BS: Web sites where you can give things away

Subject: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: Cool Beans
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 05:32 PM

I've read about Web sites where you can offer furniture and household goods free to people who can use them (and take them away). This would be in the US (and able to be localized). Neither Google nor Ask has come up with what I'm looking for. I'm betting Mudcat can do better.

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 05:38 PM

Why is a website needed? Put an add in the local paper, or a note on a bulletin board. Even a sign on the lawn might work.

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 05:43 PM

This isn't what Cool Beans asked for, but it might be a way of finding something closer to home. And it's interesting in itself - Give Away Websites

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 06:07 PM

Probably thinking of Craigslist.

---Lepus Rex

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 06:13 PM

Freecycle

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: curmudgeon
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 06:21 PM

freecycle.org

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: maeve
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 06:53 PM

Freecycle in Maine has been great, both as a giver and as a recipient,

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 07:14 PM

Who needs a website for that? You can put virtually anything out at the side of the street here with a "Free!" sign on it...and someone will take it away in 24 hours or less. People LOVE getting stuff for free.

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: Janie
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 08:17 PM

Like others have said - Freecycle. I'm a member of Freecycle in my area. It's a great resource for finding household goods my indigent patients need, and I have gotten rid of a number of servicable items quite quickly by posting to it. However, in my area at least, it means I get anywhere from 20 to 100 feecycle e-mails a day.

I have them all go to my 'suspect mail' folder, and if I am not looking for anything, simply delete them en masse. Even so, the sheer volume is kind of a pain to deal with, and I sometimes inadvertently delete other e-mails from that folder that I should have opened, simply because I overlooked them imbedded in the middle of a couple of pages of freecycle messages.

Janie

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: jeffp
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 09:29 PM

Janie, most mail clients allow you to create rules to direct incoming mail. You could create a "Freecycle" folder and create a rule to route all mail from the Freecycle list to that folder. I know this can be done in Yahoo, so if you are using something that doesn't allow it, you could create an address in Yahoo and change your registration in Freecycle.

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: open mike
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 09:42 PM

There are over 4,000 groups with nearly 4 million members on Freecycle .

It is organized by area, and you can also request items.

The only rule is that no money can be exchanged..it all must be free.

It is a great service, I have gotten sour dough starter, feather beds,
and fencing, and found homes for computer and printer parts, kitchen
supplies, and appliances.

remember the video of the guy with the sign "free hugs"?
I have not seen any of those offered.....yet.

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: Beer
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 09:43 PM

Maybe Cool Beans wants to pick something up and not give away. Right c/b?
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: jeffp
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 09:48 PM

open mike, last year a performer at the Maryland Renaissance Festival took inspiration from that guy and went around with a "Free Hugs" sign. I was a recipient of one of them. And of course, when you give a hug, you usually get one back, making it an even transaction. And one where both sides profit.

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: Janie
Date: 20 Sep 07 - 09:50 PM

So, on Freecycle anyway, you can do either. Scan the give-aways and respond if you see what you are looking for, or post that you are looking for a particular item.

Jeffp - thanks. I think I can do that.

Janie

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 Sep 07 - 12:09 AM

Our freecycle has a long way to go, yet. I finally stopped getting the emails. Things offered were few and far between and most of the items needed were baby items, plus it covers the whole Western Slope of Colorado where towns can be some distance apart and then some.

I put stuff out on the street, too, LH. Works a treat!:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: maeve
Date: 21 Sep 07 - 07:26 AM

Stuff on the street works well here, too, as long as there's a large enough number of folks going directly by our house. For a wider range of potential freebie receivers, we use Freecycle.

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: Cool Beans
Date: 21 Sep 07 - 12:20 PM

Thanks, all. Freecycle and Craigslist should do the trick. I'm trying to give something away.

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: maeve
Date: 22 Sep 07 - 08:01 AM

Of course, we also have our small town recycling center, which includes a "Swap Shop" where we take our unwanted treasures and can also pick up our neighbors' donations.

Sometimes 'Catters post appropriate items here, as well. I have a set of fiddle tapes from a fellow Mudcatter that I'll be sending along to another Mudcatter when I've finished listening to them. The best of recycling!

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: maeve
Date: 22 Sep 07 - 12:31 PM

For example, moments ago at our Swap Shop I dropped off our accumulated recycling along with 2 cartons of good quality yardsale items. I picked up an "Invisible Horse" kit (new, complete, in box, for a local young 4-H member), a t-shirt, three new plastic auto drip pans (to be used for potting up and watering trays of seedlings), a Nina Bawden book, and a dozen egg cartons for our bantam eggs.

Via Freecycle I arranged to pick up a quantity of plastic storage bins with lids, and an oversized florist's vase for displaying cutflowers on our stand.

maeve.

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: Genie
Date: 22 Sep 07 - 08:48 PM

Glad to see the references to Craigslist, freecycle, etc.

As for putting things out on the curb, yeah, sometimes that works. But stuff can get damaged by rain or even just drizzle, dew, and dust. Plus, sometimes it gets vandalized instead of picked up.

Every community probably has some charities that will give away stuff to people who need it instead of just trying to sell it at thrift stores. Battered women's shelters, e.g., do that.   

I'm getting more reluctant to donate a lot of things to charities for thrift stores, because too many of them now are operating on the move-mass-quantities-as-quickly-as-possible-with-no-discounts principle, meaning they try for a fairly high (sometimes unreasonably so) price and then "dump" whatever doesn't sell at that price within a few weeks, regardless of quality of the item.    I.e., many of them do not have, as part of their mission, to connect useful items with people who need them or to keep that sort of stuff out of landfills.   So whenever I can find a place that will place as high a value on matching people with "stuff" as they do on turning a buck "efficiently," I prefer to donate there.

I still like to get the tax deductions when I can, but not if it means the item's likely to be trashed or discarded before it can even find a home.

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: wysiwyg
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 11:13 AM

Where have I BEEN? I think I just arranged to Freecycle an unwanted fridge out, and a needed upright freezer IN!

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: maeve
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 06:52 PM

Well done, Susan! Now if I could just Freecycle my refrigerator/freezer out and an "all refrigerator" in.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: Genie
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 08:17 PM

In Corvallis, Oregon, when I was teaching there a while back, there was a "Free Store," just like a thrift store, only you could drop off anything you wanted and take anything you wanted, for free.

The problem was, somebody had to pay the rent and (at least indirectly) property taxes, and utilities.   With no cash flow, this store soon went under.

Pity.

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: wysiwyg
Date: 24 Sep 07 - 09:15 AM

Well, I have the freezer promised; now if I can just complete the hookup so the fridge goes outbound on the same trip I'll have made my waste-nothing-including-my energy self deliriously happy!

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: Cool Beans
Date: 24 Sep 07 - 11:43 AM

So I put the item, a child's bed-desk combo, up on Craigslist on Sunday and started getting calls within three hours. After 9 calls, we de-listed the ad. The first (perhaps last) people are coming today (Monday). Although it's hard to tell from brief phone calls and messages, most of the respondents didn't sound sophisticated ("I'm calling about a ad I saw..."). Computer literacy is more democratic than I'd assumed. This is good.

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: wysiwyg
Date: 28 Sep 07 - 02:44 PM

Not only did the Freecycled freezer live up to expectations, it turned out to be narrow enough-- just-- that we can keep the old fridge, too, so now we're REALLY happy with the deal. And I found a great Freecycle outflow to a local homeschooler for the great mags we get-- even if we tear out the articles we want, she can use them!

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Sep 07 - 12:44 PM

I signed up for a couple of overlapping Freecycle communities in my neighborhood. They sure crank out the email, even set on daily digest!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: wysiwyg
Date: 29 Sep 07 - 05:06 PM

I'm in 4, and only one of them is active enough to generate a lot of mail. If you have the mail sent to an addy you don't peruse all the time, it's simple enough to manage or ignore. And the subject line makes it easy to delete any not of interest.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Sep 07 - 10:38 PM

Even with a digest (once a day, or when they reach 25 posts they send one out) it ads up around here. I will peruse them for a while, and I may delete or unsubscribe.

Some of the requests are very specific and they sound like they're entitled to these things they're asking for. Others are issuing parental "come get it now or it goes in the trash" announcements. I prefer the tone of "this is in good shape and has value and if it can go to a good home we'll be glad."

Odd set of folks posting to these sites.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: wysiwyg
Date: 30 Sep 07 - 09:29 AM

Well, they probably mean it differently than you're taking it. If they aren't items you're interested in, why peruse them at all?

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: Cool Beans
Date: 30 Sep 07 - 10:31 AM

Craigslist doesn't do that. You have to go to it.

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Sep 07 - 11:05 AM

You have to skim the ads to know if they have something you need or need something you want to give away. That's the nature of the beast.

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: wysiwyg
Date: 30 Sep 07 - 11:47 AM

??? All my Freecycle emails are coming with OFFER or WANTED and the item name right in the subject line. Don't yours? I assumed they're all the same. If you're losing those in the digest format you might actually prefer the non-digest option. On the ones I joined there is also the read-only-on-web option.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: maeve
Date: 01 Oct 07 - 07:49 AM

The clarity of the Freecycle ads is directly related to each group's requirements for posting and how well posters follow the format. If posters don't follow the format, one has to read the ad to determine its personal interest.

One of my local groups is run by a moderator who is very specific to the point that nonconforming posts are deleted and repeat offenders removed from membership. Quite rigid, but the safety standards and ad clarity are impressive. Another of my local groups is lax to the point of stupidity.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: wysiwyg
Date: 01 Oct 07 - 04:18 PM

I sure wish I'd known about Freecycle the LAST time I was getting the house ready for my maw-in-law! Box of magazines, poof!

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Web sites where you can give things away
From: wysiwyg
Date: 22 Nov 07 - 12:14 PM

I was glad I stuck with Freecycle instead of Craigslist when I heard about a murder someone did via a Craigslist contact, but really, caution is good with Freecycle too.

Yesterday I picked up a freecycled nordic-track-type ski-stride exerciser to add to the treadmill I have and the road-cycle-on-trainer Hardi has. The old Pickin/Playroom/Classroom is morphing into a cold-weather workout room; it's minimally heated in the wointer such that the parts and electronics will not freeze, but it will be a goo dplace to SWEAT. I'm going to offer (via Freecycle) to let other folks use it as well (with due caution), like a co-op instead of an expensive health club.

It's interesting morphing this big old moldy farmhouse (cheap rent), which used to host Mudcat Gatherings and jams, as another kind of semi-public resource space. As our interests and activities change, it continues t be hard to think about moving out of it, even as it rots and crumbles around us!

Another nice thing about Freecycle-- someone just posted looking for exactly the machine I just nabbed, but ANOTHER town's Freecycle I also belong to had a similar item, so I emailed the two together. As much as I complain about our fast-changing society-- I do like some of these mod cons! :~)

But it's interesting, acting like a Mudcatter would act with another Mudcatter, out among others in the world.

~Susan