I don't know if you've heard of Freecycle, its a group on Yahoo that people can go to to list things they want to get rid of so that they don't end up in a landfill somewhere. Its a great idea in theory but theres always something to ruin it. In the beginning when it was fairly new Freecycle was great, I joined because I always have tons of stuff to get rid of and here was this place it seems I could do just that! Boy was I in for a surprise. After a few successful listings and one or 2 very successful gains It all went downhill from there. I listed quiet a few good items on it and always had the same group of people respond that my item was the one they needed to have! A fair few came and picked the stuff up one person I remember had gotten lost and called for directions to my house and apologized for being late. After a while it just got ugly. I posted a great set of "little People" That my kids had out grown and a woman emailed me and said she would love to have them for her then 2 yr old I agreed gave her my address and told her the stuff would be outside on my porch. She never showed up. I emailed her and asked why and she said she had some emergency and couldn't come that day could we reschedule? I said okay. Repeat scenario. I spoke to another seasoned freecycler I knew and he told me that this was her m.o. She would respond to posts and claim that something had come up and she would just keep going and keep you waiting.
`Well after that I lost interest in it for a long while but kept on the email list and from time to time I would look to see if anything interesting was available. Lately (for quite awhile actually) The post lists were full of Wanteds, I'm from x and I'm looking for {insert really extravagant item here} anyone who can help I would appreciate it! Really?! What ever happened to working for what you want? I'm not saying that every one is lying, I've given out grown clothes from my kids to a woman with more kids than I have and she really needed them and she was grateful. Well the point of my rant is not to sound like a whiner but to say that I'm tired of it, I listed a great bed on there the other night really simple post, wood twin bed great condition will have to be thrown out if not taken by x. and nobody responded not one! But if I read through the posts I'm quite sure I could find 10 wants for a bed for a kid. I'm not sure if Freecycle has gotten too big for its britches or if there are so many posts going through in a day that people can't keep up with them and posts are getting over looked or people are just not putting the time into looking for what they want in them but I'm cancelling my groups that I'm in and sadly either bringing my stuff to Salvation army (Which over charges for them but that's another post) or throwing them in the landfill, which is what I joined Freecycle in the first place to avoid!
Edited: I got 1 response for the bed lets just see if they come get it.
