one mans trash...

I participate with the local Freecycle program.

You've heard of it?

No? You're kidding.

They have Freecycle groups all over the globe. There are currently over 4,800 groups with 6 million plus members.

And it's free.

Yup. You heard me correctly...FREE.

You know how I love me the 'free' word...

The Freecycle Network is a way to keep useful items out of the landfills and keep out landscape clean. Promoting reuse. It connects people with stuff to give away to people who need it and can use it. A grassroots nonprofit Craig's list of sorts.

If you've got stuff in your basement that you know you're never going to use again, don't have the time or energy to put it up on eBay or have a garage sale...Freecycle is the way to go.

You can either offer things, or ask for things.

Now, of course, there are those that push it a bit. Which irritates me just a tad. Asking for cell phones, snow blowers or new washers and dryers. The best the other day someone had the gall to ask for white lace curtains and a Mac laptop.

Yeah, right.

"Oh, I've not using this $3000 computer, I'll just give it away to a random person."

I'm all for helping out, people, but c'mon. I want a snow blower and a Mac, but I'm not going to put a post up that asks for one. Please.

There are those really in need that can utilize the stuff that you were just going to throw away. I used to give a lot to Goodwill Industries. But with recent news about the executives salaries and how much gets pilfered before hitting their shelves, I found another source of charitable donations. Keeping it closer to home.

For instance, today I offered some GNC vitamins that I can't take. They were expensive. The women's mega vitamin packs, but I can't take 6 big pills each morning. It makes me gag.

I do not want to gag the first thing in the morning. Voluntarily or otherwise.

But I'm not the type to take them back. They've been opened. I used some.

So what to do? Throw them away?

Nah.

I put them up on Freecycle.

And within 3 minutes someone replied with, "Hey, I can use those."

So BAM. Out on the porch they go with Kathy's name on them.

Scott came by today to pick up the old office phones that had been collecting dust on their boxes in the basement. Michelle picked up a pair of my daughters outgrown muck-muck's. Danielle will be by tomorrow to pick up for her daughter Boo's running shoes. And then I got a bag of gourds and a big 4x6 piece of sandstone for my garden.

I give. I get.

Cool.

And nothing goes into the landfills. It's my little way of helping my fellow man and the Mother Earth at the same time.

Double cool.

I could add a triple cool, a quadruple cool and more...but you get the idea.

It makes me feel like I'm really helping out my fellow humans and my community. Last year I had a compiled a box of stuff that I no longer needed. Some of the items were gifts that had been given to me that I never had used. They weren't for me, but I knew someone might appreciate them. I started up a e-mail correspondence with this woman who was going to come by to get some a few of my daughters toys that she no longer played with. She was going to wrap them for one of her daughters for Christmas. I happened to find out through our correspondence that she had 5 children. I asked ages and put together a box of things that had gifts for each of her children. Stuff that I just had around taking up space.

She was quite delighted to be able to give gifts that Christmas. Especially at a time when she and her husband wouldn't have been able to afford that luxury. And it made me feel good. About myself.

It's about extending a helping hand. I know that my contribution may be small, but every little bit counts. And helps. I would hope that someday because I've helped another, if one day I'm the one that needs help, someone will extend their hand.

It's the pay it forward mentality. I believe it. I try to live it.

So can you join a Freecycle? Yeah, I bet you can. There's tons of them out there. You can click right here to get to the home page. From there you can search your city to see if a group already exists. And if it doesn't, you can start one up.

You know the saying, "One mans trash is another mans treasure." It's true.

Did I mention it's free?

Free.

I just love that word...

:-)