Freecycle Network

I posted this over at the Kovac-Valentine blog, but its too good not to include here as well:

"People, listen up! While in a frenzied post-holiday clean-up I discovered something really terrific and I MUST share! My house is so filled with STUFF that either I thought I needed or someone else thought I needed or I thought someone else in our family needed - I sell it on eBay, pack it up and give it away, but there is some stuff that you just look at and say, 'who would ever want that'. Examples, you say? Try this: - boxes of cords and transformers and adapters to electronic equipment that has long since been discarded - old electronic stuff that no longer works - boxes of glass jars and old kitchen stuff, miscellaneous plates, cups, glasses -my string collection - lots of those plastic things that plants come in from the plant nursery (you throw those away?!! shame on you!) - etc, etc - you get the picture! SO - in my frenzied attempt to get control of all this random stuff that has control of much of the square footage in our house, I discovered a network of people who need stuff and give stuff away. Its called Freecycle - it uses Yahoo groups so you join a group in your area, and then you post what you want to give away and people in the group who want stuff or need stuff email you and ask if they can come over and pick it up! The objective is to encourage re-use of as much stuff as possible, and get stuff you no longer want/need to the people who need/want it. Its sort of an on-line version of the 'end of the road' pile - my brother's idea, you put a lot of crap at the end of the driveway and put up a big sign that says FREE, and by the end of the day most of it is GONE. Amazing! Using Freecycle is nicer, because you don't have to haul it out to the end of the driveway and you don't have to clean up whatever is left that got rained on. I've already had one big boxfull of stuff leave the house to grateful new owners, and I'm working on more. Strongly encourage you all to check this out, especially if you are a string-saver like me! (I just need to avoid the temptation to take someone elses stuff - hmmm, maybe the person in New Milford giving away the yarn collection they inherited from their grandma is worth a look!) Anyway, check it out if you need something or have something to give. In addition to posting things you want to give away, you can post for things you need, but its gotta be free - no trading, no selling. Namaste, peace out!"