Do you know about FREECYCLE?

[Earth_First]

Check it out: http://www.freecycle.org/

[BigMcLargehuge]

1. We've been freecyclers for about a year now

aside from 80% of the people never picking up the stuff they want, it's a good system.

[Earth_First]

2. We were introduced to it after a sustainable building conference...

however it really has proven to be of little use to us as far as recycled building materials, we love the concept and would love to take advantage of the system in the future...

Just figured I'd throw it out into DU...

[BigMcLargehuge]

3. we've had good and bad experience with it

on the good side -

Someone needed a book about SIP VoIP. I tutored him for two hours instead (I just wrote an 8 hour training course on SIP). Mrs. McLargehuge scored me a broken weed whacker that still doesn't work... but it will dammit! It will! We got rid of some baby equipment no longer needed (swing, high chair, etc...). We also picked up a nice Minolta SLR when a local photog switched to all digital.

On the bad side -

A lot of freecyclers are assholes and are using the list as a sob-story based/expensive gift wish list. People post like "I know this is a longshot but I really need a new laptop/desktop/electric stove/refrigerator/car/truck/snowmobile..." Others use it for fundraising, which is against the rules, other push the same tired e-Mail SPAM through the system, and yet others post things then give like a 30 minute pickup window or they blacklist you. People actively give away literal garbage - shredded curtains, shredded furniture, broken lamps, TVs, stereos, etc... that all need alot of work to get rid of.

[Debbi801]

4. we've run into similar situations...

I gave away my maternity clothes, nursing clothes, many baby items, etc.

Unfortunately, many of the people on my freecycle list are either giving away junk no one would want--recently I've seen people offering rocks that they've dug up from their garden, sticks they've raked up, pine cones, etc--or they're giving sob stories and looking for things like a new 4 bedroom house, a sail boat big enough to handle sailing to the Carribean, etc.

[NV Whino]

5. Yes. I jsut signed up in my area

Although I have yet to put ony of my "getting rid of" stuff up for offer.