Getting Something for Nothing (or Almost Nothing)

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One of the greatest discoveries I made in my conversion to green and frugal living was Freecycle, as I’ve waxed poetic about in past posts. I love that Freecycle’s motto is “one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.” How true that is.

As you know Freecycle helped me to secure a free composting bin–a big one about the size of a large keg (see picture, above) –and free plants for my garden. Conversely, through Freecycle I’ve given away moving boxes, bubble wrap and unwanted furniture. The idea here is to pass stuff along so that it doesn’t end up in landfills.

However, Freecycle isn’t the only game in town. There are a number of other virtual places where you can swap goods with others–some are free like Freecycle and require in-person pickups; others are done through the mail, with your only cost being shipping and handling. Here’s a brief guide to some of those sites:

* Craigslist
While people think of Craigslist as a place to get a date, a job or an apartment, there is a whole section devoted to giving stuff away for free (it’s under the “For Sale” section). You can also post stuff that you want in the same section under “Wanted.”

* Yahoo Groups
If you visit the Yahoo Groups home page and plug the term “reuse” into the “Find a Group” search window, you’ll come up with 1,200-plus different groups that are all about reusing items. Many of these are offshoots of Freecycle and locally based. (My recent search turned up the Bucks County group I belong to, along with groups all over the country that call themselves a “Reuseit” group or “RecycleIt” network.)

* City- or Location-Specific Reuse Groups
There are also city-specific groups that aren’t on Yahoo Groups but are still worth noting, because they, too, focus on reusing items and keeping them out of landfills. Two such examples are TwinCitiesFreeMarket.org (in Minnesota) and RedStickfree.com (in Baton Rouge). In addition, there are 25 different U.S. cities with Freepeats groups in them. These groups are dedicated to passing along gently used baby items. (Wish I’d known about them when I was neck-deep in onesies!) Note: there is a $4.95 lifetime membership fee for Freepeats, but you can try out the site for two weeks for free. And business owners in Vermont can “swap” commercial items via the Vermont Business Materials Exchange.

* Swap sites
For all kinds of kids’ stuff, there’s Zwaggle.com, which is geared towards parents. (FlyLady raves about Zwaggle as a great place to get rid of your unwanted clutter.) On the Zwaggle website, you’ll find free stuff in categories ranging from clothing to sporting goods–pretty much all the stuff that parents tend to accumulate over the years. These are the kinds of sites where you can go shopping for free but you have to pay shipping and handling to get the goods.

* Item-Specific Swap Sites
A lot of people are swapping books, video games and other “media” on swap sites like SwapTree.com, Bookins.com and Paperbackswap.com. (Again, users have to pay shipping and handling.) Over at Toy Swap, Chicago-area parents are swapping toys. And though I’ve given away moving boxes to people who responded to my “offer” posting on Freecycle, I found out that some moving companies help their customers to recycle their moving boxes once the move is over. Two such examples are U Haul (check out the U Haul box exchange option) and New York City mover Moishe’s, which offers a box exchange as well. (If you’ve ever been to New York City, then you’ve probably seen one of Moishe’s trademark red moving trucks.)

Let me know if there are other something-for-nothing websites that will help us all clear our clutter, get cool stuff we need and keep unwanted everything out of landfills.

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Filed under Craigslist, composting bin, freecycle, paperbackswap, swaptree