Freecycle - A User's Perspective

Guest post from my wife, Mrs TEH:

Mr TEH asked that I write something up, from a user's perspective, for his blog. I don't consider myself a writer, except for documentation purposes at work, however, this is something I think is neat and should be shared. So, here goes.

I am a member of an organization/website called Freecycle. Specifically, Freecycle Springfield. It's a neat concept and it is working well in this area and, from what I understand, all around the nation. Clark Howard recently had something on Freecycle on his show - I missed the show, but I read him praising it on his website. There are Freecycle organizations in most every state (if not every one) and in other countries as well! There are currently 2,870 Freecycle communities and 1,441,924 members!!! They prefer you join a community near you to help conserve fossil fuels in the process! Their goal is to keep things out of landfills (preserving our natural landscapes) and recycle as much as possible.

To sum it up in a nutshell, it's a place for people to give away stuff they don't want/need anymore. You have to sign up (you need a Yahoo! id) to become a member. There are 4 basic types of posts: OFFER, GIVEN, RECEIVED, and WANTED. Your first post must be an OFFER. They prefer your offers outweigh your received and wanted posts just to keep the spirit/momentum of giving and sharing going.

You are asked why you want to join Freecycle. I admit, in the beginning, I thought it was a neat idea for giving and receiving, but couldn't wait to get something for nothing that someone was simply giving away! The story I saw on t.v. about it showed someone receiving a free toddler race car bed and an entertainment unit amongst other things.

However, it was kind of hard for me to get started in the beginning because we have a huge garage sale every spring and gather things in a certain area of the house specifically for that. Most of our unwanted stuff goes there. Very little of it was something I was willing to part with without having had a chance to get a buck for it first. A huge Goodwill truck parks near us at the end of our garage sale and we make a nice size donation of the leftovers right then and there. Then, it's all done and over with in one morning and we get a charitable donation to deduct from our taxes!

However, in spite of having been a member since November of last year, I only recently caught the bug. Our garage sale wasn't as good this year as last year and my husband (Mr TEH) declared, as he does most years, "no more garage sales." That was part 1 of my bug. The second part happened when the Freecycle site developed a new concept (original to the Freecycle Springfield site) called a Traveling Treasure Box. I thought it was a neat concept and wrote to be a recipient of it. I was chosen to be the first one!!! Yeah - I felt like a won the lottery. It's a neat idea. It's a box full of littler things that seem to small to post individually. It comes with some general rules and a travel journal and they ask that you create a "stamp" to put on the box that represents "you." Surprisingly, I had no problem creating a stamp that I thought captured me pretty well. I thought that would be the worst part of the experience, but I actually had fun doing it!!!

So, I wrote in the journal, added my stamp, collected things from the house to put in the box when, lo and behold, my 12 year old announced she had collected things to put in the box too!!! My 12 year old daughter, who desperately needs to learn about cleaning things out and not keeping everything in the world, was pitching in and excited about it!! We took a few things out of the box and added lots and lots of things - as many as we could and still have the lid close in a reasonable fashion. We then posted the box and gave it to another recipient after waiting a few days to carefully pick who it would be.

Then I was done with the box, but had all this stuff sitting around that we don't want or need,that wouldn't fit in the box, that we must get rid of! It was so cool getting rid of the other stuff so easily that I decided it was time to just start posting stuff and clearing the house of it! That was it - the Freecycle bug had finally bitten me!

A few days after that I started to clean my garage out, in honor of our 4th of July party that was coming up, and found myself making 2 piles...one "to be put away" and one for "Freecycle." When I found my husband or daughter starting to say something should be thrown out, I would announce "Freecycle!"

Now, I do have my own rule of thumb, I won't Freestyle something that I believe is way beyond salvation or use. If clothing has stains on it, I might post it as clothes to be used as rags due to stains, but I won't try to pass it off as clothes to give away. If something is so torn up and used that you can't possibly use it again or even recognize it, then it's life is over. However, I've seen a lot of stuff go through Freecycle that has surprised me. Stuff like wooden stakes that I had no more use for, left over sand, bricks, landscape edging, potting soil, boxes for moving, packing peanuts, tvs that don't work, etc. I have also been incredulous at some of the neat stuff people have given away like pianos, working tvs, beds, shelving units, entertainment centers, lumber, gift certificates, tickets, etc.

Recently, my daughter decided she would like to have a walkman to take to camp with her. I put a post out on Freecycle and had several offers for one within a few hours!!!

There is a downside to Freecycle. You don't get the charitable contribution deduction that you would get by donating to the likes of Goodwill. And, you have to meet people to give things away - this is something that can be scary when dealing with people you don't know. I try to meet them in a public place, however, that hasn't always worked out even with the best laid plans.

What about the upside? There is one of those too. I don't have to wait for the duration of a year to have a garage sale and to donate things that don't sell. I don't have to have a garage sale collection pile sitting in my house. I don't have to tag and price hundreds of items. I don't have to spend Friday night setting up - and Saturday morning selling. I can get rid of most things within a few days so they aren't collecting even more dust. There is also the good feeling that something is going to get some use and not be pitched into the trash. Oh yes, and I won't have to listen to Mr TEH exclaiming "no more garage sales" again next year!

I have to admit, I have a feeling I will miss the garage sale. I like garage sales. I like having a few hundred extra dollars in the spring to reinvest in the kids' clothes or in something for the house. I like my kids interacting with the public in a polite way and being little sales people and practicing money changing skills. I also really like the charitable deduction we get from donating to Goodwill. In addition - I know Goodwill uses the donations to help people in many ways. However, our whole household is reaping the benefits of having Freecycle available and it sure feels good! I think the good is outweighing the bad - at least for now - you'll have to check on it again next year after I've missed the garage sale and the charitable contributions and see how I feel then. In the meantime, happy Freecycling!

The website for the Freecycle organization: http://www.Freecycle.org

The website for the Freecycle Springfield organization: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freecyclespfldil/

Mrs. TEH