Freecycling does the world good

I have recently joined the vast network of freecyclers. What is freecycling you ask? Freecycling is a group of people who give and receive each others cast offs...for free. This is a great way to keep things out of dumps and reduce your waste and carbon footprints. It's a pretty straightforward first come, first served network. You list what you are offering and where you are located and people will e-mail you back. Often, you will get several takers for one item and you can pick who you give your item too. I usually do first dibs and then go down the list from there if there are people who end up not showing up. I love that you can do porch pick up so you don't have to worry about knocking on someones door or having some stranger knock on yours. I get nervous about that when I'm alone with the kids.

You'd be surprised at what people will take and what they want! I've seen such random stuff being given away and people need your cast offs! It's completely true that one persons trash is another persons treasure. I'm part of a Yahoo! group that has freecycle groups by city, but you can find all kinds of networks. I'm very appreciative of the fact that the majority of the people honestly need the things they ask for and aren't going to turn around and sell it on Craigslist. I've had that happen and it really hurt my feelings! Sad, I know, but it did. I highly suggest joining a freecycle group and you never know what you might be able to take off someones hands. And there may be a person out there who needs the tacky pillow or weird pants that you have laying around that you just can't bring yourself to throw away.