Getting rid of one thing for every day in June 2010

On impulse, I decided this morning that in the month of June, I am going to freecycle one item for every single day.  Yes, I will get rid of thirty things or groupings of things that I don’t use, but which could serve someone else just fine.

For those who don’t know about freecycle, it facilitates exchanges of stuff for free.  I first started jumping around about it last November, and in that time have sent away an unused rodent cage, excess Christmas ornaments, books I didn’t care to shelve.  I’ve been a little less enchanted recently with the volume of emails I get every day, especially when people don’t follow the posting conventions (naturally they don’t, naturally that bugs), BUT am feeling re-energized by this little task I’ve set myself, which accomplishes something I really want to do: streamline, clear clutter, clean out crap gathering dust.

None of it is really crap at all.  Just unwanted. By me.

For a start, I posted 5 things that I pulled from the linen closet.  There’s more in there, but I’m trying not to go too utterly insane, knowing that I have to sustain this for another 25 days.

1. two hall runners, perfectly serviceable, but that I just am not crazy about.  They’ve lived in the closet for over a year, probably 5, who knows;
2. misc. bag of cleaning supplies, including carpet cleaner (can’t even remember when or why i bought this);
3. two book lights;
4. a bottle of Pantene shampoo that wound up in our shopping bag after a visit to Long’s Drugs (RIP), paid for and probably sorely-missed by the man ahead of us in line;
5. marbles and “gems” for floral arrangements (who WAS the person who bought that crap), and some floral foam.

Within twenty minutes of my posts, 4 of the 5 items are spoken for.  I love it that I actually know one of the people coming by for driveway pick-up – such a tiny world we live in.

It is amazing how much stuff accumulates in a life, and how when you have space to tuck it away, you can just forget about it.  I never really can forget it’s there though, and feel its presence even when I can close the door on it and walk away.  So great that there’s a way I can pass useful but unwanted items on, putting them up for adoption by a self-selected new loving family.  I will probably never have a garage sale again.  I’d so much rather give it to someone who actually wants it, than stand around trying to hawk miscellany for pennies on the dollar anyway, steadily building a head of steam as people haggle me down from $1 to 25 cents.

Thanks to Sally, Judy, Fran and Elizabeth for taking this stuff off my hands. Thanks for freecycling!