Delco Freecycle: The Ultimate of local FREEBIES!

  While I am posting lots of FREE opportunities to Delaware County residents, I would be amiss if I didn't reprint a column I wrote on Delco Freecycle, the GRAND DADDY of all that is free. If you haven't checked out DelcoFreeCycle recently, I advise you to hurry and get on board! You can really find some great free stuff on there. It's especially great for teachers, scout leaders, nursing home activities directors and others who can turn one man's trash into a lot of treasures! See the reprinted column below and if you give freecycle a try, let me know how you like it:
Delco Freecycle: The Ultimate Freebie Grand Central

“Mom, you’re obsessed.” They were the exact words of my daughter when she walked through the room and spotted I was back on the “Delco Freecyle” web site for the zillionth time that week! I understand many Delco residents have long been members and many more know about the site, but it was a whole new experience for me. I’ve been hooked ever since I discovered it about a month or so ago.

Let me back up and explain for those who don’t know about Delco Freecycle. We all have things laying around our homes that we don’t need, but we’d feel badly throwing away. The items may not be the type of things you’d donate to Goodwill or your church’s flea market, or you may only have a few things you don‘t want or need anymore, not enough to have a yard sale. Enter Delco Freecycle to the rescue!

Delco Freecyle’s mission is “to build a worldwide gifting movement that reduces waste, saves precious resources, eases the burden on landfills while enabling members to benefit from the strength of a larger community.” The Delaware County Freecycle Network(TM) is open to all residents who want to "recycle" that special something rather than throw it away. Whether it's a chair, a fax machine, piano or an old door, local residents post their give-aways on the site for others to browse and see if they can use them. If someone can use an item, they contact the giver and arrange a pick-up. If the giver doesn’t want people in their home, he can leave the item(s) out on his porch or curb for easy pick-up.

One of the main rules of Delco Freecycle is no money can be exchanged at any time. The purpose of the site is to keep items out of landfills, encouraging environmentally friendly behavior by allowing items to be reused. Delco Freecycle is a give and take site, offering items to our Delco neighbors and taking what we ourselves can use, gaining nothing more than peace of mind and the satisfaction that we’ve helped another individual or group and helped the environment as well.

The site has three categories: “OFFER” to advertise any item you want to get rid of; “WANTED” to post any item you are looking for so people can notify you if they have it and want to give it to you and “TAKEN” to let people know the item is gone, so they don’t keep e-mailing you about it, holding on to their hope of getting it.

In one week’s time, I gave away a set of encyclopedias and dictionaries to a third grade teacher in my school district who wanted them for her classroom; an old rocking chair to a lady whose apartment is decorated in all vintage furniture; an entertainment center with a door that was broken off accidentally by my granddaughter, but the taker was happily going to repair it since he just moved here from North Carolina and needs furniture for his new place; board games - some to a teacher and some to a mother who homeschools; and curtins to a mother who wanted to redecorate, but has an extremely limited budget to do it.

When I told my co-workers about Delco Freecycle, some were already using it. Someone told me she’d recently given a couch with a small stain to a college kid for her dorm and another told me, as a Girl Scout leader, she uses Delco Freecycle regularly to get free craft supplies for her troop.

Teachers, scout leaders, college kids, the budget-minded- these are only a few people who I can see using this site regularly. I keep thinking, how great is this site for people who may need a rabbit hutch when they first get a bunny, a coach or high chair for a visiting grandchild or bags of yarn for a knitting project. These things and hundreds of others are all available for FREE (the main buzz word here) on the site.

I like the fact you can also seek oddball items on the site. For example, I see someone looking for empty CD cases, old movie cameras, and past issues of National Geographic magazines. The nice part of the site is that it’s local to Delaware County. With the posting, most people add their town of residence so you usually only have to go around the corner to pick up the item. With Craig’s List, the free items are often offered from other places and so they’re inconvenient to go get.

So, yes, maybe the first few weeks after finding this site, there’s a grain of truth in saying I did become obsessed. I happened to discover it while in the midst of redecorating some rooms of my home so I was in a position of wanting to get rid of a few things. But my fascination was more wrapped up in reading all that my neighbors were getting rid of and things others were searching for- it just amused me for some reason.
   Whenever I discover something new, I love passing along the info to others… so my fellow Delaware County-ites, if you have stuff you want to get rid of while doing your spring cleaning or if you need items and don’t have (or don’t want) to lay out any bucks to acquire them, visit www.freecycle.org and type “Delaware County PA” in the “Browse Groups” tab. I can almost guarantee you’ll soon begin YOUR obsession with the site. Go green! Go Delcofreecycle!
Readers can e-mail Peg DeGrassa at pdegrassa@delcofreecycle.com.