h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Wow, I just signed up for this as we have an old vacuum cleaner and a coffee table that would otherwise get thrown away.

So I put them up with photos on freecycles cardiff yahoogroup.

Within seconds I had about six people all wanting both things!
Brilliant. Much easier than flogging them on ebay for next to nothing anyway.

Just a shame I have to disappoint some people.

I shall use this again - although it seems you have to be quick off the mark to claim something...

I've been freecycling for a couple of months now. My advantageous location means that I'm a member of two groups - Hereford and Gloucester.

I've already got rid of some Epson print cartridges for a printer I don't own, a job lot of jam jars, and a stepladder. In exchange, I've got a new amp and speakers for my 'home cinema' (a slightly deluxe name for the new telly, Freeview box and the DVD player), a webcam, a USB hub, a knife block, balti dish and cast iron griddle, a new keyboard for the PC, a digital camera for school and an antique sewing machine. That last one's for the mother-in-law, who's a bit of an enthusiast.

It really is a superb little organisation.

B

Wow, that is some collection of stuff. From the swiftness of the replies I got though you need to keep a close eye on it I guess. Not sure I've got that much time to devote to it at the moment.

I get a twice-daily digest of recent posts, which enables me to respond pretty swiftly. It's worth keeping in touch with freecyclers, because quite a lot of stuff goes uncollected.

B

I think all the Local Authorities have 'Freecycle' schemes which, as you all say, are really godd. I've used the Wiltshire one to both get rid of unwanted stuff and to acquire things. They have a message board which informs as to who wants to dispose of what, and what's already been collected. The only problem I have with it is that one's s'posed to be able to set it for Daily, Weekly or Monthly messages. I set mine for weekly, but it keeps updating several times daily, and fills up a good part of my screen space. I can't find how to reset the message frequency

That's why I've gone for web only - i.e. no emails at all. I get enoug from work without adding to it.

It occurs to me that this scheme is paradise for your rag and bone merchants.

Which is fine of course - we were just throwing them away otherwise.

I might keep an eye out for unwanted garden tables and chairs in the near future mind...

Well the lady who collected our old coffee table was very pleased with it. The stunning amount of interest was down to its quality apparently.

Strange, I thought it was an old piece of tat. We've been storing crap on it in our garage since we bought the new house. I got rid of it because I bought a nice new set of shelves for the garage to relieve space strain on Saturday.
There must be some ropey old stuff offered on there then if that table was considered top quality.

Well, people are getting rid of stuff they don't want or don't like. That will tend to mean it's out of fashion or beyond their personal level of use/fixability. I would expect there to be rubbish as well as the odd gem- probably a mix of both.

Oh absolutely, I guess I'm just still quite pleased by the major interest I generated.

I'll be more prepared next time. It turned out that the person I gave it to was not even close to being the first person to reply - it's just they all went into the junk box of my email account and her's was the first I looked at without even realising there were more.

There were some really nice replies which I might have responded even more to had I seen them first.
However, I've had an email thanking me this morning so it's gone to a good home I think.

Now our old vacuum cleaner - that really *is* an old piece of tat. I hope the guy coming to get it tonight still wants it once he's seen it