Ever felt charitable but had no opportunity?
Asked by
Lascar (
6
)
April 9th, 2013
Did you ever had this experience:
You are going through your monthly cleaning/garage re-organizing and end up with a bunch things/tools/materials that you don’t really need, and whatever the project or idea you where planning to use them for is not exciting anymore, but you still feel ownership/attachment to these things. So you can’t quite give them up and just keep putting them back into a corner forever.
However if you knew that someone might use them for some project and would have asked you – you would love to give these away rather than see them in dumpster? The problem is you don’t know many people who would need this and not many do ask. And the whole classified/ebay seems like a chore to deal with.
Why can’t just someone come up and take them of your hands for a buck. And maybe share a proud story on how they’ve used it?
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7 Answers
For awhile, we had a local web-based network where members could post that they either needed or had available certain items or services. So if you need, say, an extension ladder for a one-time project, you could post that need and almost certainly get an offer to loan you one for the day. The idea was to free people from the need to acquire so much stuff, knowing that they could share in the pool of community resources.
It was a great idea and it actually worked quite well, but turned out to be too much work for the kind souls that administered it, so it’s gone.
Freecycle does just that except you can’t make a buck. It is entirely free. I’ve been a member for years now.
Sort of, but not quite the same thing.
Several times I have had some stretches of spare time where I could volunteer (for a couple of weeks) for different civic and community organizations.
I went to a couple of them, but they made it so difficult to volunteer (background checks, references, applications, etc.) that I decide that it wasn’t worth taking the time to jump through their hoops (and wait weeks for an answer). I felt that that because of the rigamarole, I was actually being actively discouraged from volunteering. I understand their reasoning—they don’t want criminals volunteering – but still, it turned me off on the whole idea.
Freecycle.com here too, plus the user-friendly bulletin boards at the local Post Office and country store, plus word of mouth, plus the curb.
Goodwill, St. Vinnies, etc.
Garage sale.
Consignment shops or auctions.
Habitat for Humanity Re-Store
No, I use Craigs List or a local charity will always pick them up, like our Youth of the Ozarks Thrift Store, or the Blind Store. In my suburban neighborhood, we leave useful items or leftover sale items at the curb with a “free” sign and they’re always gone in a few hours.
Freecycle groups are all over the place and you can advertise what you have tha\t you would like to give away and people arrange to come at a time that suits you to collect these things.
If there is something you are looking to have, you can use the same process to locate such items.
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