Freecycle?

Temp655608750006792

Has anyone heard of Freecycle? My dad (in Lancaster) mentioned it to me the other day as an alternative to Craigslist. I signed up but I am not really sure how it works just yet.  Just wondering if you had any experience with it!

On the website is says "The Freecycle Network is made up of 4,251 groups with 4,518,000 members across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them's good people). Membership is free."

http://www.freecycle.org/

cork2win

Yeah, I used it long before I knew of craigslist. I used it to get moving boxes from someone and I gave away a microwave.

Pretty standard stuff.  Create or read an ad, respond, make meeting arrangements.  Obviously since you're giving stuff away for free be prepared to be bombarded with responses once you post an ad, and if you're picking up, be prepared to have to do it quickly because most people want the stuff gone right away.  It's cool though, defnintely worth checking out.

Temp655608750006792

VERY interesting!  Thanks for your response!  Do people post picture or you just have to take thier word for it? 

thefraziers

I forget who it is, but my mother-in-law knows the person who started it.  I think from church.  You probably know him too!

Temp655608750006792

What?  No way!  I am totally calling me dad to tell him!
How are you doing sweetie?

Mrs*Pink

Just be prepared for the amount of emails that you will get.  I swear it was like at least 20 a day.  It's a listserv format so you get every posting/response.

hippohat

Freecycle rocks! I've used it a couple of times for items that I don't want but that I refuse to just throw away. I agree that you'll probably get lots of responses, but it's pretty easy to weed out the people who truly want and need whatever you're offering.

You just post the text about your item, and I've mentioned that I can e-mail photos upon request, and it's worked well for me. I'd probably think twice about having someone come to my home if possible - meet at a store parking lot or something instead - but all the items that I've offered so far were not easily moved. The site has signs that you can print out and attach, so your stuff isn't just taken.

It's perfect for stuff that is not sellable but also not trash. People even post broken stuff a lot that either needs fixed, or can be used for its parts.

Isn't the guy who started this in Cincinnati? Or somewhere in Ohio...

hippohat

MrsPink - I think you can set up the notifications that you receive - I've only ever gotten e-mails about my posts, but I vaguely recall turning off the other notifications.

Darrenswifey

It's an awesome way to get rid of stuff you feel guilty throwing away, but trust me, there are freaks who don't show up until 10 hours past when they're supposed to (at 10:30 at night on a Sunday, mind you), wondering why you gave away 'their' freebies to someone else.

Yeah, this happened to me.  I was livid!

BethL

from the other side...I've gotten tons of great stuff on Freecycle...all for the shelter.  For the most part, I've had a great experience.  However I've had a couple folks giving stuff away that were not home when they said they were etc...AND they could not understand why I was so upset driving 1/2 across town and they were not there...I went twice.  The lady was like 'what do you expect...it's free!'...uh. I expect you home when you said you were!  hehe!

I do agree...if possible, meet someone at a neutral site!

Beth