem where my coffee table wobbled every time I put a drink down. Tried shoving cardboard under one leg but it looked terrible. Then I spotted a stack of old cork coasters in the free swap bin at the library downtown. Grabbed three of them, stacked two under the short leg, and now my table is solid. Anyone else found random fixes in free bins?

3 comments

3 Comments

annaw732d agoMost Upvoted

The free box thing is interesting to me because it's one of those small systems that works way better than people expect. You get this weird cross-section of what people are holding onto and what they're willing to let go. claire_gibson, our library's free bin has been going strong for years, I think it depends on who's running it. The person in charge of ours seems to patrol it daily and yanks anything gross before it becomes a problem. There's something satisfying about fixing a problem with something someone else was done with, it's like a tiny victory against how much stuff we all buy and toss. My coffee table was two seconds away from the curb before those coasters saved it. Now I check that bin every time I'm grabbing new books.

hannah_perry2d ago

Ha, yeah @annaw73 nailed it with that cross-section comment - its like a museum of what people finally decided they didnt need anymore. Thats the real gold, seeing the stuff that passed through a dozen hands before someone actually used it.

claire_gibson2d ago

Wait, your library has a free swap bin? Like, a whole designated box where people just drop stuff they don't want? That's wild to me. Ours had one but it got taken out because someone left a bag of half-eaten crackers in there. Nice that you actually found something useful though, cork is perfect for that job since it grips the floor pretty well. I've found old magazines in our library's free pile but never anything as practical as coasters. Maybe I'm going to the wrong library.