stephmodo: 4 Steps to Easier {and Better} Craigslisting

4 Steps to Easier {and Better} Craigslisting

• 24 February 2011
























A friend recently mentioned how Craigslist was a huge time waster for her and how she'd spend hours perusing the site without a single purchase. Huge bummer, right? But we've all been there and done that I'm sure. Craigslist is a particiular temptation when you live in a place where it's full of so much goodness that you're always worried about missing out on an incredible deal. This conundrum raises a question (albeit not really important in the grand scheme of things, but noteworthy nonetheless), "How does one find go about finding great deals on Craigslist without wasting precious time?". Here are my thoughts on the matter and a few things I've done to efficiently manage the beast called Craigslist:

1. Download Craigseasy...so that when you are searching for good stuff, you can search efficiently. View my step-by-step tutorial here.

2. Download a Craigslist app for your iPhone (if applicable). I've enjoyed this one.

3. Make a list of everything you need for your living space that you'd be willing to purchase on Craigslist (or anything else you'd like to look out for, i.e. gift cards, trades, tickets, etc.). Perhaps a used mattress isn't in order, but how about a house plant?

4. Then, after completing steps 1-3, take ten minutes each day to look for just those items. If you're allotting just 10 minutes a day to peruse the latest listings, you'll always be on top of your game. The need to spend 2 hours viewing backlogged postings will simply not exist. Plus, you'll be far more likely to snag the "latest and greatest" in just a matter of minutes.

Good luck searching!

image by Stephanie Brubaker / pen from Muji / notepad from Modern Palm Boutique

12 comments:

  1. Goodness! You're missing the best tip for easy Craigslist searching--- use RSS feeds to do the searching for you. Instead of spending 10 minutes day doing step #4, enter your search term, say "mid century dresser," into the Craigslist search then scroll to the bottom of the results page and click the "rss" button, then follow the steps to add the feed to your blog reader as you would your fav design blog. Then as items that meet your search criteria are listed they are automatically added to your reader. Easy peasy!

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  2. So glad you like our zigzag notepad. It looks so nice with your neat writing... wish I had nice penmanship like that. :)

    I love all of these tips... I know so many people that find great items on Craigslist, however, I just don't want to spend the time... with these tips it doesn't seem so overwhelming!

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  3. Steph you saved my life mentioning craigeasy on twitter a few months ago. Just last weekend, we got the most fantastic sleeper couch in excellent condition last weekend for just $200 -- thanks to your suggestion which I've been following weekly for months now, looking for just the right one. We are SO happy with our couch we can't stop smiling. Looking for a "pair of chairs" is much easier and I'll definitely be trying Sarah's RSS suggestion. Thanks again for making my life a little more fun and a lot less work. ;)

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  4. Thanks for the tips! I know there are so many goodies out there but I haven't found them!

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  5. Sarah, what a fantastic tip! Thank you!
    Steph, great tips, but the problem I have encountered here in Portland is that all the good stuff is gone in LITERALLY 10 minutes! I have been searching for a dresser under $100 for two months now, and any posting that is over 20 minutes old is guaranteed to be gone. So searching just 10 minutes a day doesn't cut it. I never had that problem in the Bay Area!

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  6. Steph & Sarah, thank you so much! I often lose hours upon hours checking Craigslist...

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  7. Awesome! Thanks for sharing...love your blog.

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  8. Great advice, thanks! Plus I love the menu planning ideas.

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  9. Your Craigeasy tip has been helping me for weeks! Thanks! Picking up some porch rockers tonight! I like the RSS tip, but sometimes the fun of Craigslist is finding something you didn't know you even wanted. :)

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  10. Wonderful tips. Bookmarked it.
    Side note - could you teach me penmanship? I can't stop staring at your writing.

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Thanks so much for taking the time to drop a line. I really appreciate it!

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