Having the opportunity to give on FreeCycle makes me feel really good. I have gotten some wonderful things from there – baby clothes (most of which I wound up donating elsewhere, but still…), a borrowed cradle, a chair, a sofa, an entire dining room set (complete with a leaf and china buffet & hutch), a lawn mower and a dishwasher, and various kids movies. So now it’s my turn to give back.
And I like giving back. I like making someone’s day when I post furniture that is in excellent condition, or baby clothes that Ryan outgrew before he had a chance to leave stains on them. Or, more recently, eight Avent bottles that I don’t need because he hardly uses bottles. Those things are expensive, and I’m sure the person who is getting them is very glad to have them.
I just wish I had more to give… like when Dan had two Hershey Park tickets that we couldn’t use because he couldn’t get off from work. I had hundreds of responses, and plenty of sob stories about how they couldn’t afford it, or their kid wanted it so bad, or they just needed that extra ticket, etc. Or when I FC’ed six cans of formula and had so many mothers willing to drive from the other side of the county to come and get it, because the gas for a fifty mile round trip would be cheaper than one can. It was really, really depressing.
But, I give what I can. And I encourage everyone to do some spring cleaning – go into each room of your house and try to get rid of at least two items. You would be surprised at how much stuff you have that you really don’t need, and how much of that stuff could be put to good use with other families.
I already dug up tons of clothes that I’ll probably give to goodwill. Freecycle = love, I found a deep freezer but I have to wait to be approved to the yahoo group in order to ask a question :-(.
I used to do the freecycle thing a long. long time ago. I stopped because people would never show up. I gave away A LOT of nice, brand name, expensive things. It just pissed me off when I would see one thing out of the hundreds of crap that I wanted, someone that is refreshing the page constantly gets it. There are greedy people on there. Now, I just take it to the thrift store, that is owned by the homeless shelter here or throw it away. I just didn’t like freecycle at all.
I always post, though never offered anything on freecycle. The whole concept is great, except like Marie says there are some who abuse the system. Though every time I have posted a “Wanted” I have gotten numerous replies, either pointing me in the right direction to somewhere cheep. I even had one person give me the phone number to the store, directions to it, as well as phoned to actually find out if they had it available even …. As I was looking for a particular cell phone model as it was discontinued.
I much rather prefer to donate to the local thrift stores. As they are excellent charities, plus my mom volunteers at one so I just take my stuff over to her house and she takes it to the local “S.O.S. Children’s Charity Thrift Shop” which benifits children living in poverty around the world.
I do believe in the whole what goes around comes around.
As my mom has come home with various nice tops (but always wrong size!) … as I donate a bunch of my old clothes and other nick-nacks all the time.
When Chris and I move I am definitely going to be going through Freecycle to look for home furniture and to get rid of stuff. Our basic plan is to pack everything and move, and as we are unpacking do the final sort of what stays and goes. Thats whats always worked for me, and I’ve moved alot more then he has.