[Aguazul]

Quote:

Originally Posted by phatchristy I donate to the salvation army generally, they have a local drop off really close to our home. I have never done freecycle, mainly as I've always had stuff I felt should first go to a charity. A long while back I was on the list, and the person who was in charge of our local group always stressed that the stuff should always be given to charities first, and freecycle should only be used for stuff that charities won't take. Some of the stuff I also offered to my sister, and I did ebay a few items. I don't bother ebaying for anything that I'll get less than $15 for...and I prefer to sell in "lots" if I do.

Our salvation army will not take clothes, no matter how great condition. But there are other thrift stores and shelters that take most things so that's how we get rid of stuff.

I have no problem with freecycle (except that there isn't a group in my city) although I have given just about everything to thrift stores or other charities. But I figure, if I have something that someone else can use, that's great.

 

[AngelBee]

Right now we are bringing everything to Savers.

 

[Delight]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Heffernhyphen I think the better way to go is to post a first-come-first-Freecycled offer like a local girl did here recently. She made a list of the items and said they will be on the porch between the hours of 7 and noon the next day. The threat of everyone else getting the good stuff must have motivated the eager treasure hunters, because by the time I got there at 8:30, there was not one shred left. She was able to post her ALL TAKEN notice by about two hours after the frenzy started. I'm sure a few Freecyclers left disappointed, like me, but she met her goal and at least somebody left with a bunch of treats.

Our local Freecycle group has rules against this...darn.

 

[Aguazul]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AngelBee Right now we are bringing everything to Savers.

I love Savers! Most of my children's clothes come from there.

 

[SaraMama]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delight Our local Freecycle group has rules against this...darn.

Ours does too...

 

[SaraMama]

I take the majority of our clutter to Goodwill. They have a large donation bin right outside the store. I usually end up going there after hours, so I just put the entire garbage bag full of stuff in their bin.

I've never heard of a Goodwill NOT accepting items. I thought they'd take pretty much anything in useable condition. Must be a regional thing or maybe each one makes it's own rules?

 

[Wild Flowers]

I just checked, our freecycle group also has it, please arrange pick up with only one person, otherwise you will be the boo man of the group. I was really hoping that would work. Could you imagine, just piling your stuff outside your house and say, take it. And they all did? That sounds like heaven to me. Oh well. Maybe I can ask the owner? Say I have a ton of stuff and am having kinda like a free garage sale?

I actually have NO kids clothes. We moved to the NW after Hawaii, we left all of our Hawaii clothes there, and thought we were done with babies, so if it didn't fit my youngest, we got rid of it. So now we have to get new clothes for this one coming up. But we are doing this much smarter, and we are doing this now with our girls, we have 5 pieces of clothing for the baby. Thats it, we aren't going over board. They are all gown type things, we have baby legs, they are the kind made from socks, so we figure that is good until we find out girl or boy and how cold it is going to be. We haven't had to dress a baby in the cold yet. There were so many things that we got for the girls that they never wore. Everytime we go shopping, I say, do I really, REALLY need this? Or is it goign to sit in a closet somewhere? I am being much more truthful with myself, it is helping with things coming in, but we still need to get things out.

 

[momaste]

Craigslist is awesome. I use that a lot. I Freecycle, too. I leave stuff on my porch and e-mail the responders my address, tell them they have until this evening to pick it up, and it's always gone in the morning.

We have a local homeless shelter that I've been donating clothes and housewares, too. I don't donate anything in bad condition, so I've never had a problem there.

 

[folkypoet]

If your Freecycle group has a rule against first-come-first-serve (like mine does), you can list whatever you're offerig in the Free section of Craigslist (under "For Sale"). No rules there, and - at least where I am - there are just as many treasure hunters checking out that area of the site as there are people reading the Freecycle list. Lots of people simply post their offer and note that they'll delete the posting when the items are gone. Simple cinchy.

 

[ollineeba]

We have two freecycle groups around here- one allows the first-come-first-serve stuff and the other one doesn't. Personally, I wish they would both ban that idea- it really drives me nuts when people do that. It just seems so inconsiderate~ I really wanted a costume for dd last week but the woman gave out her address to a bunch of different people, so I said nevermind. I'd have to load the kids into the car, drive across town, and then there isn't even the guarantee of getting the item. Huge waste of time and gas. I wouldn't want to put other people through that.
I'm much prefer to offer it to one person and if they don't follow through, move on to the next. If the same thing happens, I just take it to Goodwill.

 

[northern_sunshine]

We garage sale most things. My parents have a quanset building and a large room they use for storage and we have a lot of rubbermaid boxes from when we were packrats and not declutterers.

We are very fortunate to have room to store decluttered items for yard sale without affecting our living space/regular storage (closets, cupboards, etc).

We generally keep things 1 - 2 years of garage sale and then it goes to the food bank (they take everything and give it away). The first year of our decluttering, we made $900 (between me and my mom, we had quite a few big ticket items). The next, $700 and this year we made $800.

We always have plans for the money (first year was a twin bed and organizing unit for DD's bedroom, this year was mom, DD and I going to Toronto to visit my sister for her b-day and part of it went to help DH and I out with bills since we both lost our jobs), so it's not really "mad money" and makes the work more worth it.

 

[BurgundyElephant]

Never feel guilty about giving stuff to charity. You're providing the materials that allows those people to have jobs and blesses the people that buy it for cheap.

That said, I now seriously have to want something before I purchase it... because I ask myself is it worth it to "rent" this toy or sweater or whatnot for however long before I donate it? Usually not. I try and have a "one thing in, one thing out" philosophy when buying stuff. It's hard.

 

[pilesoflaundry]

Whatever isn't sold on the TP/ebay or yard sale, I donate to st. vincents /hand me down to friends. I have had it with freecycle. People don't pick up or the rude emails. The only time I try and bother with it anymore is if it's something with a bunch of little pieces the donation places don't want or it's too big to haul off myself.