Alternatives to Freecycle to give things away?

[sonderella]

There is a FB group called "Raleigh Area - Buy, Sell, Trade, Free". I also have seen some freebie postings on the FB group "Wake Forest Information".

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by maryjo313

Have to agree about the Freecycle moderators in this area being little crazy dictators with no sense. It really is a shame, because I have used it so much before I moved down here but they seem to just make up rules for the fun of it. I live minutes from Southpoint Mall, yet they would INSIST that I list my streets *instead* of the mall for location information. Like anyone is going to know the street names in my development versus just "near southpoint mall". And then their refusal to let me post or even JOIN the list for the county that I live right next to, just because I am across the line in another county. Seriously they really are too much.

I used Freecycle in Northern Virginia and it was great, progressive people who had regular coffee meetups and something called a freecycle yardsale where people would have a yardsale-like event but only for other freecycle members to come and claim up to 3 items if they had a printed copy of the offer.

After moving to Colo Spgs I merely suggested to the local group in El Paso County to try the freecycle yardsale tactic and I got booted off the list by their list-nazi moderator for "spamming" the list. That was the day I ended all involvement with freecycle, though I hope it works in other areas.

I've used Craigslist to sell or give items away with some success, but this site can be hit / miss. I tried to sell an expensive cherry roll top desk for $200, but got zero interest. I put it in a local consignment shop who sold it for $400 and I got my $200 that way. People can be fickle.

Dealing with the public can be a trip, so these days I just donate items at Goodwill and let them do good things with our discards, some of which are quite nice, some unused or unworn, some are valuable. By dealing with Goodwill I avoid dealing with the public which I find increasingly unpleasant.

I've held two yardsales over the years and will never do another one if I can avoid it; people think everything should be free for them.... I put out a like-new $25 hardback book for $1 and they try to gip you down to 25-cents for it, gimme a damned break.

My trips to Goodwill donation centers blow my mind.... a line of mini-vans chock full of stuff, unloading piles of material goods like the horn of plenty letting loose. Makes me think we Americans are buried under all the stuff we buy, keep and fill our homes with. If I could advise young people it would be to live as leanly as they can.

[Fwadt]

I (and other neighbors) have given things away on our next door social media website.

[Momof2KidsinNC]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

Americans are buried under all the stuff we buy, keep and fill our homes with. If I could advise young people it would be to live as leanly as they can.

I agree 100% don't buy it, save your money.

So much easier to clean too!

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by Momof2KidsinNC

I agree 100% don't buy it, save your money.

So much easier to clean too!

I know. I would advise people, especially the young, to not collect anything. Millions of homes are crammed full of beany babies, hummels, bells, butterflies, lead crystal, LPs, cassettes, CDs, nascar models, baseball hats, ceramics, cuckoo clocks, bric-a-brac and nice things of all sorts that it's mind boggling. It's space consuming and as you said, it's a lot to clean. At some point these piles of stuff owns the person more than the person owns the stuff. Although I'll never be part of "tiny house nation" for a lot of young people it's not a bad idea.

There is so much stuff for sale crammed into every Goodwill store that I recommend such places as a starting point for many items. In some respects it's like a permanent yard sale, open 7 days a week, and often having some very nice stuff. I've seen stories on TV where savvy women buy famous-label jeans at Goodwill for $5-10 and sell them on ebay for $20-40 or more.