 So I think I kind of know what it feels to be like a refugee. Salam everybody. It's Reema here from the MCC Service Refugee Support Team. Welcome to our first episode in our series, Making It in America. In today's webinar I'm going to be showing you guys how you can use different apps to furnish your home for free. So first of all I'm going to tell you my story and how I came here and then how I started using these apps and I'll show you all the different things that I was able to find on Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, OfferApp. And then I'll show you how to use different apps and I'll show you how to sign up to one of the apps and then it's kind of the same for all the different apps. And then we'll go to the Life Q&A. I was living in Syria and I was married there, back before the war happened. And then I had a home, I was newly married, I was there for three years, so when you're first married you furnish your home. And then I'm the kind of DIY kind of person so we painted the walls, we kind of made things. And then the war happened and I just had to literally leave everything behind and pick up and go and just like I had once a case of my personal belongings. So I think I kind of know what it feels to be like a refugee and have to just leave everything behind. And then actually after that I've had to do that, I've had to do that twice in my life. So that was the first time and then the second time I had been living for like 10 years in Saudi and then I had all my stuff and my house was furnished by then and everything. I mean it was slow but it happened. And then we had a family emergency and we had to come take care of my father while he was ill. So for the second time I had to also just pick up and leave and just leave everything behind. And then we came here to the States and at first I was staying with my family and then we found our own home. But it was like I had to start from scratch and by then I had like four kids and we like there was their studies and like I was busy and I didn't really have time to like just figure everything out. Like I was in the middle of my life kind of and I was like oh my god I need to like literally start from scratch. I need everything. So I was very blessed to have like some family members like bring me like just a few plates so that we could have our first meal in the house or like just a cover to cover with. I mean so but then I slowly learned to use the system to my advantage. So I realized that in America there's just so much. It's like such a consumer society and they just like buy things and so one of my sofas that I will show you in a little bit. The lady she's such a sweet lady. She her mom is Italian and her mom had decided that you need to get new sofas for your guest room for your like living room. And so she bought new sofas and when we went to see the sofas her husband was like I honestly don't know why we're replacing these sofas. But it was work to my advantage because then I got her sofas that look brand new but she didn't need them anymore. So there's a lot of people that come and go and change furniture and buy new things and there's always like extra things that people just need to get rid of and they're willing to give for free. So I started learning how to use like I started with offer up and Craigslist. I did not have a Facebook page so I wasn't that easily able to use Facebook Marketplace but I would use my sister's phone to look up things because she had a Facebook page. So I started like looking for things for free. I was like I've lost everything I've had so many times that I don't want to actually invest in new things and I'm kind of the fatality that I don't want to actually like I just want to reuse recycle be more green for them. And so I found like my dining set for free. And at that time I didn't have a necessarily or like a car that I could use to bring it. So I asked my cousin I was like can you please bring this for me. It's like an Oakland and he borrowed my cousin's van and we like I don't know how he fit the whole dining set in there but he did and he brought it over. So I had that piece actually I think that was like one of the first pieces I got even before I had the keys to this house. So I was like really excited. We have something to sit and eat on. And then slowly I would look up like so many different listings and share them with my family like look at this. What do you think of this? What do you think of this? The thing with listings that are on there for free if they're good they usually go so fast. It's like somebody who's moving and trying to get rid of something. So they'll go really fast. So I'd be like OK let's like let's get this before it's gone kind of thing you have to be like on time. I'd message them right away. So I was on there like just looking up free stuff and as soon as it comes up I'm like hey is this available? Can you send me your location? So then I got also I found this day bed for free and I got it. So that was like as soon as they moved in that was the one of the first things that I like kind of put together. I built it and I had something there. Also there was a listing on Craigslist for a China set. And it was a beautiful, full on like China set. Lenox it's like Trimmed with Gold and it's like served like for 13 like it has setting for 13 place settings. And these two sisters had inherited so many China sets from their grandmother that they were like OK we want to give one of these away but there was a catch. It was like you have to send us your story. So I kind of wrote them an email. I was like this is my story. I love having like family over and hosting and I would love to have your China set and I have had to like restart and like pick up and leave so many times that I don't have anything right now and they were like so then I wasn't sure if I would get it but then my one of my cousins sent them an email. I was like you guys I don't know if I'm going to get this. Please make that. I do and then one of my cousins sent them an email and she was like you guys I really think my cousin should be the one to win this set. Please let her have it. So I was like and then eventually we found out that I did win. They like read all the letters and they're like OK you can have the China set. So I was really excited. I went with my aunt and I made them like a pecan pie just like like as a thank you and so I went to them and we picked it up. It was like in Berkeley or Oakland or something. And it was just really nice I messaged them. They're like we would love to see pictures of you using this. So I kind of did send them pictures eventually. I also sent them like a gift of like a book or something. And then so that was one of the second things we got. And then there was a story of this one person was giving away lots of things and he was like come to my house at this time and I'm giving away lots of things. So I went. So that's the thing. I went like I was there on the dot on time but I had realized that there were people there already earlier. So like sometimes you want to be there early when there's like people are giving away things because people will pick up and like go there was like these Asian ladies that are just trying to get everything. So I just kind of like was like whatever is my dessert I will get. And I went really early in the morning. I just picked up and went. And I got like he had these dishes these white dishes that were given to them. They were a wedding gift that they got 30 years ago. And these are like my everyday dishes that we use now. The whole set and then there was like a whole bunch of what did we get from him. It was like a whole bunch of Tupperware containers which were very useful. And like a lot of bathroom soap dispensers the rags for the bathrooms. Just a lot of things. I just kind of took there was like a little stool that I got for the kids. I put their Legos in it. And also there was like a toaster some kitchen tools and things. And then there was like a kitchen aid on the side. So I was talking to this man and he's like yeah I retired and I'm moving. And he's like I kind of wanted to give away these stuff. I didn't want to like try to sell them. I think I was like you know I've been in your place when I just recently had to leave. I just had to pick up and leave. And I was like my husband was like let's try selling things. And I was like no let's just give it away. So that's what we did. And I was like you know when you do that. And he's like yeah it's like kind of paying it forward. So I was like yeah. And then when I was talking to him and things he's like you know see that kitchen aid I was planning on selling it but I just want you to have it. It's your gift. Welcome to America. And he gave me like this beautiful brand new kitchen aid. So that was like one of the other things I got. And then the lady whose mom was Italian. Her couches were actually for sale on offer up for $60. And I was looking at them and I was like okay cool nice. I was going to go check them out. I was on my way back with my aunt from picking up the china set. And then we stopped by her place to go check out the sofas. And my husband had messaged her husband I think and they agreed that because we didn't have a way of like getting the furniture. We didn't have like a van or a truck or something at that time. So he was like okay I can deliver them to you for like a price. So he's like pay $20 and I'll deliver them to you. So I go get that works great. So then I went to see them and they were like in great condition. They're like Thomasville sofas. These Thomasville sofas that were newly reupholstered. And they were just she didn't have any kids so they were just sitting there in her living room. Barely used. They look like perfectly new. So then for the sofas. So then when I went and I was kind of like talking to her and we're like oh this is you know like I just recently moved and I'm trying to get stuff. And then she was just so sweet. She like took us into her home. She gave us some fruit from her backyard and she just showed me around. She's like you know I have a guest bed in my guest bedroom. And we bought it from Costco. We recently bought it to like replace this other bed. But I don't know why it's like it's kind of crooked. It's not like sitting well on the floor. So I think I want to get rid of it. Do you think you could use it? I was like oh perfect great. And she showed it to me. I was like okay thank you. And then she she's like yeah and I have these side tables. Do you think you could use them? I was like yes please I actually don't have anything so like anything would be very useful. Okay so then um yeah and then she was like and I have these lamps and I was like okay great. And then she just gave me all these things for free and they were in great condition. And her husband like was supposed to only bring the sofas but he just kept going back and forth and bringing these things for us for free. So we've got the sofa. We got the side tables. We got the labs and like that I was like oh wow I have a living room to sit in now. And we had the dining room. The dining table in the kitchen I was like oh wow this is coming together. And I asked my cousin to help me like set up the bed so he built it and then I don't know if they had done something wrong but when he built it it was perfectly fine nothing was wrong with it it wasn't like creaking or anything. Um so so then I had that bed and then the next day she messages me she's like I have this like genuine leather armchair and an ottoman do you think you could use it? I was like yes please anything would be very helpful. So she sent me that and for a while that was like that took up the space in the other room. I remember like I was missing little things here and there like once my cousin was over she's like you need like wooden spoons for the kitchen like just to stir your food in while you're cooking and I was like I was like yeah I know she's like the only cost a few dollars I was like I mean it's not about the money like even just figuring out where to shop for things if you're new in a country or like just getting there getting a chance to shop it's just so much you need to get when you're restarting from scratch that um sometimes it's just it can be overwhelming to like have to start from scratch like literally you need everything um sometimes we'll thrift things from like secondhand shops um mostly the frames in my house I've been from thrift shops and I what I do is I'll just like either flip the picture that's in there or paint over it or do something and then put like either a picture of some kind of Islamic art or like an ayah or something um so it barely cost me anything to make to furnish my house I haven't been in that and I feel like that was a blessing from Allah um so a lot of things I would just sometimes friends are like wanting to give away things and like okay perfect thank you or like families moving and they're like oh we have these extra things and and some things were like uh a few gifts here and there I feel like this is a very useful tool to add um to your like um set of tools and just like that you could use to find things for free because I think it's unique to hear that you can find so many things that are available for free like people are just moving and they want to give away things and sometimes you have to act fast because they kind of want to get rid of those things before they have to move out or before the end of the weekend um so you do have to act fast sometimes like I remember there was like this desk that was just so beautiful beautiful wood and I was like oh this is so nice I want to get it but by the time I kind of tried to get it it was gone but I did find um this other desk um I found a listing I think it was on offer up of a desk it was for free um and then I just went and they kind of um sometimes you they just leave it outside by their house and you can just pick it up so that was the arrangement so I just went with my husband we just picked it up and we left um and now it's in the room so I had the desk and then I needed to get a chair for it so I actually found this wooden chair that was like on wheels um I found it for free one day we were like visiting my in Los Infrima and there was like somebody who was so sometimes that I'm going to visit somebody or I'm in a different area I'll look okay what's around here that maybe comes up and I could pick up on my way so then um I found this chair um and then I picked it up but the wheels were like really falling apart it was a different size than I had imagined it was too bulky for the desk I had so eventually I had to just move it away but then I found this other just a chair that was like red just painted so many layers actually it was like first painted white and then it was painted green and then it was painted red and it just had so many layers of paint um and I was like okay I'm going to try to like kind of maybe flip this chair or something and then I just tried to like sand it down and then I tried using like sitri strip to like kind of paint remover um and then eventually I just sanded it down to a point where it looked like it was um like whitewashed and I decided not to paint it after all and I just left it the way it is and I have it with my desk so that worked out um then eventually slowly I started wanting to teach the girls in the community how to sew so um so I was like okay let me do something in my garage I can teach them sewing classes and then I needed like tables to like put the sewing machine on so I found this table on maybe opera and one of my friends was helping me like figure out this whole organize this whole sewing class so I was like oh I found this table maybe we could use it for the sewing class and I was like do you think you could maybe pick it up for me and she's like okay sure so she goes to pick it up and I look to the pictures I thought it was like a big table like that we could actually sit on and like work to our sewing but it turned out to be like a small like almost like a coffee table size so then I just kind of was like oh and it was like really dirty really um worn and it had like stickers all over it so then I was just kind of like oh what do I do with this table so it just kind of sat on the side for a while and I just put it in the garage kind of and then after a while I was like okay let me try to like flip this table or use it so then I just cleaned it really well and then I just sanded the whole top part um and then I just put in like a kind of oil just to kind of protect the top but I realized that I should have put varnish because my kids like do a lot of coloring on it so it got dirty again so I am planning on redoing it and then just putting varnish on top to protect it so um that was that and for the sewing class actually I was like okay I talked to the moms I was like okay they are going to need these things and so we were trying to figure out what we need and then I was like okay we are going to need a lot of fabric so I was just kind of looking on my like offer up or marketplace or I don't remember which one maybe Craigslist I think it was Craigslist so I was looking up and then I look up there is just like the free stuff section and then there is like this picture of like big black trash bags and this lady was like I think she was like a seamstress or something and she was like I have all these bags of fabrics that I am trying to get rid of so then I was like and they are like please come take whatever you want but you have to take the whole bag when you take it and I was like okay perfect so I told my friend I was like I found this do you think you could pick it up so she goes and she picked up all these bags of fabric um and we used them for the class so I have like lots of really nice pieces of fabrics like I even made my daughter a dress with one of the is like lace and satin and so there is just like the girls were able to use all the fabrics and we didn't have to pay anything it was just free so it was really cool so it is just nice to be able to do that so after I had kind of like got myself situated and I was in a stable position like I had kind of got used to living in this country I had my house furnished um and I was always thought in the back of my head I was like once I am like more settled I want to teach this to other people who are new to the country who might not know how to um you know like how to use the system to their advantage so Alhamdulillah it has been like almost two years now since I moved here and we are finally having this webinar to show you guys how to use these apps how to use um these things to kind of get the most out of it um and get free furniture and furnish your home um so Alhamdulillah that's a blessing I also was like once I'm settled I know the feeling of needing to start over um and I was like I want to get involved in the refugee work so Alhamdulillah ever since a few months ago I started getting involved and joined the MCC service refugee sport team and honestly what they do is just amazing um and the work they do is just done with so much Ahsan so much it's gone and we do our best I mean we're not perfect we're all volunteers we're moms we have our lives going on but we just try our best um to help all the people that had to start again um start over and so Alhamdulillah I've been doing the furniture procurement for a few months now so I go on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist and I try to get things that are actually nice and see if people are willing to donate them um so it's funny because one of my team mates um she was she saw my dining table and it's kind of really worn by now so it's kind of like falling apart I do have the idea of like redoing it and like flipping it like kind of painting it um but I haven't got a chance to do that and she's like and some of my chairs are actually falling apart like they're just and I had some friends kind of help me fix them just we weren't falling through the chairs but she's like I mean we're getting all these really nice dining sets for these refugees and she's like don't you wish you could get one of these I'm like no Alhamdulillah I love my dining set I just want to maybe one day paint it or fix it but Alhamdulillah we've been very blessed to be able to get really nice sofa sets really nice dining sets um Alhamdulillah it's been a blessing sometimes Alhamdulillah you're in one position and then once you're settled like I was once a refugee but now Alhamdulillah I feel like I feel like it is part of our tradition like the Prophet Salaam and the Sahaba they had to pick up and leave so they wear the mohajjudi which technically means the refugees um and then the onslaught were there to help them and then I feel like now I can be helped like sometimes you're in one situation and then sometimes your situation changes and you can be the person who's like volunteering or helping others to get settled like we have one of the drivers that helps us take furniture to these families he was a Syrian refugee who we once helped once upon a time but now he's helping us to help other families so Subhanallah Allah sometimes you're in one situation and then sometimes you're in another situation and you can help others um so that's just the way of life Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah whether it's this or this um so Alhamdulillah okay so um in this tutorial I'm gonna try to go over the different apps that you could use to find furniture or house items for free um so there's four main ones that I'm gonna cover Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp, Nextdoor and Craigslist um so when I first moved here the main ones that I had known about were OfferUp and Craigslist I did kind of use Facebook Marketplace when I had a chance on my sister's phone because I didn't have access to it at the time so um a few of the items I mentioned I found them OfferUp so I'm gonna start with that um see here's OfferUp so you just are gonna download the app and then what I'll do is all kind of you have to select your location so you can either enter your zip code or it says get my location so I'm gonna put get my location setting your location allows you to buy or sell items near you next okay I'm gonna tell it to allow OfferUp to use my location allow once now I've got my address so that's the zip code um and and then I so sometimes if I'm looking for a big item I'll put like a wider range but not 30 miles maybe like 20 miles um I might like need a van or a truck to go pick it up or something um like if I'm looking for a dining set or a sofa I'll put a but if I'm looking for like basic stuff I usually try to keep it close you could even do like five miles or like if you want to just like have something that's like walking distance or something that's like just really close um and then just stick to what comes up there so it depends on what I'm looking for I'll put uh how far away from my house I want those items to come up so I'm gonna see the listings so this is 20 miles I'm gonna go so here it says all or pickup or pickup or shipping um ideally you don't want shipping cause those it costs money to get it shipped so you want pickup um and then so OfferUp has a problem with it is it has a lot of ads and people selling things that um they're not actually like regular people that are trying to sell things but businesses trying to sell things but when you are trying to find um free items so this is a new feature that they have that they have this button that shows free um back in the day I would just search for like furniture um or like sofas or whatever I'm looking for and then I would click on um I would click on this button here that shows where you can put the price range and then I would put maximum zero dollars and then see the listings and then I would get all the free items some of these are ads here um and then but like free whole tree like if I found this a while back I was actually looking for something like this for my garage so that when my kids come back from school they can hang their coats on it um so this is an hour ago in Berkeley California um you can look at the map I don't know if I would go that far um for something like this but maybe if I was going to visit a friend there or something and then I could pick it up or um I could find something closer but basically so you would read where the item is here and when it was posted because some things will go fast like this might go fast it might not go that fast and then the description says free dimensions it says the dimensions you want to read them here um and then um let's see then you would message or make an offer so you would ask okay so this is where you need to sign in I thought you were sending okay so we're going to continue with email and we're going to sign up my name Reva the email address and cc gmail you'd select your password um use strong password show our phone grade has some points on the path so use the strong password or you can choose your own password choose my own password so I'm just going to write the same thing mccwebinar password and I'm going to sign up so it's going to ask for a phone verification email code to my number 406722 I'm going to enter that um and then it's going to verify okay so now I can send a message um I'm going to say hi this is still available please application application and then once you have like something that you write you could just copy paste there for a lot of different listings I'm missing many things okay and then notifications allows us to notify you okay so I can allow them to notify me allow so that I know when they respond to my messages and then they might get back to me telling me like yes it's available please come by and I can coordinate with them when I can pick it up I'm like okay when's a good time to pick it up they might say I already have somebody who contacted me but if they drop I'll let you know because sometimes people will say oh I want to pick this up but then they never show up so um so they're like okay and then I'll be like okay let me know and then they can let you know um but usually with free stuff if they're nice you want to act fast um so that you can get them in time and usually people want to try to get rid of items as fast as possible so like if you're willing to pick it up soon they'll be more willing to give it to you than someone else and sometimes it's like okay we're not going to save anything for anybody but the first person to show up can have it kind of thing so you can message them they'll send you their address okay so another app that I used early on was um Craigslist um so if you open the app Craigslist you can get started and share your location allow the app to use your location choose this location and then you're going to go to for sale you click on for sale and then if you scroll down these are all the different categories you're going to find um free stuff there's just its own little category and you click on free stuff and there you'll find all the things that are available for free so there's some kids toys there's like a coffee table um this and and then also if you want to adjust your location you can do that here by making the circle smaller or bigger so like if I want to make it smaller this is just 11 miles I say choose this location and then it seems available um so there's like an outdoor patio furniture there's free piano sofas this looks nice IKEA chair three hours ago it's in Hayward Caster Valley two free IKEA wing back chairs and stills good condition no ripper stains so from the picture it looks pretty good um and then I'm going to look at the map so this is giving you it won't give you the exact address but it'll give you like roughly where this item is located so what I usually do is I'll zoom in to the center and then I'll pick a random like street name um and then I'll open Google Maps and I'll put it in there to see how far away it is um so what was this one called let's see Santa Maria Court um so I'm going to go here and put in Santa Maria Court Caster Valley then I see the direction so it's like 20 minutes away almost 24 minutes away um if the item is worth it I'll go that far if it's not I'll just try to find something that's closer or if I'm going in that area or if I know somebody coming from that area I might ask them to help me get the item but this was posted three hours ago you want to kind of be quick about it because um I mean it looks like it's in great condition and it might go away fast so that's for Craigslist it's pretty simple there's always new things every day you can keep checking it uh free stuff there's like office chairs um just sofas desks lots of a loft bed there's clothes books lots of things let's try to check out a different app um facebook marketplace is pretty awesome um and so the way you're gonna look I opened facebook marketplace wait let me go back you open your facebook and then that's the home and then you open you click on these three dashes on the lower right side and then you go to marketplace it says marketplace you can open so it's just through facebook you can open marketplace um and then here let's see for you today's picks you can search for something um let's search for furniture and then let's put filters price and let's say uh custom maximum price zero dollars see items and then you'll find like this is a free couch they were trying to sell for fifty dollars and it wasn't getting sold so they made it free and then and here also you can um adjust the location I'm gonna make it smaller uh wait here let's see this is the way that you make this the radius smaller um apply that furniture sale and use some of them say freeze but it's not necessarily free you have to read the descriptions so this one it's actually it says free but then if you go in the description they're actually trying to sell the items so the living room set is for five hundred dollars and it's sold they just put it for free just because they want people to open their uh listing so this dining room set is for two hundred dollars the bedroom says for five hundred dollars the desk is for three dollars so we're not really interested in that I hope this webinar was useful for all of you guys and I hope that um you'll try using all the different apps um and hopefully you'll find really cool stuff in the description box you can find uh where to download these apps and links to download the app and how to use them if you have any questions we'd be more than happy to answer and we're going to go to the live Q&A