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

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

Sadly, it appears the wine bottles are staying for now.

And the porch is getting very crowded.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Aw, whoever claimed the wine bottles backed out?

And the porch, yeah, that's a major problem with freecycling. :-(

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

They were going to make some kind of garden display, but it turns out they already had enough wine bottles.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Darn. Well, could relist 'em I suppose, or what the hey, they can be recycled.

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

You're supposed to save all the responses until the stuff is picked up ... saves having to start all over from scratch! Or did you only get one response?! (Actually, I'm surprised anybody wanted 80 wine bottles!)

Just out of curiosity, how many people are in your freecycle group? If it's small, you could always try another one.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I don't know; Rob did the listing.

People who make wine at home would be overjoyed to get 80 bottles for free. (That's why I had them.) But it's luck of the draw whether anyone on our local list is a winemaker!

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

And I expect anyone who is a winemaker also drinks a lot of wine and thus would already have the bottles.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Likely. Unless they hadn't planned ahead and saved 'em for a couple years. :)

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

I save every piece of mail I've ever received. Who needs gmail when you have a hard disk at home? But no, in this case, only one person responded. We had another person just cancel on her pickup, and I went back through the mail and found the next person in line to ask.

But sometimes relisting actually helps. I've listed the same thing twice, a week apart, and gotten no takers the first time and lots the second time.

We have 523 current members.

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

I save every piece of mail I've ever received. Who needs gmail when you have a hard disk at home?

Spoken like a true packrat. =chuckles= Me too.

But sometimes relisting actually helps.

I've had the same experience. I don't mind relisting if I didn't get any takers, but I hate having to it on a popular item and having to sort through the e-mails all over again! So I have a separate folder to put them in. I tell my members they can delete the responses once their item has been picked up, but =blushes= I don't. They're all still there, and the new ones just collect at the bottom.

We have 523 current members.

Oh! I didn't realize Sunnyvale was so small. I guess Tim just casts a big shadow. =smiles= My own suburban group has over 2,000 members, and the city group I help with has over 6,000. (CJ, that's why I sometimes don't get to LJ to read or post! My group is pretty well-behaved on the whole, but the city group is a whole 'nother demographic. =rolls eyes= )

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

I expect some people didn't convert over to the new list when the original freecycle list went away. And Sunnyvale is pretty small - only 131,000 people.