Freecycle is the new Goodwill

Yesterday I filled 6 large garbage bags full of clothing our family no longer needs or wants. Two bags of my clothes, two bags of my partner's clothes and two bags of the boy's mostly unused duds. Now this doesn't mean we were giving away the old crusty clothes no one wants anymore, no there were some major name brands, designers and more than several things that were never worn or worn a handful of times. These things were left over from my unsuccessful yard sale in May. I have been dreading going through the stuff for a few months but need to clean out the guest room for my mom and step dad's visit next week. But I just made myself do it while the boy watched his morning cartoons and was finished in about 30 minutes. Now often, people go through the purge and don't know what to do with the stuff. But I already had takers, thanks to Freecycle.

So, what is freecycle?

The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,544 groups with 5,471,000 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.

I joined my local freecycle group about a month ago, and previously gave away a large bag of books (also leftover from the yard sale). Our group works via a Yahoo Group, so it involves emailing a post to the group with the details of what is up for grabs. Then folks who are interested, then email you back and you set up a pick up/ drop off time. It's easy. I just gave the address, said the stuff would be waiting outside and then my work is done.

I have seen bikes, dishes, clothing, books, appliances, furniture, toys, tomato plants, etc. listed on the freecycle group. You can find and give away almost anything (every group has their own rules). I think freecycling is one of the greenest things you can do and its pretty frugal too.

Here's what some other people think:
From epinions.com: a more negative review, because the poster had problems with pick ups.
From Pittsburgh Tribune: a basic news story.
From Grist: Environmental slant.

Have you freecycled?