D.C. Area Nesties
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Freecycle advice?
I'm afraid that I'm going to get addicted to the time-suck that is Freecycle. Just joined the Springfield group and I'm already thinking that all the stuff I want will be disproportionally greater than all the stuff I want to give away.
I don't know why I'm nervous about posting - I guess I don't want to mess up and get the "two strikes and you're out" smack down.
Anyone here want to give me tips - on posting offers or posting wanteds? Or tips on Freecycle in general that aren't already in their list of guidelines?
Wife, Musician, Fed, WW-er, and Mom of three little kids - not necessarily in that order.
Re: Freecycle advice?
For a "wanted" I usually post why I want it & how much work I'm willing to do (like, I've often posted for plants & said I'd be willing to dig them up).
For a "offer" I usually specify whom I'm giving preference to (first response, first available for pickup...I've also seen people saying they prefer the item to go to someone in need).
It's not too scary. Promise!
I get the Freecycle emails in digest form, because there are way too many for me to sorth through individually. When someone posts something I want, I send a short reply explaining why I'd like to have the item and when I can pick it up. I feel like people reply to freecycle posts within 2.5 seconds of them going out, so if it's an item that I think would be fairly popular, I usually don't bother asking for it unless I see that the post just went up.
If I'm offering an item, I usually offer it "porch pickup" and ask people to tell me when they can pick it up. I usually choose the first responder who shows some actual interest in the item. Freecycle is notorious for no-shows, so I try to weed through the responses to find one that seems reliable.
It's pretty hard to mess up! If you look through 10 or so posts, you'll see they all follow a similar pattern. Just follow the pattern.
every group is different; ours does not allow people to specify that an item is for certain needs (i.e. charity, etc) b/c the idea is to keep items out of landfills and freecycle is not charity. that's the rule in our group, yours may advocate giving to charity. We are allowed to post "preference goes to earliest PU (pick up)," and similar stipulations.
don't be afraid, a lot of times, people post things they are not supposed to - the moderators just don't pay that much attention sometimes and we have several.
I subscribe and have them all go to a certain folder. My MO is this - I mark them all to delete, then read the subjects and undelete those I may want to know more about. I am very particular about areas, as I am not willing to drive out of my way at all. Don't be afraid to write back and ask if something is in good condition if they don't say. The good stuff goes FAST though so if you see something you want, respond ASAP. Be polite, I always say something short and to the point, such as "I would love this item and can PU around 4pm tomorrow" - I always tell them when I can PU and I always PU on time. Freecycles hate no-shows.
I think ours has a limit on how many WANTEDs you can post but I don't post those often.
Have fun, there are some good items to be had (I got almost all of my pregnancy and baby books from freecycle) but there is also a fair share of crap. After a while, you will know the people who give away crap and those who give away nice items.
Really? If you do a no-show 2x at my freecycle, you're banned. I guess it depends on the group? I've had a much better show up rate with freecycle than CL.
same with ours, if the OFFERer reports a NO-SHOWer, that person will likely get banned. Not sure after how many no-shows, but they are not tolerated in our group.
Interesting. I haven't had any no-shows myself, but I see a lot of people re-offer items because the first person didn't show up. Maybe people aren't reporting them to the mod.
This post inspired me to sign up because we are cleaning out our garage and have some stuff to get rid of.
This may be a stupid question, but one of the rules of my local group is that you can't just leave something on the curb for someone to pick up. I realize this is so there isn't a free-for-all, but that mean I would be allowed to schedule someone to pick it up but just leave it outside? I guess I don't want to go through the hassle of scheduling a bunch of "showings" for stuff we're getting rid of.
Interesting. Are you sure it's that they don't allow "Hey, guys, I put X on the porch!" vs. scheduling ONE person to pick up on the porch? The first means that dozens of people might waste their time driving by your house to see if it's still available while the latter doesn't.
Ours allows porch pickups, but you have to schedule them. Meaning, you don't put your address in the initial post...only to the one person that you've selected for pick up
My impression of the no-curb-pickup rule is that there are county laws about going through peoples' trash - I guess they don't want anyone arrested for doing that when they're innocently picking up a Freecycle item from the curb.
I could also see that a curb-pickup-come-and-get-it might waste peoples' time.
However, I agree it would be nice to maybe schedule with one person and then just leave something in the carport for someone to come get. It would be a heck of a lot easier than "entertaining" people who come to the house. I kind of don't want strangers tromping through here and ogling my kids and and making plans to kidnap them and sell them into slavery. OK, that's dramatic, but you know what I mean?
Artslvr - I am in the Springfield freecycle. I would love to give you my crap
I think you need to post items before you can post wanted (or that may have been the Falls Church freecycle. I have done both but have never "won" an offered item
You can have my stuff as well. I'm on both Springfield and Falls Church. The latter because I used to live there and still work there. Stuff goes really fast on the Springfield one and there are a lot of posts for Lorton which I have no desire to drive to. You can definitely post wanted before posting anything. I don't think there is a rule against it. You sort of get to know the regular posters of stuff, oddly they are never the ones who write to take my junk away. I can't manage the email flow from there, ti gets too crowded. I get the digest but truthfully, I just log on once mid-morning and if there is anything to respond to that I am interested in. I almost always miss items so my way is definitely not the best. I've only had one no show when I was giving things away. I've had a few folks flake and come later, but most are good. I almost always do porch pickup, even when I am home, since it's less disruptive.
Not Freecycle, but have you gone to our community big trash day in the spring? DH came home with bikes in perfect condition for the kids. I was OOT or I would've loved to have gone too.
Yes! In fact the first year we lived here I volunteered at that event, and I was one of the people who worked the "trash to treasure" part, which basically meant I was the one to eyeball stuff and set it aside if it looked like it was in good shape. Bikes are definitely a hit during that - people don't know what to do with used bikes I guess.
You can leave things on your porch so the designated "winner" can come by whenever, but you cannot to a curb alert in the sense of, "I put a couch in my yard, first person here gets it" . My understanding of that rule is that there is a chance that no one will show because they don't want to waste their time and because people could waste transportation resources to get there for no reason if the item is gone and saving resources is one of the goals of FC.
If you want to actually have a shot at getting things, get the individual emails and when you respond, name a pick-up time (the sooner the better). I also include if I think I live really close to them (proximity= greater chance of coming soon).
If you just want to give stuff away, get the daily digest and delete it without reading.
It took me awhile to warm up to FC, but now we adore it for getting and giving.