I have discovered a new web-based phenomenon, concerned with giving stuff away, or asking for stuff and being given it for free. The Freecycle movement, already well-established in the United States, manifested itself in Ottawa as a Yahoo group about two years ago, which is now so busy that it keeps three moderators hard at work.

During the two weeks since Edmund (CET) left to do a court martial in Alberta, I tidied up and cleaned the garage and the garden, finding in the process a whole lot of stuff that we don't need, some of it stuff we never needed. I posted each item on the Ottawa Freecycle site, and saw them march off to new households where they are useful assets, not clutter or toxic waste. This was by far the best way to unload the white plastic patio set my ex-sister-in-law stuck us with (I always knew that woman had no taste), and the lawn mower we no longer need because the grass died and we turned the lawn into a big perennial bed. Once started, I was on a roll, and promptly gave away the extra garbage can that we never used, a baby gate that somehow came into our possession, and three full packages of fertilizer of uncertain vintage.

It's simple: you post a message offering an item and saying in general terms where you live, and people e-mail you asking for it. You pick the response you like the best for whatever reason seems good to you, and e-mail back with your phone number. They call, you arrange a pick-up time, and they come and take the item away.

It's amazing what people need. A woman near us has a standing order for old cotton clothing (dead T-shirts, underpants, pyjamas -- the stuff good housekeepers make dusters out of) and shreds it to make bedding for animals at the Humane Society shelter. A couple of record collectors looking for old vinyl haunt the site, and baby clothes and equipment passes from family to family in a kind of Brownian movement. Our baby barrier went to a couple who are fostering 10-week-old twin boys; their other children are in university and their own baby equipment long gone. The patio set went to a woman with a home day-care and nothing in her back yard but grass. I hated it; she loves it.

Garage sales make sense to some people, but it's just not worth it to us to spend a priceless Saturday arranging and pricing items so we can make 10 bucks on a 13-year-old push lawn mower and 50 cents on 25 feet of cheapest grade garden hose with a leaky coupling. Freecycling is just great.