According to the website above Freecycle is “a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It’s all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills.”
Your appreciation of freecycle may depend on how active and considerate the group in your area is. My experience has been mostly good. Sometimes people flake and it sucks when that happens, but more importantly…
I have gained many treasures:
- clothes for my kids
- a great dishwasher
- scrap wood for building in the backyard
- rain gutters that we use as ramps for the kids
- and so much more
And I have found homes better than the landfill for many things:
- a broken screen door went to a scrap-booker who will cut it into pieces for framing
- noisy toys that challenged my sanity are driving other parents crazy
- half-used coloring books take up space on someone else’s shelf
- countless other items were picked up from our front yard rather than being carted off to donate
Freecycle groups can generate a lot of email, so it is worth considering creating a separate email account or at least a folder within your email account to keep other messages from getting lost in between all the freecycle offers.
