Its outta here!

I have so many things I am supposed to be doing today, so I may not get to post much, even though I have been itching to share a few things--some nonscensical, some philosophical, none all that important. : ) But one of the things I am doing this weekend is FINALLY getting out bags and boxes of STUFF I have been sorting through and purging whatever I can (and whatever D will let me release to the greater world). Some of it will go to Goodwill, some are returns to ship back, some I will deliver to the doors of strangers. Yep, for those of you who have not heard me sing the praises of Freecycle, this posting is for you. Freecycle is an international grass-roots movement committed to recycling/reusing that uses local groups of like-minded people to keep stuff out of landfills and save people from buying stuff if they don't have to. You sign up at the yahoo user group freecycle.org, and get on their email listing for your area. You will receive notice via email when there is stuff free for the taking, and you can post things that you have that you don't want anymore.

The only rules are that everyone should offer something at least once, and to be courteous to everyone else. Whatever is listed should be legal, appropriate for anyone, and completely FREE.

FREECYCLE is AWESOME! Every person should belong to a group--seriously. Here are some of the things we have been blessed with:
--the loan of an amazing (expensive) wood and metal European folding booster seat. We got it on loan from a complete stranger when B needed it, and we just recently contacted the people to see if they need it back or if we can keep using it for E!
--the loan of a pop-up camper for 2 months! Again, perfect strangers--the loveliest people!--up in the Santa Cruz mountains not only loaned us this excellent little camper so all our parents would have a place to stay when they came to visit around the time of E's birth, but they brought it to us and took it back home again!
--a rosewood Chinese abacus! this one has a cool story: i posted that i wanted an abacus and a lady responded back that she had a lovely one she bought for her accountant father years back. He had just recently passed away and she had sorted out a bunch of stuff to donate to Goodwill, but then she could not bear to put the abacus into the load because she wanted to give it to someone who she knew would appreciate it. not one week later she saw our posting and was so happy to give it to us!
--a barley-filled hot/cold neck pillow for a recurring neck injury
--a pair of crutches when I fell and hurt my knee.
--furniture for international students

The list goes on and on. And it is all FREE!

And here are some of the things I have blessed strangers with:
--two, count em,' two french press parts after D broke the glass carafes
--child clothes that we did not need that had small stains or holes and I could not give to Goodwill
--broken toys
--broken appliances
--old computer parts
--foodstuffs that had been given to us that we could not use

All the time people throw stuff away that someone might actually want--it just takes a few minutes to make a posting and find out if someone wants what you don't!

So there you go, my little freecycle sermon. Please check it out! : )

P.S. You don't have to deliver stuff to people on freecycle--but it is the sure-fire way to get it out of your house ASAP. And since my in-laws are coming this weekend. . .