1) Freecycle: Freecycle is an online community of people who are interested in giving or obtaining usable items. If you have something that you don’t need but is clean and in working condition, post it on Freecycle and often you will find a new home for it by the end of the day. To join Freecycle, visit www.freecycle.org, search for the Marlborough, Hudson, and Sudbury group, and follow the instructions to join the group. Once the moderator has approved your membership, you can offer something to the group, and after your item has been picked up, you can offer more things or accept things too. Our family uses Freecyle often to recycle children’s toys and books, and I was able to borrow a music stand for my son. It’s a friendly group, and you might even meet a neighbor there.

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Do you “Freecycle?”

The nearly decade-old network of discussion groups where people announce unwanted items they’re willing to give away to anyone who wants them has almost nine million members around the world. It’s become a convenient outlet for people looking to empty a spare room (or just avoid the pricey rent on a self-storage unit) and also for bargain hunters.

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Freecycle launched in Tucson, Arizona, back in 2003 as a local email list with the simple premise of helping people unload junk they no longer wanted – furniture, clothing, office supplies, you name it – onto nearby people who did. The system came with one rule: Whatever you’re giving up, you can ask for nothing in return. Everything must be free.

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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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