My Recycled Life: Freecycle in Your Neighborhood

When I moved into my mother’s house, supplies for multiple cats were cramming available space and I only needed enough for two cats. I used freecycle.org to find people who wanted the extra beds, scratching posts, litter pans, toys, and carriers. I was already a long-time user of the site. I continue to use it for oddball items that occupy a twilight zone between too usable to trash, but too junky or bulky or simply not in demand for resale outlets.

When you want to give away something (such as holiday decorations), you can go to the Freecycle site and post a listing about what you have to “offer.” You can also use the site for “wanted” postings. When someone responds to your listing, you usually arrange with that person for a porch pick-up or drop-off. The site’s organized by communities called “town groups” so people who want to pick up or drop off items don’t have far to go. However, you can sign up for multiple communities—I’m active with eight different town groups.

Some local communities with freecycle.org groups include Carson, Long Beach, Anaheim, Garden Grove, Torrance, Santa Ana, Lawndale, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, and Palos Verdes. Some groups are more active than others. The Long Beach group, for example, is quite lively, while some other groups see little or no activity. These sites are strictly set up and run by volunteer moderators, so each town’s group rules vary.

Recently, for example, I saw a woman’s “wanted” post, for wreaths for each month. I had a plain braided wreath—willow, maybe—in my mother’s garage, so I messaged her and suggested she could decorate it. She lived in San Pedro and worked in Anaheim, so it was easy for her to pick the wreath up from my porch. She later kindly sent me a photo of the wreath decorated for Easter.

One of my happier Freecycle experiences concerns a bag of wooden clothes hangers. Years ago a woman posted how she was considering throwing the whole bag away if she got no response. I thought, “You can always use good-quality clothes hangers,” and picked the bag up. My mother’s closets, though, proved to be jammed with hangers already, so the bag got stashed away.

Then recently I saw a woman in Long Beach who wanted wooden clothes hangers, and also art supplies. I bagged up some odd supplies from the family craft cabinet, grabbed the bag of wooden hangers, and dropped both bags off on her porch.