As mentioned in early postings, I belong to the Freecycle network here in Ottawa. I love looking at all the things people give away. It's great to belong to a community that strives to keep things out of the landfill.
I don't often participate, though. Most people post things that I am not interested in, and until recently, I haven't really had anything to give away. That's all changed. I'm on a mission - get rid of all the excess clutter in our house.
7 years of living in the same place allows you to accumulate a lot of things. Most good, some ugly, and some you wonder why on earth you ever took it in. Painting our office last weekend forced me to tackle the sanctioned "drop zone" in our house. Anything that didn't have a home went in the office, "to look at later". Well, we've reconfigured the office furniture, and a lot of things that were in the office won't fit any more. It's time to purge.
It's been a very cleansing process. I've shredded probably 1 1/2 yard waste bags of old paper, recycled about a dozen boxes, donated at least that many books to the library, and finally organized my kids' school memory books.
But there are some items I just don't want anymore. So I offered them on Freecycle. To my amazement, almost everything went. It feels really good. I like the fact that I can offer something to someone who really wants it, and keep my "trash" out of the landfill.
I like it so much, that I'm setting a goal of getting rid of all the other clutter in our house. I hope to post items on Freecycle at least twice a month. As the old saying goes "One man's trash is another man's treasure". Amen to that.
I've used Freecycle to unload stuff but haven't gotten anything on it yet. You have to be really quick on the trigger...The couple of times I tried someone else got the item. But hey it's free, so it's worth it to keep trying!
ReplyDeleteCarolyn
We've been Goodwill and SallyAnn donators and shoppers for a long time, but recently, we've been Freecycling lots of stuff - it's so fun, eh? For example, my husband Freecycled his old Sony Walkman - the fellow who picked it up was a "Big Brother" and was giving it with a bunch of tapes to his "Little Brother" - a cool novelty that works! It's just so fun when the recipient is thrilled with the item. I'm a total fan.
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm having a lot of fun with it - it feels so great to give to someone who really wants it.
ReplyDelete