5. Find Free Toys. Check out the website Freecycle for free toys. Craigslist also has a free section where you’re bound to find freebies for your kids. In either case, you will have to pick up the toy from the person donating it, so it’s best to not search too far out of your area.
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MANCHESTER, UNITED KINGDOM–(Marketwire – May 15, 2012) – With the double dip recession in full swing, savvy UK homeowners are saving their money by filling their homes with second hand items.
Swinton, the UK’s leading high street retailer of home insurance surveyed 1,000 online customers and found that 27% regularly find second hand bargains to furnish homes.
Where once there was a stigma attached to buying second hand items, this now seems to be disappearing. Charity shops, online auctions sites and website such as Free Cycle were the main places customers go to when looking for bargains for their home.
In fact, nearly a fifth of homeowners (19%) admitted to showing off their best bargains to their friends and family, while only 5% said they were too embarrassed to admit that they had purchased second hand items for their home.
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Mark Boyle, stopped using money in 2008. Like Schwermer, what was initially a 12-month experiment has turned into a way of life. Boyle lives in a camper he got on Freecycle and volunteers at an organic farm.
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3. Essential equipment
There’s a lot of baby paraphernalia out there, so you need to focus. You don’t need it all!
Moses basket – these are regularly advertised on Freecycle (probably because babies are rarely in them for more than six weeks) so check groups in your area regularly.
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Two-year North Reading resident Bruce McArdle started a nonprofit Freecycle group to keep useful items out of landfills. The group has about 400 members in North Reading and surrounding towns.
McArdle, formerly an electrical engineer, now stays at home to care for his four-year-old twins, Jake and Jessica. He was previously a member of a freecycle group in Billerica, and once he made the move to North Reading, he decided to start his own group.
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5) Do you make use of grassroots recycling programs such as Freecycle to give away items that still have use or value but are unwanted by your family?
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Freecycle is a free online program where students can enter whatever items they want to throw away.
“The idea is, you put anything on there, not wanting anything in return, and the understanding is that the person will come to you, you don’t have to send or transport it anywhere else and it’s free,” Rankin said.
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Long-time gifters know that Craiglist’s “Free” board and the nearest chapter of Freecycle are fast and easy ways to get rid of your stuff locally, and keeping items in the community tightens your neighborhood network. Posting on Craigslist is simple, it allows for listing lots of items in one post and will usually yield quick and numerous responses. Freecycle requires a moderator to sign you up through an email account, and then you can post “offers” for your items on the local forums. For a more updated experience, try GiftFlow, which adds a social network element to the gifting process. Unlike the other sites, you create a user profile, which means you can post what you have and what you want while acquiring a user history; this helps when you are meeting a stranger for the handoff.
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By reusing packaging you can utilize what you have purchased. Reuse glass jars to hold leftovers, beans, art supplies, etc. Reuse pet food bags rather than plastic grocery bags to hold your animal’s excrement. Reuse shoe boxes to store items. Put a notice on Freecycle listing items you no longer need or can be reused by others. Save waxed liners from cereal boxes to hold produce at the grocery rather than plastic bags.
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MIDLAND – Local residents will have a chance to save items from going to the landfill while picking up useful – and free – stuff next weekend.
Georgian College’s Robbert Hartog Midland campus will host the third Freecycle Trunk Exchange on May 12 from 9-11 a.m.
The event is like a giant garage sale, but all items are free. No money, no trades and no bartering.
A similar event in October of last year saw more than 200 people contribute furniture, toys, home décor items and more.
Freecycle is a non-profit organization with a mission to reduce waste, save precious resources, and ease the burden on landfills. For more information, visit www.freecycle.org.
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