Best Green Living

There are a growing number of options available to you for getting rid of unwanted items.

1. You can sell them on sites like eBay or have your own yardsale. 
2. You can donate to charities like GoodWill.
3. You can give items away to needy friends and family
4. You can haul them to the dump or the recycler.

Each of these options have their place.  Recently I stumbled across another possibility.

A site named FreeCycle.org will link you to user groups in your area where you can give items away to people in your community.

There are several reasons you may choose to go this route.  Some items are just not worth the trouble of selling.  The fees and overall trouble associated with eBay make selling low dollar items not worthwhile.  Also some items are just too big to ship economically.

Having your own yard sale is a great way of reducing clutter but you may not have enough items for your own sale.  Once again, the trouble you would go through to organize a community sale just to get rid of your old lawn mower may not be what you want to invest your time in.

Tossing your stuff on the curb with a big FREE sign on it is also a bit tacky.  A better alternative is FreeCycle.org

It is simple to post the items you have available.  Locals in your community will respond to your email and you can contact them and have them come pick up your unwanted items.  There are just a few simple rules that all boil down to common sense (no guns, no porn, etc)

After cleaning my garage this weekend, (I need to make room to park my new Vectrix) I had a few itmes left over that fell within the above categories.  It just so happened that I found out about the freeCycle community and thought I would give it a try.  Within 24 hours of posting my items, 4 out of the 5 were picked up.

Are you looking for something?  FreeCycle is a great place to watch.  There is nothing like getting what you want for free.

You may be thinking, ‘with all this free stuff being offered there must be scammers taking advantage’  You may be right.  Some of the people rushing to your house to pick up your items may be reselling them for profit.  Some really want the item for their own use.  And I say that’s fine.  If you have items you would like to give away, give them with a clear conscience and don’t worry about other people’s intentions.

Do your part.  That’s it, that’s all we have to do.