freecycle freecycling

Jan from Yearning for God visited my Friday 5 today, where along with Sally and maybe a few others I'd mentioned my love of freecycling. Purpletologically Speaking also had said something about maybe getting interested in participating, so here's a little about it.

I'm not sure if the original name (though definitely not the concept) originated in the UK or in Tucson, AZ, but it sure has become widespread. The idea is to post about the item online with OFFERED, WANTED, TAKEN or RECEIVED in the subject line. It can be in almost any stage of newness, oldness, repair or lack thereof, but needs to have some useful life left. When an item or collection seems particularly choice, adding "No Resellers" to your text always is a good idea, and some of us routinely add "No Flakes," since there are a few--especially that guy over in Inland Citrus who automatically pops a half-sentence email asking when he can pick it up no matter what I have for the taking.

Here in Paradise freecycle is a Yahoo! group, so you need a Yahoo! account, but I get the emails in my Gmail and could have them sent to any account, though I'd've had to create a Yahoo! profile if I didn't have one already. I'd estimate the average number of posts on the site at a couple dozen a day; they range from moving boxes to rugs to fruit from your tree to unused tickets, coupons or food. That's about it!

To find out about a freecycle group near where you live, try a search with the name of your town or nearest big city ( in a less-populated area try the name of your county) plus "freecycle" and/or "freecycling." Easy and without cost, freecycle forms a model of grace!