The Art of Free Cycling

Free cycling is when a person passes an unwanted item on to another person for free. Rather than disposing of the item in the trash and having the item find its way into the garbage dump the practice of free cycling frees up space in landfills and cuts down on the need to manufacture new goods.  It is eco-friendly, economical, fun and a good use/re-use of resources.

 

Groups are arranged locally as it is easiest to trade/exchange and travel locally.  You can find these groups using Facebook, the Free cycle network, freecycle.org/.  Each group has its own rules that are for the benefit of the group.  Remember you are not just there to find stuff and resell it.  SO NOT COOL.  Etiquette is to offer items as well as seek them.

WANTED:  searching for an item.

FOUND: telling others you found what you were looking for

OFFER: letting the group know you have an item(s) to give away

TAKEN: informs the group that you have successfully passed the item on to its new life.

What can be free cycled or found on a free cycle network.

Any working appliance can find homes in shelters, low income households etch. Dumping an item when there others struggling to afford that same item is fundamentally wrong.  Computers are highly sought after ~ many children can use one to do their homework on.

Furniture.  From baby needs to adult furniture, these things move fast.  Many people are looking for items to creatively re-construct or cheaply makeover.  Mattresses are heavily sought after in low-income situations.  We even free-cycled a broken wooden bed frame and the family that came for it were excited to rescue, renovate and use it.

Children's play equipment such as swing sets and trampolines to baby rattles are also popular. Please check all aspects of safety on the product before offering as a free cycle item or  receiving as a free cycle item.   Some cribs, car seats and high chairs simply are not allowed to trade hands anymore.  The safety of a child is paramount. 

Collectables, clothing, compost, flowers, hardware, leftover housing renovation products, fish tanks, old carpet, pools, books and on and on and on....can be reused, repurposed and rehomed.

 

Here is our list of items we've acquired from Freecycle:

 

Garden Plants                             

16x10 decking                                 

1986-2008 Complete set of National Geographics

Roof for our chicken house

fencing

Futon Frame

 

Items I've rehomed

Garden plants

table saw (not working for parts)

Fish Tanks

Broken Bed Frame

Bedding

 

Items that cannot be free cycled include:  animals, tobacco, alcohol, guns, ammunition, knives and in other words anything illicit.

So try it.  I’m pretty sure you will like it.  The benefits will leave a smile on many faces.

 

Purging Your Life

 

 

I remember in university having one essay returned at least four times with the same failing mark and 'edit further' written in red pen.  I was careless with frivolous words so that many times my ideas became lost in fluff.  I learned to editing myself brutally (no sarcastic comments about why I don’t do that with my blog posts). I learned that if you cut out everything that’s not necessary you’ve got a more meaningful story.

 

I highly recommend editing your life.

 

Today’s edit: The rooms in your house, one at a time.

Are you surrounded by clutter in every room in your home?

 

Clutter is visually distracting and stressful — every item that you see demands your mind’s attention, and despite that it is subconscious, these little distractions add up. It’s difficult to have peace and to focus amid this clutter. I recommend that you edit each of the rooms in your house, one per week, until you have de-cluttered your home and made it a peaceful and calming place to be.
 

 

Here’s how:

 

Choose a room to do this week.

Focus on one room, and try to do 15 minutes at a time.  Seven steps to heaven!

 

1) Skip the closets and drawers that are out of sight for now. Focus on the things you can see.
 

2) Like Debt-Snowballing, start with the big things. Is there too much furniture in the room? What is necessary, which furniture do you love, which stuff is just too distracting.

3) Clear all flat surfaces. Desktops, tabletops, counter tops, dressers etc. Remove all papers, piles of stuff, little junk, knick-knacks, anything. Put it on the floor/bed. Now get a trash bag and two boxes. Sort through everything in your pile(s), one item at a time. Each item should be either thrown away in the trash bag, put in one box to give away/sell (to friends, family or charity), or in the other box to put in another room in the house.

4) Put back only a couple select items on the flat surfaces, such as a family photo or something that functionally belongs there.

 

5) Now go around the room and edit what's left.  This may be things on the walls. Be merciless and edit brutally - the more you get rid of the better.

6) Purge and Place. Put recycling out, throw out the trash and take the other box and put that stuff  away where it belongs. 

7) Sit down and look around - enjoy peaceful goodness.

 

Now, this editing process is not a destination, but an ongoing process. It won’t last long if you don’t have a system and develop habits to keep it de-cluttered.

Here’s the system:

SYS1 ~ "A place for everything, and everything in its place"

SYS2 ~ Inbox all incoming papers.  No Piles anywhere

 

SYS3 ~ Clean up at night before bed.

SYS4 ~ Every six months, declutter

Purge away little savers!

Thanks to Zenhabits uncopyright. Ideas taken and edited. He is a great resource.