last week was my frat’s (tEp!) work week—a week where we fixed and cleaned up various things around our house. while i’m not living at tEp during the semester, i helped out with a few tasks: purging and cleaning fridges, landscaping, and cleaning out rooms. however, the most important task i took on was acquiring new chairs for our dining room.
previously, the dining room was filled with falling-apart plastic folding chairs. i received a budget of $10/chair to acquire some more aesthetic seating implements. conveniently, leasing contracts in boston were just about to expire so many renters were moving out. i set out on facebook marketplace and craigslist to snatch up their unwanted chairs.
chair 1
within two hours of starting my quest, i had arranged my first pickup in fenway. the seller’s apartment was notable for having a sketchy-looking elevator in the middle of the staircase, where you could see into the shaft through the metal grating. since the chair was foldable, i carried it while riding my skateboard on the way back, weaving through the crowds on newbury street (which is closed to traffic and open to pedestrians on sunday!).
chair 2 and 3
the next two chairs were in back bay, just south of prudential. the seller was moving out of a brick townhouse. the street was giving serious dark academia vibes. i had never been to the area before; it was cool to get the chance to see different parts of boston. unfortunately, i underestimated how difficult it would be to carry two chairs back to tEp on my own. by the halfway point, i was suffering quite a bit (luckily i was able to do it!)
chair 4
i enlisted my boyfriend to come with me to pick up chair 4. it ended up being right next to the aquarium (~2 miles from tEp, but i didn’t mind the walk; seeing the public gardens is always nice). the seaport area was very calm and peaceful, and the fresh breeze from the ocean was refreshing. the seller for this chair lived in a super bougie apartment that had a doorman!
chair 5, 6, and 7
these chairs came from a seller at a brookline apartment. this was too much to carry by walking; fortunately, some other tEps had a zipcar they were using for a home depot trip and we were able to pick up the chairs with the car. there are many trees in brookline and lots of almost fantasy/fairy-esque houses—it was very pretty!
chair 8
the last chair of the day was also from back bay, close to the commuter rail station.
chair 9, 10, 11, and 12
i enlisted some more friends to walk over to symphony to pick up these chairs. it was somewhat funny to walk among the freshman attending berklee’s orientation events while carrying chairs.
chair 13 and 14
these chairs were very close to tEp! the seller was moving out of an apartment on beacon st. they also texted me afterwards apologizing for misgendering me, which i found heartwarming and kind of funny.
these were also the only chairs i was able to acquire on craiglist—everything else was on facebook marketplace.
chair 15 and 16
once again the last chairs of the day. these were even closer to tEp; they were just a few blocks down towards the esplanade.
chair 17, 18, and 19
these were the last chairs that we picked up. the seller was in south end, another area of boston that i had never been to before! there were many parks and gardens that were fun to walk through.
here are some overall statistics from my chair gathering expedition! we obtained 19 chairs in 9 trips for $120 in total. this comes out to an average of about 2.1 chairs per trip and a cost of about $6.32 per chair.
lyricist 