Freecycle - I highly recommend it!

I've always been a big fan of the "free" section of Craigslist and had heard Freecycle.org mentioned occasionally by friends, but never bothered with checking it out. Until a few months ago. I decided to sign up for this group that has saved countless items from the landfills by operating as a functional hand-me-down organization.

At least in my area, freecycle operates through a yahoo group, so I signed up to receive the daily digest, and every night I would check the email and occasionally email someone about an item they were giving away, only to find out the item already been claimed. And then I switched over to receive posts email by email. It can clutter up the inbox, so you really have to stay on top of it. I have found that using an email address other than my main one is helpful for managing the email flow, and I just read the subject line and quickly delete those I have no interest in as they come in. It works. And, if you ask me, it's completely worth the hassle of having to regularly clean out the inbox.

I've received some great things from Freecycle in the past few months, including, but not limited to:

1.) A jogging stroller
It's not in perfect shape, but it was free and it works. I'm training for a half marathon, so running when Kip is not around to babysit has become a necessity, but I didn't want to use my Phil&Ted stroller and risk hurting it and I didn't really have money for an actual jogging stroller. The one I got for free from freecycle rivals used ones I have seen on Craigslist.

2.) A slide
Lucy loves slides. So, when I saw a fisher price slide being given away, I jumped on it. I thought it would be one of the small slides appropriate for those around 8-12 months of age. Actually, it's about twice as big as anticipated, and even my six-year-old niece had a great time playing on it when she was here.

3.) Bath toys
New in the box, never been used bath toys. I find it hard to spend money on bath toys when things like tupperware dishes can provide such great entertainment to Lucy during bath time. I was, however, thrilled to pick up some bright and colorful, magnetic submarine boat toys for her to use and they've been a big hit.

So, all in all I've been having a pretty good experience with email updates from freecycle. Until yesterday. And that's when Freecycle became AWESOME.

Last night Kip and a friend of ours picked these up:

This is a three-piece all wood TV cabinet and bookshelves. From Crate and Barrel. That I got for free on Freecycle.org. The drawers have dvd-sized dividers. The shelves are adjustable. It has a built-in powerstrip. Did I mention that it's in pretty perfect condition? Did I mention that it was free? Did I mention that I LOVE Freecycle?

So, if you haven't tried it out, I recommend you head over to Freecycle.org and sign up to receive email notifications for your area. You just might find something awesome. I just doubt it will be as awesome as what I now have sitting in my livingroom.