Here is my advice to you when using Freecycle:
DO-Respond to any emails you receive from the person with the stuff immediately.
DO-Do make sure you are able to pick it up in a timely manner. No one wants to warehouse things.
DO-If possible ask if they can leave in on their porch or entry way for you to retrieve.
Don’t- Don’t waste peoples time.
Don’t-Go back and forth trying to figure out how to retrieve the item. Have your ducks in a row before you ask for the item.
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Everyone has a bunch of junk lying around their house that they have no idea what to do with. Maybe it’s an old iPhone that you were going to try and sell but 3 new iPhones have come along since. Maybe it’s a stack of old textbooks from school. Or maybe it’s an ugly chair that clashes with everything in your living room. Or a broken food processor. Or a…you get the idea.
Deron Beal has set out to solve this problem with his website Freecycle.org, which has helped many unwanted items find new homes — 32,000 items a day, to be exact.
“Freecycle’s mission is really to make it easier to give something away than to throw it away,” Deron explains.
With online communities set up all over the world, 9 million members have used Freecycle to breathe new life into things that would have otherwise ended up in landfills. In the past year alone, if you were to pile the items gifted through Freecycle into garbage trucks, it would be 15 times the height of Mt. Everest!
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If you’re looking for a way to get rid of that old mattress or couch, the city of Frederick may have a solution for you.
The city has a new plan to help people who have no way of getting large, unwanted items to its next Freecycle Roundup bulk item drop-off event.
Employees of Frederick Community Action Agency’s Green Jobs program have agreed to help out.
The employees will drive around during the next Freecycle Roundup event in April to pick up items from people who preregister for the service, said Nikki Bamonti, executive assistant to Mayor Randy McClement.
“If it works out, it solves every problem we have had with this event,” McClement said.
The next Freecycle Roundup event will be from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 11 at Walnut Ridge Park, 1151 Rocky Springs Road. City residents are asked to bring their unwanted bulk items to the park, and nonprofits will be waiting to sort through donated items to see if they can be repurposed.
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Want something for nothing? Go online, because Freecycle’s got company.
Free beauty products, children’s items, restaurant meals, furniture, electronics or even cellphone service – all you have to do is look.
But, given that Freecycle is a volunteer organization, it’s a little hard to complain. Besides, when it works it’s fabulous. A relative has picked up furniture, children’s clothing and other goodies. When I lived in Seattle, I received canning jars and tree fruit.
I also used Freecycle to give away framed prints, a two-CD set of “The Nutcracker,” a paraffin hand spa and an unopened pair of anti-embolism stockings, which saved car-free me from having to lug all this stuff to the thrift store by bus.
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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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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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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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My Gift to you on 12/12/12 is the gift of recycling using Freecycle. This nonprofit organization is a way to recycle your items to others who are in need of your discards. And it’s the perfect way for you to locate items that others are discarding.
I’ve used Freecycle many times and just last month someone who was in need of a 32 in JVC color TV that I wanted to give way – emailed me to say she could use it for her church group. Done. Out of my door and into hers.
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I needed another table in order to be able to seat all that are coming to a Christmas party that I am hosting. I looked on line, these go for $50 for the cheapo, plastic topped ones to more like $100 and up for study, industrial ones. Today, I had college boy with his truck pick up and deliver a Freecyled 6 foot, folding party table. While there are a few scratches in the top, wood grain finish, this is an all steel table that will more than suit my needs, especially as I plan on covering it with a table cloth! Very, very happy to now own this, my cost? just a tip to college boy to help cover his gas. Well worth it!
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If you aren’t using freecycle, you’re not living. Freecycle is a website where you can get, and give away, useful items, for free. You can get some amazing things from there, and you can get rid of a lot of stuff that you may think is crap. The basic philosophy behind freecycle is finding a use for things that would otherwise end up in a landfill.
How does it work? Visit http://www.freecycle.org/group/nz/. Register. Check the listings. Sign up to receive the emails. If you have something to give away, make a post, if you have something you want, make a post. There are a lot of generous people out there and if you let people know you need something, you will be surprised how many people are willing to help.
I have tried to give something away on freecycle each time I have picked something up. To keep the balance right, if you will. Here are some examples of how freecycle has worked for me:
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