It's a Matter of Give and Take

I didn't know the date without looking it up, but 16th March 2014 marks a landmark in my life.  Its significance is apparent as I look around my home, for that was the day I first signed up to Freecycle.  Now part of 'Trash Nothing', it's a wonderful scheme by which anything that would otherwise find its way to the junk yard, or worse to landfill, can be offered to anyeone else who might be able to use it.

A bookshelf in my bedroom, my radiant heater, and the laminator in the cupboard all bear testimony to its success.  Some things have a complex story behind them; my desk, for example.  I arrived at my present home with a desk that was clearly too big for the room.  Via Freecycle I acquired a metal computer desk - the traditional design with a pull-out shelf for the keyboard - which was soon found to be too small for my needs.  By this time, the original desk had been collected by someone else.  I then saw offered a rosewood desk at a median size that would suit both my requirements and the room.  I contacted the owner and discovered that her situation was much the same as mine had been.  The rosewood desk was too big for her room and what she needed was the metal computer desk that I was saddled with ... Result x2!

Other things have come and gone by the same means.  I acquired a small lamp on a stand, which I could place behind my armchair as a reading light.  Months later, it was being offered again, after I found the ideal standard lamp lying in a lay-by, just a little buckled but easily recoverable.

Of course, it's a game of win and lose.  Several times I've posted a 'want' of a long-arm stapler, which has never materialised.  Clearly anyone who has one is hanging onto it for dear life!  On the other side, I've lost count of the times when I've expressed interest in something, and either been told that it had already been taken ... or heard nothing at all.  This happened the other day in the case of a two-manual keyboard. 

That's the most recent chapter of quite a long saga.  Some years ago, I had been offered a harmonium, at the time in the home of the offerer's parents.  Owing to the difficulty of co-ordinating communications between them and me, and the demands of my work, it ended with me hunting for their address at the same time as the parents, having given up on its being collected, had taken it to the dump!  I subsequently obtained an electric (as opposed to electronic) keyboard, but found after a while that I used it so little that its space was more valuable than its presence.  So far as this week's offer was concerned, had I been successful I would have been a little challenged to make room for it, but decided it was too good an opportunity to ignore.

This week, as well as the disappointment of the keyboard, I offered a number of items that had come out of my old car and for which no place could be found in the new.  At the same time, I also offered a small cafetiere that I realised I no longer use.  The car items were collected within hours of my post, but the lady who had expressed interest in the cafetiere cried off for reason of 'domestic chaos', so it's still on the shelf.

It's a great use of the internet, simple to use, and amazingly useful for anyone on a limited budget!