As a college student it was a laugh to think that anything like new furniture was going to come into the apartment my roommates and I were sharing. And I was right, our entire apartment was comprised of that couch some body’s grandma didn’t need anymore, terminally scratched coffee tables, a squeaky rocking chair and where the TV came from no one knew. All in all we had what we needed, the only new item being a mixer that had been bought with birthday money.

Personally, my room was made up of a few pieces of furniture that I’d had growing up and had been in the family for years. But, I was without a desk, something no college student should be without. So I was on the look out for this one last addition to my room. The hard part was space; the desk was going to have to be very small in size and price.

Shortly there after I visited a garage sale and found something perfect. It was an old, old desk that had been sitting outside for years. I paid five dollars and took home. I probably paid too much. After days of cleaning off mass amounts of dirt and killing the bugs that came out of the innards, I had a fine desk. The venire was cracking and peeling and the drawers stuck a bit, but other than that if fit perfectly in my room and saw me through many nights.

That was the first piece of furniture I ever bought with my own money. Looking back, I may have done well to go to a second hand store and pay more than five dollars, but I learned my lesson. Although I was rather attached to my beaten up old desk, it was deposited in the trash once I was married and my husband and I had our own place. Now, I refrain from buying garage sale furniture that has the look of too many nights outside and too many little residents inside.