Freecycle: a site for trash to treasure
Freecycle is a website where people give away their used possessions for free instead of putting them out at the curb. This site is truly about someone’s trash, is someone else’s treasure. Freecycle was started in 2003 in Tucson, Arizona to help reduce the waste in Tucson’s downtown as well as to help save the desert landscape from becoming mountains of landfills. Watch their video at http://www.freecycle.org/video.html. It pretty much sums up what Freecycle is about. According to their website as of today, they have 4041 community groups with an international presence in many countries including UK, Australia, Germany, and Canada. I joined my local county group last year, which consists of over 5500 members. The listings were voluminous. Freecycle helps you start your own community group if there is not one already started. Sign up and take a look at what is being offered.
UsedFurnitureFindex: online sale of loved possessions
Groovy Green’s Michael d’Estries’ recent article about UsedFurnitureFindex.com caught my eye. (Visit Groovy Green. It is a fun green website.) Interior Designer Denise Cooperman started this website as a resource for people to sell their loved possessions. She found that her clients did not know how to dispose of their old furniture. Many did not want to sell their furniture through newspapers or consign their pieces.
It is not a surprise that Denise started this website. As a confessed acquirer of used furniture, Denise was practising the 3 Rs in fixing up old pieces for herself. She never realized that she was eco-chic way before the term was coined. She has successfully combined her love of used furniture with the need to create a solution to help her clients dispose of their furniture.
So, what is the difference between her site and Craig’s List? When I posed this question to Denise, she replied that her search engine is one of a kind which enables you to search by many different avenues such as type, location based upon how many miles from your zip code, dimensions, and style. You can even search by whether you want to buy only new furniture or slightly used. This search engine will make it easier to find exactly what you are looking for. Only an interior decorator could think of such an efficient way to search for furniture.
In addition, UsedFurnitureFindex features surplus new furniture. Just check to make sure how long it has been warehoused so that most of its toxins have off gassed. Majority of the off gassing takes place in the first year. However, it could take at least five years in total for most of the VOCs to off gas.
I went on the website to check it out and found it very easy to navigate. As you look and click on furniture, the website keeps a record of your finds. When I was searching for an armoire I noticed that everyone I saw was from Philadelphia or the surrounding area. I asked Denise if she has customers from only the Pennsylvania area and she replied, “I have clients coming to the site from California, Texas, Florida, Rhode Island and all places in between. The site is national and there are no boundaries. We recently had someone in Baltimore purchase a sofa from someone in Philadelphia and a local furniture delivery service that advertises on the site made the delivery.” So, don’t be shy to either look if you live in any part of the world. However, right now you can only post if you live in the United States.
At this time there is a fee of $5 to post on the site and the furniture can stay on the site until it is sold. In the future the time period for a listing will only be 60 day. I have been trying to sell a few pieces on Craig’s list, but have not been able to sell them. I am going to post on UsedFurnitureFindex and see what happens. This site gets the recycling thumbs up from me.