<p>15-20 years ago we bought an old upright piano, not in great shape, but it always held its tune and was perfect for our grammar school age D to take piano lessons and practice. My brother plays keyboards professionally, and he claims it is still in pretty good shape and very playable.</p>
<p>Now our D is out of the house in medical school and we want to reclaim that portion of our living space. I have tried to give it away on Craig’s list - FREE, except the taker had to move it at their expense. No one wanted it. Some respondents actually complained that it wasn’t in good enough shape. I kept telling people, its free, what do you expect? I have contacted Salvation Army and other such resale charities and none of them want it either.</p>
<p>Any suggestions? Should I just take it out to the curb on trash collection day?</p>
<p>Oh dear. We just put our spinet in the garage. I can’t even claim it’s in great shape. It needs new felts and has a couple of sticky keys. I have no idea how easy that is to fix. It’s seems like a waste to toss it.</p>
<p>Contact local churches, they would surely have some parishoners that could move it and if they didn’t want it, they would probably know of an organization that would.</p>
<p>Contact local places where music lessons are taught. Talk to the piano teachers and see if they know any students who would be willing to have it moved. Post signs there. Let them know it’s in good shape. My uncle wanted to get rid of his piano and offered it to me. S2 was playing on a keyboard. I had it checked out first and then paid to have it moved to my house. I’m sure there are people in your area that would like to do that.</p>
A theater department at a local community college, or community theater group may want it for a prop (about 5 years ago I was in search of an upright for a prop, it needed to be gutted for the purpose of our use).
Freecycle.com - you will be amazed how many responses you will receive.
craigslist.org (yes, .org) - under ‘free’ - when I cleared out my mom’s house after she died I had one of those console TV’s, no one wanted it, I mean NO ONE…until I placed it on craigslist! It was gone within 3 hours of posting. Offer it to the first person, and if they don’t show within 2 hours go to recipient #2, and so forth. Delete the listing immediately after pick up, you will have more folks wanting it than you have keys on the piano!
<p>Groan, now here’s another thing I just learn here will be hard to downsize. </p>
<p>Good suggestions above. I’ve heard good things about freecycle.com. “Just-a-mom” I’m going to adopt your approach to the phenomenon of “Craigslist Flakes” - free listing (OP indicated he had) but pressure the caller to pick up quickly or lose their spot in line. Hopefully there IS a line.</p>
<p>I just finished reading a Supplement to our Buffalo Indie-Arts weekly newspaper that is all over the local coffee shops, out into the suburbs. There was a multi-page feature on every nonprofit arts organization in the region; most were downtown.</p>
<p>I was surprised to learn of several grassroots community projects in the innercity, where students come for afterschool instruction on musical instruments. Can you google up all the nonprofits in your region and see if there is anything like this? </p>
<p>Another idea: call the Music Director of the poorest public school district in your region. If they have a truck and can come for it, wonderful. If not, would you be willing to pay $100 (wildly guessing here) for a one-shot mover to come and take it to that school? Maybe that’s tax-deductible as a charitable donation?</p>
<p>Another: does your suburb (if that’s where you live) have a weekly newspaper? We do, and they have the conventional “Classified Ads.” It’s my experience that an older crowd reads and uses those. It might be worth doing if the ads are free.</p>
<p>Our synagogue received a donation of 2 pianos. The nice one is used occasionally in the sanctuary, whenever our organist wants to vary the tone for an entire service. The lesser one is in the religious school, and used by the Cantor to practice with children’s choirs. Both are appreciated. In some congregations, a piano might be welcome if they use non-electronic musical instruments for Sabbath services. The smaller, more modest the synagogue, the more likely to say “yes.” They at least have trucks and pick-up systems by arrangement. </p>
<p>I would also be heartsick to roll our upright piano to the curb. I’ll bookmark this because I’ll be in your spot in a few years when we downsize.</p>
<p>Old pianos are VERY hard to get others to take…unless they are grand pianos or player pianos that work. Old uprights are not a hot item. When we had an old piano to get rid of, it was hauled away by the folks who we bought our new one from. We were happy we didn’t have to pay to get it hauled to the dump.</p>
<p>It costs WAY more than $100 to have a piano moved by movers.</p>
<p>Just went through this when we downsized in the fall. I emailed several neighbors that had school age children and offered it at no cost. I gave it to the first one that wanted it and we rolled it out of the house and down the street.</p>
<p>Well, I got mine free from a church that wanted to get rid of it. It’s a beautiful antique. It’s walnut, holds a tune (and we’ve had it tuned annually), good pitch. And I fear in a couple of years when our youngest leaves home and we want to reclaim the space, we’ll be doing the chainsaw thing.</p>
<p>Do you have a university or college with a School of music or large music dept? You could put up a note at the department and give it to a music student. That’s how my D got her first piano!!</p>
<p>^ Unless your chainsaw has a metal-cutting blade, it’s not going to be too helpful, because most of the weight is the giant metal frame inside the piano. :D</p>
<p>Our upright sits in the corner collecting dust these days. I should learn how to tune it, at least then it wouldn’t be so painful to play around on. It was my DW’s grandmother’s, so I don’t think we are ever getting rid of it.</p>
<p>Boy, it would be nice if there were a way to contact music teachers in the area. My D had several friends who needed a piano when they started lessons. Some of them ended up getting “keyboards” - ychh! A decent upright would be much better. Is there a music teachers’ guild or association in your area?</p>