What is freecycle, how do I get to it?

[mollysawally]

Want to have a look at freecycle in my local area but have no idea .. help!

I know somebody knows the answer!

Try googling freecycle, or, IIRC it is a yahoo group??

Oh, I was pretty sure it was something to do with mumsnet 3littlefrogs, DOH!

It's a yahoo group and it's fab. I'm too lazy to ebay so managed to sort out nearly all the clutter in my garage over the weekend!

Try here

In fact I've been so successful I may even have to namechange!

No -it is a national organisation that has local groups. The idea is that you join, and then you can advertise anything useable/recyclable (is that a word??)that you no longer need or want, and hopefully it will be just the thing someone else is looking for!

Equally, you can advertise for something you need, that someone else might be throwing away.

The idea is to re-use stuff and keep things out of landfill.

International aksherly

Strongly recommend you use a separate email address, or set up a filter to a separate folder if you use Outlook or the like. Set your options in freecycle to all mails. You will probably get lots or emails every day but if they are filtered then it doesn't take long to run your eye over the titles of the emails to see what is on offer.

If you only visit the site, or set your emails to daily digest, then you will likely find that anything you spot that you want will be long gone before you get the chance to ask for it.

It can be fantastic but I think that some freecycle groups are better than others. Our one (basingstoke ) was fab about a year ago and everything was picked up when they said it would and no one took the piss asking for flat screens etc. But sadly these days its a bit pants and nothing was being picked up so I don't bother with it any more.

Watch out for people who set up an automatic response to every Freecycle e-mail too, very cheeky! Its best to wait for a few replies to come in and pick the person who is the politest, they are usually the one who turns up when they say they will.

if you offer anything put a note on the email saying you will give it to the person who arranges to pick it up most quickly (or at a specificed time or whatever) and wait for a while - don't just say yes to the first person to respond. If it's not picked up on time don't offer second chances.

But I am in LURVE with freecycle

Thanks everyone, I've registered now, a new era of freecycling begins!