SeeCalifornia.com

Two ladies in Wisconsin were recently awarded $1000 for turning in old refrigerators to a local electric company in a recycling contest. The 1931 refrigerators still worked when they both relinquished them for the promise of cheaper electric bills. I wanted to call them up and urge them to keep those working products. For those who have purchased a refrigerator made in Mexico lately (such as a General Electric Adora) you’ll know what I mean. If you opt for white the paint chips off after 3 months, stainless rusts through (I’ve owned both types of finishes) and the fridge is so light that it moves when you open the door.  I have been through a new refrigerator every 5.5 years to the tune of around $1500 per unit, while an old fridge in the garage where we keep the soda dates back to 1980. It works! There’s no way I am turning it into Southern California Edison until it expires permanently and the handyman can no longer fix it. I am probably not SCE’s best customer anyway, since I made them remove the smart meter from my home. The new refrigerators and appliances try to communicate with a smart meter but there’s none there to talk with currently.

The same is true for televisions. I am not cheap but I don’t like to be ripped off for something so poor as basic television programming.  I did the math about paying monthly fees for new digital TV reception boxes or devices  to record programs. It would have cost an extra $50 per month since they charge per unit!  So we have kept our low-tech, old TVs that still work. They have VCRs on them so we can record anything we want free. The cable company has issued us free receivers for the next several years, but eventually we’ll probably have to move on.

Not all will agree with my philosophy on keeping old things.  However, if you’re looking to roll back the clock, the last time I dropped items off at Goodwill people were bringing in their old working appliances such as TVs and offering to give them away in the parking lot!  Just a thought…