How AWESOME is Freecycle?

I'm not really a hoarder (how scary is that new show anyway!?!), but STUFF as George Carlin said, always managed to accumulate.  So when I started my YCC project, I hoped part of the result would be some downsizing of the STUFF.  So I offered up a few things on this blog, but honestly, the hassle of shipping was a bit of a pain.  Plus, you know, I have like 4 people reading this blog and how many of them (you?) actually want my cast-offs?

Up until now, I've used the website organization http://www.freecycle.org/ mostly to see if someone wants something that I'm willing to give up.  To date, I had responded and delivered an ellyptical machine, several framed prints, and a mountain bike.  I give away some good shit people. Especially if you are willing to come to my house and pick it up.

Looking at the piles in my dining room the other day, I decided to get proactive on Freecycle.  I posted 14 items (actually more than that, since some were multiple) and as of tomorrow, they will all be gone!  Gone people.  Ah...the unbearable lightness of being.  (I don't think that the title actually ties to my giving shit away, but that is how I feel).  Stuff, even sentimental stuff, even stuff we spent money on, has a way of strangling you when it just piles up in dark corners, closets, and collects dust.  It is guilt.  It is waste.  And ultimately, it is something someone else might just treasure.

What's now gone from my home?

• Assorted cookbooks, some used and some new that were overcrowding the kitchen nook.  They are going to a woman who loves to cook and experiment with new recipes.
• Yankee photographs that were really nice, but were just getting damaged and dusty in the back of a closet.  Now they'll be in a young boy's room who will appreciate them!
• Games and puzzles just wasting away on our shelves and taking up valuable room.  We had several versions of Trivial Pursuit and it's been years since we played at all.  We kept our favorite version - the original - and got rid of the rest.
• CD racks - wood and wire....they'll help organize someone else's stuff - they were just crowding my desk at home now that I'm an i-tunes person.
• Artwork - mostly just store-bought prints from past homes before Kip became such a prolific artist.  And the frames weren't worth re-using for his pieces, so now they find a home (or 3 or 4).  The only one hard to give away was an original chalk drawing my Great Aunt Wilma did of a Tiger that was over my bed as a girl.  I loved that she drew it and she loved that I loved it.  But now some other child will be able to enjoy it and that makes me happy.
• Kitchen Items - including a Mikasa sugar/creamer  and a little christmas bowl and spreader that I never used. Someone will love them.
• Whiteboard/bulletin board - ugly as sin and never going up on my wall again.  But a little boy nearby will use it to tack up his awards and homework and calendar.  Perfect.

I genuinely love love love this process.  The email management is a bit of a pain...getting 30+ responses for some of the items was hard to manage. But the feeling of lightening the load is wonderful. 

Today, I posted the oak wood items I removed from our bathroom.  So far no takers.  Can you imagine?  Do you really not want my used wood toilet seat?  Come on, admit it, you do.