Let it go, let it go

[cjsmith]

MANY things freecycled this weekend, including some stuff I am stunned that anyone took. Rob was gracious enough to list it all and arrange for pickups.

People claimed, get this,
- complete plans, blueprints and instructions for building a Lancair IV! (THREE responses!)
- a big bag of towels dating back to our first apartment together
- 80 empty wine bottles
- a car stereo from approximately 1987
- used pillows
- three years of aviation magazines
- sheets and pillowcases worn to wonderful softness, and frayed a bit
- some really bad books
- a candle/incense holder that's basically a sand-pit on a stand (so top-heavy that if you breathe on it it pours sand all over your floor)
- a light fixture that looks like a War of the Worlds ship landing

Plus some stuff that was probably useful. It's amazing.

(Now if they'd only come and pick it up.)

I've also thrown away a big pile of crap. I finally pitched the model airplane my ex-housemate started building. I had to admit that no, I am never going to finish someone else's model airplane. I can't even get my butt in gear to finish MY model airplane. I also admitted that I am never going to find a lovely dark green laundry bin to replace my broken one, and I pulled the spare one out of the upstairs closet to use. Poof, no more duct-taped broken handles. In retrospect I'm amazed I stuck with that thing for so long. (Hey, Bay Area people, if any of you are still reading: how do you recycle an entire laundry basket?)

That upstairs room is starting to look almost nice. Next weekend we do the OTHER closet.

Comments

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

There's a mailing list covering a small region, and people say stuff like "Hey, I have a lamp that looks like a space alien landing". If you want it you reply privately, and the owner says "yes" or "sorry someone else got it". Most people go by first-come-first-served but some will say charities have priority or something like that. Then you get the other person's address and you go get the thing -- absolutely free.

The original organization is here. The founders are starting to be a bit autocratic, though, so a lot of communities have left that central organization and just renamed their mailing lists. Either way, it's the same basic concept: your trash is another person's treasure. Keep it out of the landfill and make someone happy!

[dieppe.livejournal.com]

Yeah, what you said too.. ;)

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

The founders are starting to be a bit autocratic, though, so a lot of communities have left that central organization and just renamed their mailing lists. Either way, it's the same basic concept: your trash is another person's treasure. Keep it out of the landfill and make someone happy!

Thank you! When I read runeshower's question, I was dreading the answer, and thought I'd have to post a comment, but you said it perfectly. Things are moving along ... the trademark application has been challenged, and a lawsuit has been filed because of The Freecycle Network's attack on FreecycleSunnyvale for using the word freecycle. It's a long story, but I'm rooting for Sunnyvale. (Hmmm ... come to think of it, CJ, is that your group?)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's my group! I'm not up on what's going on. I get so much mail that I have turned off all freecycle traffic, and I've had it that way for months. But I'm cheering for Sunnyvale also.

I always liked our mods. Good folk, it seemed to me (from my very limited contact with them). I'm not surprised they're not lying down and taking it quietly.