I’ve used Freecycle twice here for baby items I wanted gone. I was VERY strict about timeframe of pickup and location. If someone wasn’t able to conform to my request, well, they were SOL. But my experiences were great. Young moms who clearly needed the stuff and were quite appreciative of the nice quality of my items. I tried to donate an infant car seat that was pristine and no charity would take it due to liabity I imagine. Freecycle is the perfect avenue.
But then, I didn’t really hang out on the site, nor did I check to see if any items were in turn placed on Craigslist for $$. Didn’t really care since Hub wants stuff gone NOW when he wants it gone. And it was!
I will hit Craigs first, then if no offers are obtained any items then shuffle off to Freecycle. Good idea, whoever thought it up!
Well, just as one example, we might be putting up some partial bottles of shampoo, hair gel, and such in a few months, because we’re planning to move cross-country and I don’t want to bring them with me.
I see your point about selling your computer before sinking to that point of need, but a lot of people use the free internet access at our local library and I can see them checking out lists for free stuff at the same time as they apply for jobs and so on.
I LUUUUUV freecycle. My hobby is getting rid of stuff. My home is a crap breeding ground.
Our local list only allows each user one WANTED post per month and you get a warning if you violate this and then you get booted.
I only ever posted one “wanted”. As delighted as I had been to give away my stuff and respond to other “wanteds” I felt funny, like I was begging to post what I wanted. “Darn it!” I told myself “you’ve given away $100s worth of stuff, you can ask for what you want and nobody has to give it to you unless they want to”
Turns out the person who responded was someone I had met before :o I felt like I was caught taking money out of the baristas’ tip jar…but she gave me more cloth diapers than she’d planned to once she realized she knew me
I wish my local list had more rules. Reposting wants every week is obnoxious. If no one had a futon frame last week, why post it again this week? And I don’t have a problem with people posting wants, even if they’re a long shot. It’s seeing the same person ask for items every single day that irritates me, especially when those same people don’t post offers.
I have had over-all great experiences. I have gotten an almost new Carhart winter coat, a working stair-stepper, a much needed book case, a bunch of craft paints, a night stand and other smaller stuff. I have unloaded a BUNCH of stuff that was too nice to toss.
I rarely post wanted stuff, I think I have twice, and got a response to 1 of them, I was looking for old blankets to use in my dogs’ crates, and a nice lady responded right away, and gave me a whole stack of NICE quilts and comforters!
Our local list , you can only post 1 ‘wanted’ per week, and posting animals is absolutely not allowed!
My roomie is a moderator for the local freecycle, and we have fun. I ended up with a bunch of audio books, and mucic cds that just were not up my alley, and they got slurped up by a few different people, as well as some very nice clothing that my mother thinks would look great on me :rolleyes: and assorted kitchen goodies that we replaced like a perfectly good fridge that was just too small for us, the stove that we replaced because I never liked the glasstop stoves, and unused computer stuff.
We have gotten 3 cords of firewood [just had to cut it into shorter lengths and haul it away] a hot tub [slightly cracked, just needs to have a small patch done on it when teh weather warms up] just for disassembling the surround and hauling it away, and cleaning up the area where we took the surround apart, and some very nice posters with pictures of wolves on them.
We are about to list a recumbent exercycle as my knees are going out and I can’t really use it any longer, but havent decided yet, mrAru may want to keep it.
)