<p>I’ve just signed up with Freecycle as I’m preparing to unclutter the house this year. Son is a sophomore, so I’ve got to get moving on this!</p>
<p>I’ve noticed some very usable college items that I’ve heard of parents buying for dorm rooms, like those plastic storage drawers, desk items, even furniture!</p>
<p>I was first signed up in my suburb, but I just signed up in the city as well, where there are a couple of private universities, so there are undergrad, grad, and young professionals unloading their barely used furniture, etc, as they move on in their lives.</p>
<p>I just got a “hit” from someone looking for Mason jars. My grandma used to preserve figs, so we always got in the habit of collecting good jars when we get jams as gifts or from roadside fruit stands. Never have the heart to just throw them away. I was thrilled when I saw a post from someone looking for Mason jars. I immediately emailed her, told her when I knew right off I had, and got a response that she’d love them.</p>
<p>I hate throwing things away, especially things I know someone can have a use for, so I am really excited to start freecycling!</p>
<p>I love Freecycle. I’ve given away books, furniture, small appliances, bedding, a bike, and much more. In fact, one of my goals this week is to post some books. I group them by category, and I always have eager takers. I find that in my big city, items are claimed within hours (sometimes minutes) of posting them, and I almost always have multiple offers. It’s a great service.</p>
<p>I also love freecycle and am occasionally amazed at what people will take…an oven from the 80s, used garden lights, a case for slides (remember those things?) I often get emails back from people I’ve given things to with their thanks. One really sweet email came from the recipient of a set of Legos, who described how her husband and grandchildren were engrossed in sorting and building. I’m happy to not contribute to the waste stream.</p>
<p>I also love freecycle. We gave away books to an elementary school teacher, trophies, toys and clothing.
It’s really a good way to get rid of unused stuff.</p>
<p>I love Freecycle. Over the past 3 years, I’ve gotten rid of a lot of clutter, especially some unique kid’s toys that I just couldn’t throw out. There have been some sweet moments, such as when a mom brought her kids to see the “treasures” they were getting. My niece has been on the receiving end of Freecycle, as she is a young mom who needs all the help she can get. Such a worthwhile system.</p>
<p>Avid Freecycler here! I first heard of it from a newspaper article about a week before we moved, 5 years ago. It was great – we got rid of so much stuff that we had no need for, but still had a lot of usable life left. We just moved again, and once again I Freecycled lots. Some items I also listed on the “Free” section of Craigslist since it was easier to add photos. Sometimes I get annoyed by people who say they’re coming to get something and never show, but I’ve become more hard-nosed and just move on to the next interested person.</p>
<p>I’ve also contributed to free cycle and the free section of Craigslist. I love it! </p>
<p>Can I ask how you choose who gets it? Invariably I will get 10 quick responses to one item, but the stuff I’ve given away is pretty darn good (I just would rather it go to a family in need than spend the time haggling over a sale, even if it means giving up $$). </p>
<p>So do I take the first person? From much experience, I learned that there are folks that make a business from it and I didn’t want to give it away to a ‘dealer’ for resale. But they are usually the fastest responders.</p>
<p>^^^I wonder about that, too. We watch all the storage and pickers and pawn shows, and I wonder how many of them frequent freecycle and craigslist. I haven’t offered anything yet, and don’t have anything of value that my husband would want to give away. I’m going to use it more for collectible stuff that I really don’t have the space for and don’t have the heart to throw away, so I guess I shouldn’t worry if someone makes a profit off it. </p>
<p>For now, though, I’m focusing on the Wanted posts, and if I know I have it, I will contact that person and get it to them. My mason jar lady got me motivated to search the cabinets and I found even more jars, which she’ll happily take. She’s willing to wait for me to come back from the college dropoff trip. I also have found a lot of people looking for kids clothes, so I’m going to go through the now fully grown boys’ stuff to offer for free. I just got sick donating stuff to Goodwill and seeing their dumpsters filled with stuff they’re trashing. Another thing I’ve done is gathered up outgrown t-shirts from son’s middle school, high school athletic events, and brought them to workers in Katrina devastated New Orleans. He’s a big boy, and many of these men could fit in his t-shirts, and they don’t care that they’ll get paint on them, as they were free and could be thrown away. I’ve also got lots of bed linens from cleaning out the family home that are taking up one of my closets. I was thinking of space bagging them and saving them for later, but I’ve now decided to give them to animal rescue groups that are looking for old bedding. </p>
<p>With times being hard, I’ve seen freecycle wanted ads for linens and mattresses for families who are taking in laid off relatives, so I’m going to put aside some linens for those families, too. I don’t know if y’all experienced this, but when we bought our house, everyone seemed to dump their stuff on us that they no longer had use for and room for. Because it was given to me by a family member, I felt I had to keep it, even though there was no value or emotional attachment. I’ve decided to let that go and pass it on to people who need these things. I only wish some of my family members had used freecycle instead of passing on their unwanteds to me. I know they had good intentions, but it’s gotten overwhelming over the years and I never had a chance to really enjoy those things. They became more of a burden as to Where do I put this stuff?</p>
<p>I’m an avid freecycler, too. Got an indoor grill, an entertainment center, an external hard drive, as well as the normal kid’s clothes, books, etc. We’ve also gotten rid of a lot of stuff. I’ve even freecycled some of those little paint samples from Home Depot that i collected when we couldn’t decide on what shade of green to paint the living room!</p>
<p>I’m not terribly concerned about people making a profit off my freecycling. If I don’t want that to happen, I donate the things to a charity that I know serves low-income people. I know some of my stuff is worth money, but I don’t have the time or inclination to do Craigslist or eBay for most of it. I know I’m not going to do a yard sale. If someone else wants to put the work into making a few bucks off my stuff, well, good for them!</p>
<p>Chedva, I pretty much agree with you. I’ve only freecycled a couple of things that could be of interest to a dealer, but I’m pretty sure most of that went to a collector. But I’m not concerned with what they do with it, I just want to get rid of it.</p>
<p>My wife and I (mostly her) have been using Freecycle extensively. We love to see things go to people who want them. There are some trolls and people who never show up but the vast majority of the people we have dealt with have been wonderful.</p>
<p>to avoid the trolls and the posters who immediately tell you how much they need your stuff but never show up, I started asking up front in the first ad for a local working phone number to set up the pick up time - that helped avoid some of the insincere posters. I do the same for Craigslist to avoid the posters who will pay me more for the item to be shipped overseas by their agent who will contact me shortly…with a bad check!</p>
<p>What I do is I keep a list of people who have picked up from me. Name, email, what they picked up, if they were prompt, if they sent a thank you email. I have a separate list of those who caused problems (no shows, or any kind of problem). </p>
<p>Also, I usually wait a bit to collect a few requests and then select from that list. Sometimes I end up choosing the first response but not always. I try to get a sense of why they want it. Also, I look to see if they followed my simple directions (I request that they tell me in the first email when they will come for the item). I tend to delete all of the ‘i want it’ and ‘pls pick me’ emails right away. I prefer polite requests over the ‘gimme’ types. Anyway, that’s how I separate the wheat from the chaff.</p>
<p>I don’t request a phone number because I prefer to work by email and not by phone.</p>
<p>Thanks for raising this topic. I am in the process of decluttering (I think it may be a “time of life” thing), and have managed to offload some things on the scrap metal man who comes around on garbage day, but have lots of stuff that I know someone, other than me, can use. I will find a local “branch.”</p>
<p>I’ve done very rare “wanted” postings, but when DD wanted a bulletin board I got 3 quick replies from folks eager give one away. Mostly I’ve responded to “wanted” requests or posted “offers” in the name of clutter purging.</p>
<p>How to choose? I lean toward picking by these factor(s):
families who have fallen on hard times (even though I know it is possibly a lie)
somebody helping same
promised quick pick up, with specified time<br>
polite / appreciate tone of email </p>
<p>Occasionally I offer items “new with tag”… it is a windfall to someone who is looking for a gift but has no money. (This works especially well at holidays.) </p>
<p>Surprisingly I’ve also freecycled some near-junk, carefully describing its probably lack of value. Keeps stuff out of the landfill! Once it was a box of holiday stuff, offered in January. </p>
<p>It is easier to have charity truck do curbside pickup - I do some of that too. But I get better vibes from helping people via Freecycle.</p>
<p>I love freecycle here too - have used it to get rid of a ton and get more back, LOL! DH is also on freecycle so he’ll go after some odd ball things but we have a fairly established group and most responders are great. I usually choose people who also have given me things or if how they ask sounds legit - you can usually tell the ones that just respond without actually reading what you stated.</p>
<p>We love it for after the Holidays and getting rid of those well-intentioned but so off the mark gifts - now if my ex and his wife or my in-laws ever join freecycle we’ll be in trouble, LOL!</p>
<p>I’ve never used Freecycle, but I am a HUGE fan of the Craigslist Free section. I love it that people show up and take my trash–I don’t even have to go to the dump! (I contact the first person to email me. My record for getting rid of an unwanted rug was 20 minutes. It smelled of cat pee and cleaning hadn’t helped. The guy took it for his kids’ room. Poor kids.)</p>
<p>In our neighborhood, many people put out unwanted items with a FREE sign the day before trash day.</p>
<p>Interesting comment on Craigslist Free section. I have not used it because in my area there is a Freecycle that is geographically more closely aligned with our town. </p>
<p>My favorite win-win was giving away a 30 gallon fish tank that had been ignored in kitchen for years. I finally talked DH into giveaway, and a single mom (who had left an abusive husband) was absolutely delighted to get the tank and stand and extras for free. She was eager to do the yukky cleanup with her son - it meant she could afford to give her son a pet.</p>