Ah! Someone else has discovered Freecycling! I've been on two local lists since early December. I've gotten rid of a bunch of stuff too good to throw out, too difficult to sell at a yardsale, but perfectly good for the perfect person. I've gotten rid of cubic footage and made any number of people happy (and more to come!)

Non-profits have first dibs, but only one of my culls has gone to a non-profit org. -- a portable manual typewriter to a local Easter Seals Society. I've also made a 6-year-old who is fascinated by typewriters and likes to make books very happy. And I've freecycled a bunch of outdated computers (not enough umph to get on-line, but perfectly okay to work as a word processor, etc.) to students to do their homework on. 100 jazz LPs to a afficionado who will put them on CDs, 200 classical LPs to a non-profit low-power radio station, etcet. etcet.

And I've been very very good -- I'm accumulating less cubic footage than I've given away. But I've gotten miscellaneous books and videotapes, a Marantz tape recorder (with the slow-downer) and a wooden music stand that needs a leg glued back on. And just this week replacement parts to a JennAire that we couldn't otherwise afford. I've also made contact with an electronics engineer who will fix (for a reasonable amount) two dubbing decks I have. And a teacher of technical writing at a community college who will pass on job opportunities.

I've also "met" a few of my neighbors in other parts of our small town of Nottingham whom I'd probably never have met.

With Freecycle.org, basically everything is free. You OFFER what you're trying to find a new home for, and can also post WANTEDs. Stuff moves around to people who want and need it and you get what you want and need -- sort of an indirect trade. And it not only keeps things out of the landfill, but gets stuff into the right hands where it can be made use of.

I LOVE Freecycle!!!

Linn