Free-cyclic

[hrj]

I'm always amused (but not amazed) at how quickly the responses can pour in when you list items on Freecycle. On a whim, I posted my now-redundant Airport Extreme base station (sorry for not offering it around to my f-list first), and since I was posting I put out the two aforementioned luggage items, too. Within 10 minutes of posting, I had half a dozen takers for the Airport. Within an hour, I had takers for all three items. It's such a wonderful de-cluttering tool! So now, what with having not only made up the party shopping list but having done the first round of shopping, my entire weekend to-do list is to-done.

Comments

[visc-lore.livejournal.com]

So how successful are you at having people who want Freecycle things actually coming to pick them up when they say they will? No shows have become a big problem here in Atenveldt, and many of us have quit because of it. The concept is great ... just wish it didn't take so much effort some times.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

My experiences have been fairly positive. I had one transaction that dragged on for several days more than I wanted. I generally leave items for pickup on my front porch and I greatly dislike creating the impression to random passers by that anything sitting on my porch is available for the taking. So I don't tend to put myself in the position of sitting at home waiting for someone to drop by. (The items that I'm not comfortable leaving on the porch also tend to be high enough value that if taker #1 doesn't show up on schedule, I have takers #2-10 waiting in the wings and eager to oblige.) I had one case where the picker-uppers only took part of what I'd left for them (but possibly determined that the other items weren't suitable for their purposes. But mostly I haven't had problems. For me, the worst part is that completely unwarranted sense of guilt I feel at having to disappoint all the folks who weren't first in line. But I get over it. And I really get a charge out of turning my "argh, how do I get rid of this thing?" into someone else's "ohmighod you've saved me!"

[visc-lore.livejournal.com]

Great - glad it's worked so well for you! Maybe Californians are just more reliable than Arizonans. Except I don't quite understand this sentence: "I generally leave items for pickup on my front porch and I greatly dislike creating the impression to random passers by that anything sitting on my porch is available for the taking."

How do you *not* create that impression if things are sitting on your front porch for pickup? Just curious.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Sorry for being a little cryptic. I live in a neighborhood where things that aren't nailed down tend to wander away. I once came home to encounter a man walking out of my back yard with a couple of my yard tools that he'd "found" there. I try to avoid having anything of the slightest value or interest in an un-locked-up state on my property lest it lead human scavengers to put my place on their "poke around here regularly" list. It's sort of like not leaving food out when there are ants or bears around.

[kahnegabs.livejournal.com]

I use freecycle all the time. Only one thing I've ever put up didn't go right away. In addition, I've gotten a couple of useful things that way too. If the first person doesn't come within a day, I just contact the second one and tell 'em to come get it. They do.

I love it!

[staffordcastle.livejournal.com]

When was that party? This weekend?

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Yes (oops!) this Sunday, 3-8pm. (I meant to drop an invitation by your desk but got distracted by work.) I'll send the plain text version of the invitation to your LJ message center. (I don't seem to have an e-mail address for you -- at least, not a non-work one.)

[mbumby.livejournal.com]

Glad it's working for you... I've not had such luck. Getting started in my timid/shy way, I listed something... got one response asking for more info, got a bit of tutoring from him, and we learned that what he wanted was a bit different than what I had. A bit later, someone posted asking for something that sounded a lot like what I had, she was a good correspondent, but then disappeared. So I still have my junk and no encouragement to try again. (When I get a little more organized, I'll list my items again, and gather other items to list, but I'm not there yet.)