Philanthropy Thursday

The subject of Freecycle has been on a couple of my favorite blogs in recent days. In reading the comments for these posts, I've become aware that not everyone loves Freecycle like I love Freecycle.

I think that to enjoy Freecycle, you must repeat the mantra, "One man's trash is another man's treasure" quite often. You must also ignore the people who ask for a "new car in perfect condition" or "an apartment in Boston for a year".

With patience and a lot of weeding through posts, you may find that you can actually be philanthropic while cleaning out your attic, your kids' playroom, your closet or your garage.

Now, to be clear, Freecycle is NOT a charity organization. You do not 'donate' items to them. It is more of a huge swap meet where you post items you don't want and look for things you may want.

Our first experience with Freecycle went like this: we had a large wooden bedroom set that had belonged to my husband in his 'bachelor days'. It was moved to the basement when we turned the guest room into the girls' room. Fairly Odd Father tried to sell the entire set on Craigslist for a mere $200 but we had only 1-2 inquiries and no takers. By the time I mentioned trying Freecycle, we were sick of having most of our basement taken up by this set. FOF posted a listing at 9pm in our local Freecycle group. By 9:20, he had several inquiries. Two days later, a couple drove up with a U-Haul and loaded up the entire set and drove away.

I was hooked.

Since then, we have given away loads of things: toys, kitchen items, ice skates, bird cages, a lawn spreader, old office equipment, etc.

I've also been on the receiving end of some greatness: the 10-pound bag of beach glass is still one of my favorites. The 100-year old piano is another.

But, how is this philanthropic? It is philanthropic when someone with a real need (versus a want) is able to get what they need from the site. One woman asked for items to help her start an in-home daycare business; her husband had just arrived home disabled from the Iraq War, and she had quickly become the primary breadwinner for her family. We gave her several of our larger infant toys.

There have been requests to help families whose homes have been lost to fire and to help neighbors struggling to make ends meet.

Once, when I posted an offer for some toddler toys, this email response stood out: "I work with some girls who don't have a lot for their kiddos, so I try to help them out when I can." I told her she could have the box of toys that were in great condition, but had been ignored for quite some time by my kids. I later received an email that said this, "Just wanted to let you know that I dropped the toys off yesterday and I got a call this morning that the little girl who got the toys saw a backyardigans character that you included and started crying because she was so excited".

Once again, I was hooked.