Friday, May 20, 2011

Talking Trash

     There are so many oddities in my life. That's why I blog. To share these stories with others. Today I am thinking about Free-Cycling. If you have not heard about Free-Cycling, check it out. I think most communities have an online group devoted to the adage that "Your trash is someone else's treasure."



     I first got into free-cycling when I was looking for material for costumes for the Drama Club for school. I got some really nice boxes of donations for school that way. The idea is that you can post things you no longer want and give them to someone else. "Great idea!" I first thought. "I'll just take everything in George's office and put it in garbage bags and the first sucker who comes for it gets it. No returns."

      Well, it was a great idea but there was a set of rules included in Free-Cycling. You are not supposed to offer Crap as a wonderful item. True crap is supposed to be put in the trash. Doggone. There went my dreams of cleaned-out closets, the office and garage. And under the bed, whatever lurked there would have to stay there.

I could clean out all my closets and shelves!
Crap Not Wanted


Only Half Used!
     But it did seem as though Crap is truly in the eyes of the beholder. I have seen some ads that, to me, are not in the true spirit of the Free-Cycle network. For example a partially used tube of Vagisil is not anything I would ever want even for free but somebody did. 
Insert Breast For Best Results!

     Breast pumps are also a big (no pun intended) item and I am not sure I want something that was attached to someone else's boob. 
Wanted: One Winning Lottery Ticket!
     
     You can also request certain items. Some of them are definitely the pie-in-the-sky requests such as a new computer, guitar, workout equipment, and free ticket to concerts. Hah.
Urgent! Perfume Needed ASAP! Claustrophobic...

     Anyway the one I saw was for perfume. This lady was looking for some perfume, some very specific perfume. It seems she had run out of it and it is the only perfume she uses. She does not have enough money to buy new perfume and just can't go out of the house without it.

My advice to her: Stay in the house. 

11 comments:

Liz A. said...

I love Freecycle. I got rid of some old magazines that way. Magazines that had great stories in them, but the magazines were cluttering up my bookshelves.

Anonymous said...

We free cycle here in Guelph....we have neighbourhood "leave it on the curb" days. If someone takes it great, if not, you have to get it to the dump yourself.
Not the same thing?

Karen Jones Gowen said...

I was part of free cycle for about a year. It's a great organization that does so much good.

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

We habe similar here, it's a good way of ridding ones cupboards and drawers yet giving others the chance of making use of them.

Yvonne.

Unknown said...

Ha! That closest is funny, and I can unfortunately completely relate. (My garage looks about the same, and it's 100X that size!)

Anyone else think that breast pump looks like something Spock would use to take down a Klingon on Star Trek? In how many years of design, they can't make something more elegant than that?

I'll have to check out Freecycle.

EJ

jkraus8464 said...

In all honesty, I must say that these are not my real closets etc. I always use Google Images. Not to say that my own closets do not resemble these on the blog, but you won't find these particular ones at my house. And my piles of crap would have a cat sitting at the top of each one!

Jane Doe said...

I might have to check out this free-cycling. I can't believe somebody wanted to give away a used tube of vagisil!

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

That's funny. I'd only remotely heard of freecycling. It reminds me of the skua piles that the visitors to Antarctica use in their dormitories...only bigger.

Tracy said...

Are you kidding? I say that any opened toiletry should find no other home other than the landfill. There's gross bacteria that lives in that stuff. Yucky!!

Donea Lee said...

Used Vagisil - seriously? :p Too funny! Ok, why have I not heard of free-cycle?? I'm not googling enough, obviously! Fun post - thanks! :)

Angela Scott said...

Freecycling is awesome--if done correctly. Some people are just plain CRAZY. And stuff for free will bring out the nutty bunch.