Freecycle

New Years means new resolutions and often one of those resolutions that people have is to declutter, simplify and generally have less ‘stuff’ in their home. Whether this is a New Year resolution or simply just making room for all the holiday gifts this time of year is always a great time to take stock of the items in our home and assess whether or not we need/want them anymore. Children’s toys and clothing are a great example of this. No doubt if you have children your house is full of new toys and new clothes and all the older items are shoved in the closet no longer ‘in favor’ with the child in question. Instead of letting these items take up space why not just get rid of them? If you received new household goods, a new DVD player or stereo for example, why keep the old one? Well usually in our house the items get stored for a few weeks/months until we’re sure we don’t need them. After that we send an email to local friends and family to see if the items could be used by any of them if not then we use this nifty system called Freecycle.

If you haven’t heard of it, Freecycle is basically a local group of people who post about their unwanted items via a yahoo group, the only stipulation for Freecycle is that the items should be FREE just as the name suggests. If you have an item you no longer need then simply post to the group with a description of the item, then the other members reply directly to you if they are in need of the item and then you decide to whom the item should be given to. I’ve been a member of my local freecycle group for about 2 years now and if I have learned anything it’s that sometimes people need the strangest things so one mans trash really could be another mans treasure! For example when we receive parcels I save the packaging material (boxes, packing peanuts etc) and when I have a stash I post them on freecycle. People are always in need of packing peanuts it seems, and especially boxes for moving! Freecycle of course does work the other way around in that you may see items offered that you may find useful. I’ve received gardening supplies, books, clothing and a portable television/DVD player since my time with freecycle.

Some items of course may not work or not be in the best of condition, but you just never know what someone else is looking for. For example the portable TV/DVD player that we picked up didn’t work. It did say so in the description but my husband managed to fix it and now it sits in his office at work. If you have something that you are considering recycling or (gasp) sending to the landfill, please consider joining your local Freecycle group to see if anyone else could use the item. You never know what you may find in return!

dalgal | My Bio & Articles