Freecycle- Changing the World One Gift at a Time

Check out this piece of free magic I got off freecycle! I've been scouring craiglist for a couple kitchen items that I'd like, but don't critically need. For instance, I have an RSS feed for a food processor and cast iron skillet. I fell in love with the garlic press the first time I saw Pumpkin pull it out and use it, it's brilliant! However, it's definitely not $35 brilliant. Of course I've seen it for $14 at the store and one time I even saw it for $1 on craigslist, but it was in a city too far away. Sad.

Yesterday though, I signed off just before I was about to go pick up my [old] new garlic press for the low, low price of $0. My favorite price. Conveniently enough, the pick-up house was just 10 minutes walking from my house. And even better, the rain let up completely.

The experience was so great, the little old lady had it outside in a bag, as she promised. But since I saw somebody inside I rang the doorbell to thank her in person and gave her a sprig of fresh-picked rosemary. She said it was a "delight." Oh venerable vocabulary of the old. Then while walking back down the hill, her (and a man, who I presume is her husband) stopped their PRIUS to ask if I needed a ride.

Now, I walk and bike a lot through various areas. I remember sometimes in college, back when I hated to walk (first year I biked from the dorms to the dining commons about 200 ft away), I wished hard somebody would stop and pick me up. I was definitely going their way (we lived on a long street that dead ended). But nobody ever did. Then here is freecycle, that allowed me to share 1 minute with a stranger, that gave her the confidence to stop and offer a ride. Community.

What is freecycle? Basically it's a huge yahoo! group that people post onto (e.g. "OFFER: faux wood white blinds" or "WANTED: old Computer to surf the web"), organized by city. Your city could be on it, check! You get emails (and you decide how frequently) where you try and beat other people to the good stuff. It's competitive and this is the first time I've been successful.

If people freecycled instead of dumping, we'd be in a far better place. American households throw away 4.4 lbs of garbage a day (or 1600 lbs a year, or with the garbage produced in America alone, you could form a line of filled-up garbage trucks and reach the moon). See The [very frightening] Story of Stuff. Pathetic. But of course I used to be a lover of stuff too. More on this some other time.