I Suck At Freecycle

Yesterday, Karen and I rushed home after work. The reason for our haste: we were meeting people to unload our crap onto. Perhaps crap is the wrong word. After all, the whole visual of Karen and I unloading feces is not exactly what happened.

The night before, Karen and I decided to put some items that have been collecting dust in our garage onto Freecycle. Now, I suck at Freecycle. I have not used Freecycle in quite some time.

The last time Karen and I posted something on Freecycle was over five years ago when we were trying to get rid of our old dishwasher. (Yes, someone took the dishwasher.) The old dishwasher actually came from Karen's cousin (Karlene) of "There's a lot to like about Lowell" fame.

For anyone curious, Freecycle is a recycling program. The gist of the program is that people can donate items for reuse to a general group. Interested parties then come to pick up the free items. So rather than dispose of the item and crowd our already full landfills, the item can be put to good use.

Needless to say, Karen and I thought Freecycle would be a great way to get rid of some items from our garage. After all, we are both into recycling and doing what we can to save the planet before it is too late. My BFF (Kerry) would probably say that we have become surprisingly green. I like to think it's the power of Ed Begley, Jr. Much like the "What would Jesus do?" question, I usually joke around with Karen and ask "What would Ed Begley, Jr. do?"

Anyway, as a whole Freecycle is a great program for recycling and reusing. Sure, there are the occasional nuts who post that they want a 52" flat panel television and give some sob story about how their child really needs it. But I would recommend it to people.

The things that Karen and I were getting rid of yesterday were a couple of metal shelving units and some boxes of tiles. One of the metal shelves came from Karen's parents. The other metal shelving unit came from a friend (Steve) who had no use for it. As for the tiles, all of the tiles came from my favorite sister-in-law (Janine). There were 4x4" tiles and sheets of 2x2" tiles. Needless to say, we never used the tiles and they unfortunately sat in our garage for... ever.

It turns out, the metal shelves were a popular item on Freecycle. I received numerous requests about them within minutes of posting the item. It was quite a fun experience to post the items on Freecycle. Not that I would know because I do not gamble, but I imagine that the experience would be like the thrill you get at a slot machine: you donate, you pull the lever, and you hope you get a jackpot and someone claims your item.

Karen and I awarded both shelves to a school teacher (Matt). Similarly, we awarded the 4x4 tiles to a single mother (Michelle) and the 2x2 tiles to a woman (Sue) who makes craft out of them with people who have special needs. All three of them were the first to respond to each of the items. So it was only fair. Truth be told, it was a nice feeling to know that our donated items would be helpful to other people.

Anyway, we had made arrangements with all three of them to pick up their items after Karen and I returned home from work yesterday. I had staggered the pickup times at half hour intervals, figuring that would be enough time. So Michelle would arrive at 6pm, Matt at 6:30pm and Sue at 7pm.

Needless to say, it was like the perfect storm of Freecycling yesterday. Michelle ran late due to traffic on Route 3, Matt was punctual, and Sue was early. Basically, all three of them happened to be at our house at the same time. It was rather comical.

When all was said and done, Karen and I were quite excited to have successfully donated our items via Freecycle. Sadly, there are still more items in our garage that need to go. But at least we are making progress.