Free cycle | Imamother

seeker

Mon, Jul 23 2012, 10:57 pm

Don't know about freecycle usernames. As far as I know it goes through yahoo groups, so you just use your yahoo address as your username. Unless different regions work differently, but that's the way mine go and I'm on a couple of overlapping region lists.

Basically people post messages describing things they want to get rid of or things they are looking for. You can either go to the yahoo groups website to read these messages, or have them sent to your email - I choose to get a "digest" email which basically sends 25 or so posts in one email, so I'm not getting flooded with email nor do I have to log on to the site all the time. If you see something you like, you reply to the person who posted that message. If the item is still available, you continue to communicate to arrange pickup. Because it's all strangers, you make sure to do the exchange in a public place or bring DH (or another strong-looking person) with you just in case. If you're the one making the offer, it works the same way in reverse - you post the message, people get in touch with you, etc, you make sure DH is home or meet them someplace secure.

I have gotten some really nice things off freecycle, but had to wait through a lot of emails before seeing anything I wanted in close enough locations to make it worth getting, and even then depending how busy your group is often it's taken before you even saw it. I also made some people very happy very easily when I was cleaning out my old stuff from my parents' house and offered it up on freecycle (it was not the kind of things I could have donated to tzedaka or something, but random people were happy to take it)

Best goodies are things like toys, because people with few children outgrow them before they're destroyed and most are pretty easy to clean. I got a whole load of nice toddler toys for DD that way about a year ago and now I'm looking out for the next stage of toys because she's outgrowing those already! Books are always coming and going there, too.

seeker

Mon, Jul 23 2012, 11:35 pm

Also, I try to know my city and choose to respond to postings from neighborhoods that I feel comfortable going to. It also helps because, I know I am totally stereotyping here, but sometimes if you know the demographics you can sort of predict who will have nice stuff. An offer of "big bag of used baby clothes size 6-9 months" from a neighborhood that is generally poor or populated with a specific ethnic group that has different fashion styles than mine, won't be as compelling to me as an identical offer of "big bag of used baby clothes size 6-9 months" from a neighborhood I know to be more classy and upscale. Of course you never know but just a tip to keep in mind! Also bear in mind that your time and transportation are worth something too, so going out to the other side of the city for a small item that you only might like is not necessarily that much wiser than just buying it yourself on sale. OTOH, if you'll be passing through that very neighborhood anyway you might be more inclined to give it a try.

To date I think I have only actually taken freecycle offers maybe 4 times but every time was SO worth it. I'm sure people have had dud experiences but B"H mine all went well. Mostly baby gear type things (unless it's practically next door I only even asked for it if it was a big ticket item - got our play gym that way) but I also got some decent, tznius maternity wear for myself - picked out the things that were my taste/size/tznius or workable, and re-freecycled the pants and whatever didn't work.

Best part is it gives everyone a kind of warm fuzzy feeling. Sure they could have tried to ebay the things but then you have to deal with managing the sale and shipping. This way they get to actually hand it off, if it's something for my DD I sometimes show them a picture of her if she's not with me and they love to see that another cute baby is going to enjoy the things they finished with. No guilt about throwing anything usable away because you didn't want the hassle of selling. And then for the recipient of course you get a free gift and also that nice feeling that there are nice people in this world. I know the world is still the same messed up place it was before but it does feel brighter after a friendly freecycle exchange Smile

OK I've done enough waxing, I guess I'm just a little extra euphoric about this because I just did an awesome pickup yesterday (and the lady was so nice, she brought everything right to my car so I wouldn't have to shlep it all, and had added on things that weren't even mentioned in the original post) Had you asked this a week ago I would have instead reported that it's been almost a year since I got anything (though the stuff I got a year ago was totally worth it! A big nice assortment of toys in great shape! It just gets boring when you skim the emails day after day and never find anything.)

gp2.0

Mon, Jul 23 2012, 11:46 pm

Seeker has done a great job explaining it all. Just wanted to add that I love giving away stuff on freecycle! Every now and then I declutter, fill a few giant bags and put them up on freecycle. I've given away assorted clothes and baby toys.

I've gotten a couple of great things too, including a fish tank, stand and accessories in great condition. To buy all that new would've cost me $100-$200. Sometimes I wonder why people wouldn't rather sell something like that on craigslist...no shipping involved and they'd make some money too...but hey, I don't ask too many questions when people give me free stuff that I want!

ETA: I hate yahoo mail, and they give the option of just signing in with your gmail account, which is what I do. However bear in mind that anyone you end up contacting directly will be contacted using this email address, so you may want to make up a new one for it if you don't want to risk spam.

seeker

Tue, Jul 24 2012, 12:37 am

I guess maybe with freecycle it's a bit easier than Craigslist because when you're getting it free you just take it, whereas CL sometimes you get multiple lookers and no takers, and the thing might not sell at all whereas if you offer it up free it's likely to get out of your way efficiently enough. And I guess they figure maybe it'll go to someone in need and they'll have done a good deed, which is certainly true. I guess the bigger items in good condition must be the good deed thing because some of the things I've gotten I imagine would sell very nicely on CL (e.g. crib from good company, not recalled, great condition)

But for odds n ends freecycle is definitely the way to go! When I decluttered I don't think any of the stuff would have garnered interest on CL but it made some FCers very happy. Huge load of gently used legal size file folders?! Jumble of old computer cords and peripherals?! Half-used art supplies with life remaining? Packing peanuts are good to freecycle because you don't need them, the landfills don't need them, nobody's looking for them on Craigslist because you can buy them by the bag at Staples or UPS store or whatever, but why buy by the bag if someone else is surely unpacking something somewhere and will be dumping them free?