Freecycle - Support Reuse! Toilets not welcome

In the past, I used Craigslist's free category to give away items. But many times, I'd have to sort through a lot of e-mail from people that don't live anywhere close to me...and they would need to drive from the other side of the city just to pick up the item. With the price of gas, that just didn't make any sense. People just weren't looking at the location before responding to pick up the item.

So I joined the Freecycle Network:

The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,363 groups with 5,106,000 members across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them's good people). Membership is free.

I like Freecycle better because they have very active local groups. My town's group has almost 3000 members. So if I post something, the people that are responding are usually within a few minutes of my house. You don't get a tax deduction for the donation. But its easy...and people come to me to pick up the items on my schedule.

Items I've Freecycled:

• Crib Mattress


• Toddler Bed


• FAA approved Baby Flight Safety Vest


• Game Boy Advance SP


• Lots of Baby Toys


• Toddler Swing


• Old School 27" TV


• Kids Shoes


• Framed posters

The Game Boy elicited the biggest response. I had almost 50 messages in less than a hour after posting. That seems logical.

There were 2 items that received zero responses:

• Sterling Brand Toilet (like new!)


• Encyclopedia Brittanica Set

Out of everything I've listed, its the Toilet that's actually worth the most (I looked it up, its almost $200 brand-new. And this toilet is hardly ever used.

Surely somebody needs a replacement toilet. But I suppose free has its own set of values. And toilets carry an "ick" factor.

And the Encyclopedia is just a reflection on reality. Nobody wants them. They aren't worth the paper they are printed on. I can't even give them away.