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Olabelhe- Blog: I ‘heart’ Freecycle

Have you heard about Freecycle? Most communities have one. It’s an amazing opportunity to either purge your unwanted stuff or go treasure hunting. As with most people the beginning of each new year is the time to clean out the old and make room for new stuff. Time for organizing closets, and cabinets, and so on. I have been a little OCD over the past week or so going through the house and making piles of “things to keep”, “things to donate” and “things to get rid of” and trust me there are a lot of things that I would like to find new homes for and Freecycle is a great way to do that. Just yesterday I listed a bunch of stuff and it already has been claimed by various people anxious to come and collect it. Whats the old saying??? “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” and that certainly is true. Over the next few days I hope to purge a bunch more stuff on freecycle, list a bunch of stuff on either Craig’s list or Ebay and most likely make several trips to our local recycling center to drop off misc. other stuff. Oh, it feels so good!

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MetroWest Daily News:Down to Earth: Bring in the new year with old treasures

However, there is a movement afoot to be more thrifty and creative by reusing, repairing and buying secondhand items at a much-reduced cost. The technological age in some ways has made people more isolated, but when it comes to sharing or buying items, the world is small and the connections for free items are astonishing. Freecycle (www.freecycle.org) is a site where people post items they are giving away or items they need. Everything is free. There are 5,082 groups, so you can sign up for a local group for easy pick-up of items. Things to donate or take range from furniture to building materials to anything that is legal, not a weapon or pornography, etc. Several years ago, we had a bulky computer, keyboard and tower that neither our friends nor we wanted. We posted it on Freecycle and with in a day we had a mom at our doorstep thrilled to be providing her son with a full computer set-up. Craiglist (www.craigslist.org) also has incredible secondhand items for sale and some items for free.

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At each Turn: Free Cycle Poetry or The Story of Futons and Life

So, we finally got rid of the futon. It was broken, but I posted a full disclosure notice on the Charlottesville-Albemarle Freecycle list.

Futon, mission style frame wih mattress & coverAfter a few email exchanges and phone calls to arrange pick up between snow showers, a woman and her dad borrowed a truck to come get the futon; let’s call them Helen and James.

We showed Helen and James where the futon frame needs repair.

“I’m a carpenter by trade. This will be no problem,” said James.

Rick had already told me the frame could be repaired for under $10, so any guilt I had about passing on broken stuff, even for free, was really evaporating.

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Arizona Daily Star: Bring some, take some, for free

Bring some, take some, for free
Tucson-based group sponsoring ‘no strings attached’ meet-ups

The guests have gone, the holiday hullabaloo hushed.

What’s left: stuff. Ribbons. Wrapping paper. And an assortment of misguided gifts and other unwanted items that promise to take up space for the next year, if not forever.

Rather than throw these things away, wouldn’t it be great to give them to someone who could love them – and even get something you truly want in return?

Freecycle.org, founded by Deron Beal on May 1, 2003, enables exactly that.

Beal created the website so that locals could sign up on a list server to unload items or request things they want to find.

Beal says the website he founded in Tucson now serves communities in more than 110 countries, and he expects to reach 10 million participants worldwide this year.

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Las Cruces Sun-News: Keeping glass out of the landfill

Freecycle Network is a nonprofit organization started in 2003 in Arizona. Since then, Freecycling has spread to cities all over the U.S., and to 85 countries around the world.

Millions of members have joined since its inception almost 10 years ago, and together they keep 500 tons of perfectly good items out of the landfill every day, according to www.freecycle.org.

Freecycle Network is considered a worldwide “gifting” movement that benefits communities while saving valuable resources. It is not a trading community and no money is ever accepted. The goal is for members to “give” the items they don’t want, without any strings attached or compensation. In Las Cruces, Carrie Hamblen, executive director of the Las Cruces Green Chamber of Commerce, has been an active member for more than two years, and avidly encourages Las Cruces residents to join.

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WNKU: Earth Calendar for December 31st and January 1st

Freecycle.org is a worldwide movement made up of many individual groups across the globe.

The motto is “One Person’s Trash can truly be another’s treasure.” It’s a grassroots movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns. Each local group is run by a local volunteer moderator and membership is free. It’s a place to exchange items with people in your local community for free. To sign up and locate your community, visit the website.

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Irish Independent: Smart Consumer: Anyone fancy a free wing mirror?

The global non-profit recycling organisation Freecycle has 28,000 members in Ireland, says John Hearne

Nothing beats the recessionary blues like free stuff. Art student Rob O’Shea needed a printer for college but didn’t have the funds to buy one. So he posted on Freecycle, asking if anyone had one lying around at home. Someone did.

“Okay, it’s six or seven years old,” says Rob, “but it’s working perfectly. It’s black and white, perfect for printing out essays and stuff.” He’s also picked up a set of shelves and he’s used the network to offload curtains and cushions that he no longer needed.

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Digital Journal.com: Op-Ed: What is the Freecycle Network?

The three offers above were advertised recently in a London Freecycle Group; the letters: SE8, SE23 and SE26 are the postcodes of the people offering said goods. If you haven’t heard of Freecycle, check the main website and follow the links to one near you.

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Post Tribune: Food For Families

Four years ago, Mandy Moore of Chesterton saw someone was giving away a turkey on the Freecycle website.

Out of curiosity, she contacted the giver and discovered 50 people wanted the holiday staple. Sensing an unfilled need in her community, Moore put together seven meals and put that up on Freecycle.

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Spark People.com: Freecycling

Tuesday, December 18, 2012
I just joined freecycle.org and I am super excited!

A. I hate waste and love finding ways to reuse EVERYTHING.

B. I love free stuff!

There’s a Christmas tree available in the area that I might be interested in. I’m also going to search for filing cabinets and stuff like that for the house. And now I can’t stop thinking about what I might want to get rid of that I could post!

I love the internet. 🙂

Now, if only someone wanted to give away a free treadmill or set of free weights….

Oh, well. Craigslist, here I come!

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