I’ve had good experiences with Freecycle, too, though I admit the really picky ‘wanted’ ads are a downer.
I think the key is to see it as a way of POSSIBLY having something that still is useable but that you no longer want go to a new home instead of the dump, and nothing more – no romantic view of helping the most deserving.
At first I did the post an “offer” then reply to responders and dicker over pick up time and all that, and repeat if someone showed up, but then I adopted the method I saw a lot of other posters using. Now I only do ‘offer’ posts on Saturdays, and they read like this:
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Offer: Wellbuilt bread making machine, complete with original packaging, instruction booklet, plus three paperback ‘bread machine’ recipe books.
The machine is eight years old, but was only used maybe 20 times. Worked perfectly the last time, but has been sitting in storage the last five years.
I will put the machine next to the telephone pole at the end of the driveway at (street address) at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
Don’t bother to respond by email: I won’t ‘hold’ items for anyone, it’s early bird gets the worm. If no one collects the item before then, it will be taken away by the town trash collectors early Monday morning.
-=-=-=-
And then I stick the whatever out there and I’m done.
So far I’ve gotten rid of over a dozen ‘lots’ of items, with absolutely no hassles.
It works splendidly from the point of view of my clearing excess stuff out of the house: Our trash collectors come around early Monday morning, so things ‘go away’ no matter what. 
BTW, some people use their work places for the ‘setout spot’ (like: item will be sitting beside the dumpster behind Joe’s Barber shop at 123 Main Street) to avoid having to put their addresses out there. So long as you clear it with your boss and follow through (like putting the item out when you go to work one day, and tossing it into the dumpster if its still there when you’re going home) I don’t imagine many would object.
