Freecycle

This is a worldwide movement based on Yahoo Groups.

The UK homepage is here.

But I haven’t told you why you would want to know about Freecycle.

Freecycle allows you to find the person who wants something you have but don’t want. The movement is based on reducing landfill. You advertise what you have that you don’t want and you will be emailed by people who would like it. You can also ask for things but I will come to that later.

What can you Freecycle? Almost anything legal, decent and safe although most groups seem to ban the offering of animals.

What should you Freecycle? This is a different question and the answers are my opinions. I freecycle anything large, useful and difficult to sell/rehome. So far this has included carpets after we had an extension built and all the rooms had grown too big for the carpets. In the same wave we found new owners for all the curtain rails, curtains and window blinds that were no longer any use to us. I’ve also Freecycled old software, computer components, jam jars, garden plants, audio cassette tapes and, best of all, most of my old fitted kitchen! I’ve received underbed drawers and a bag full of knitting yarn among other things.
Other items which go well are furniture, computer peripherals when you have upgraded, electrical goods & building materials.

When I decide whether to post something on Freecycle I ask myself these questions

1. Can I sell this & is the likely price worth the effort?
2. Will a charity shop be likely to sell this?
3. Is there any chance anyone will want this?

If the answers are No, No & Yes, then I put it on my local Freecycle.

If there are no replies, then it is often worth putting it on again a few weeks later and at a different time of the week. Also, if you live at the edge of a Freecycle group’s area, join the next one and post it there. Different things go well in different areas.

Often you will get just one reply but deciding who gets a popular item is entirely up to the original owner.

Items should be collected by the receiver and it is important to turn up when you said you would and to be polite (the words “Thank You” are sometimes strangely absent, I’m told, though all my collectors have said them). There should be no charge at all.

Although it is not really in the spirit of the blog, I can’t resist making some observations about Wanted posts. These are controversial. Most reasonable people can tell the ones that should be banned as soon as they read them (Wanted – Laptop(windows XP or better)…) and the sensible ones (Wanted – 3’ of worktop, any colour, for my garage), but it is very difficult to write rules for this. I just ignore most of them and it may be best for your blood pressure if you do the same.

To sum up, Freecycle is a great weapon in the Decluttering War as it is more satisfactory to get rid of something to someone who wants it than just to pitch it out.

P.S. Tell any tradesmen working on your house about Freecycle. They are constantly removing useful items from homes and can encourage Freecycling. It is in their interests, too, as Trade Waste must be paid for at the tip. The basin and loo from our old bathroom were wanted by 6 people inside an hour of posting. The Thermostatic shower control was similarly popular and the window blind and mirror have also been rehomed.

Only Fit for the Bin?

Some things are definitely rubbish aren’t they? Worn out clothes? Damaged shoes? Scruffy old handbags?

You are probably used to seeing fabric bins amongst the recycling but do you use them? I used to but now I deliver my worn out and damaged fabric to charity shops in bags which I mark “rags”. Check with your favourite charity shop that they are happy to receive such stuff but the two shops in my small town both tell me that they are paid for every bag of clean but damaged fabric which is collected from them. The stuff in the bin in the car park may go to a charity or it may not. By delivering directly you select who benefits.

Shoes? These need to be bagged separately from fabric but one shop tells me that they get £1.50 per dustbin bag of shoes however worn out. The same goes for handbags.

And you can be quite sure that if someone is paying for the stuff then it is being recycled rather than sent to landfill!

Now how does this apply to the title of this blog? Are there shoes in your cupboard which have had it? Will you ever use that slightly grubby handbag with the damaged strap? The jumper with just one hole which is front and centre? Why not put them in bags and send them to be recycled? Your home can only be a clearer, nicer place without the unusable junk.

Presents - Seasonal Thoughts

Now this is a ticklish but seasonally appropriate subject. I've been asked to dispose of more than one box of things which were no longer wanted and have been quite hurt to find items which I had given as presents. In a couple of cases the prices such items fetched on ebay have very nearly taken away the sting but that isn't going to happen often!

While tidying up for elderly relatives, there seemed to me to be an astonishing number of presents which they had never used. Some were unused for obvious reasons: they were never the right gift. However, many were, I suspect, put away as "too good to use".

I have learned a few things about presents

Rule 1 – When someone gives you a present they mean it for you now not for your niece-in-law who inherits it.
Rule 2 – Nothing you can afford is too good to use. Unless you can identify the special day when that bottle of champagne will be opened or the super new perfume used, then perhaps the best day for using it is today.
Rule 3 – Only wine improves with age. Use everything else now!


Finally, if an item is really not what you want or will use, get rid of it soon. Give it away, sell it but just don’t keep it past the stage where the donor can say “where is the **** I gave you?”

SHEET MUSIC

This is something you either have tons of or none at all. I've rehomed the contents of two piano stools.

First sort it

• Really scruffy - recycling box - sorry, there is nothing else for it.
  
• Classical - there really isn't much of a secondhand market for this so you are unlikely to sell it but school music departments, instrument teachers &, for that matter, almost any other musicians are usually grateful for the chance to select from what you have.
  
• Popular - this sells - slowly as a rule. Some items will go quickly and for prices which are worth the cost of listing on eBay. The only ones I have sold well have been Disney or Musical Theatre related. Of course, you may be lucky and have signed music which is a whole different world! To sell the popular sheet music you need to list it on one of the free to list online sites and be patient while the one person in the world who wants it finds you. I use eBid. I will blog how to get the best out of eBid later, but being thanked by someone who was thrilled to find the music wanted for her father's funeral was worth more than money.
  

Too Much Stuff? This Blog Can Help You!

It is easy to keep things you no longer want because they are too good to throw away. Here I will give you ideas for finding new homes for those things that are filling your home and your life with clutter.

I have cleared and rehomed SO much clutter, both mine and that belonging to the family and I want to share some of the things I have learned while doing it.