Freegle, Freecycle and the like

[Arzosah]

I've just listed a sofa frame on my local site, and I've been having a look through what others are posting while I'm waiting to see if anyone wants the thing (this is the 3rd day, nothing so far, I think a trip to the tip is in the offing for me!).

Anyway, seeing the stuff thats on offer, I think checking out your local group could be a really good idea. This is the prepping-type equipment offered on my group in the last week:
- baby items - new baby bottles, sterilising equipment, lots.
- camping gaz lantern.
- table saw with built in stand, rip fence and sled (whatever that is).
- drill and driver.
- car jack
- mower and strimmer.
- 3m x 4m carpet and underlay
- breadmaker
- make your own apple cider kit
- power bench and free weights
- rug
- paraffin heater
- aluminium wind shield for bbq

I was really surprised! And when I've got myself together a bit more, I'll start keeping an eye out on this, there's a lot there that would be great.

[Jamesey1981]

I got a caravan off freecycle once! Needed a little bit of work where damp had got in but that only took a couple of days to sort out and I kept it for five years, donated it to a scout group when I couldn't store it any more.

[peejay]

We've been having a major clearout lately & I must admit a lot of stuff is easier to just give away through such groups rather than fleabay it & deal with the postage & charges. The only thing that occurred to me recently is remembering reading something a while back about folks that trawl the free sites looking for stuff they can flog at car boots! Grates on me a bit but then if I'm giving/chucking it anyway, who am I to complain.

On a related note, we've had a pair of leather reclining sofas for years and we had the middle bits that make them into 3-seaters but never had the room to actually use them ("they're only £50 extra" at the time) and have lived in my daughters bedroom for years but she now wants shot. I was going to tip them (the actual sofas are now so worn they'd never match the little-used middles anyway!) when I realised that I can strip the leather off them & keep it "just in case" (have been fancying getting into leathercraft recently and if nothing else it'll be a cheap source of practice material!

So, I'll be skipping some sofa frames myself soon!

[pseudonym]

So, I'll be skipping some sofa frames myself soon!

Last sofa I scrapped yielded enough wood for a couple of nights fire.

[sniper 55]

I had to empty my sons flat last week, couldn't give the stuff away and I didn't have time to mess about, I blagged his new microwave and Dyson hoover (brilliant!) plus some other bits and pieces but I hated wasting the rest of the stuff

[grenfell]

We've been having a major clearout lately & I must admit a lot of stuff is easier to just give away through such groups rather than fleabay it & deal with the postage & charges. The only thing that occurred to me recently is remembering reading something a while back about folks that trawl the free sites looking for stuff they can flog at car boots! Grates on me a bit but then if I'm giving/chucking it anyway, who am I to complain.

I experienced this when we put a piano on freecycle . We had two replies asking for the makers name and even pictures of said makers plates if there were any. When we said we couldn't see any makers name interest disappeared. We never did give it away but it went onto mumsnet or something like that and we sold it. That wasn't the first time we failed to give something away but did manage to sell it instead. We've also picked stuff up that was put up as being " suitable for car boot".
Last thing I picked up was a dustbin lid. Doesen't sound like much but I had salvaged two bins from a job but without lids which makes them much less useful so stuck up a wanted ad and at least one bin has a lid now.

[Deeps]

We've been having a major clearout lately & I must admit a lot of stuff is easier to just give away through such groups rather than fleabay it & deal with the postage & charges. The only thing that occurred to me recently is remembering reading something a while back about folks that trawl the free sites looking for stuff they can flog at car boots! Grates on me a bit but then if I'm giving/chucking it anyway, who am I to complain.

I experienced this when we put a piano on freecycle . We had two replies asking for the makers name and even pictures of said makers plates if there were any. When we said we couldn't see any makers name interest disappeared. We never did give it away but it went onto mumsnet or something like that and we sold it. That wasn't the first time we failed to give something away but did manage to sell it instead. We've also picked stuff up that was put up as being " suitable for car boot".
Last thing I picked up was a dustbin lid. Doesen't sound like much but I had salvaged two bins from a job but without lids which makes them much less useful so stuck up a wanted ad and at least one bin has a lid now.

I get that, it's maybe too much hassle to do it yourself to haggle over a load of stuff that you just want rid off. Only been to one myself and that was as a browser (chumming a mate) but I can get why haggling over shit you're prepared to ditch to make a few quid doesn't spin everybody's propellers.

[grenfell]

Mrs grenfell has done car boots in the past and occasionally will do the odd one but frankly she says it not really worth the hassle most of the time. Cramming the car full of assorted crap , setting off at some stupidly early time just to face crowds of people who don't want to pay anymore than 50p for anything. As she says the quality of stuff seems to have gone down too as nobody , or at least nearly nobody , takes decent stuff to sell as they know full well the opening gambit of a punter will be "give ya 20p for it"
Nowadays she finds it easier to lump all the junk together and stick it on eBay as a car boot job lot , and let someone else have the hassle.

[peejay]

I'm only now getting round to clearing out a load of crap from the garage that was leftovers from our first car boot effort. As you say, just not worth it to haggle over 50-bloody-p, at least not at that ungodly hour of the morning anyway!

[Arzosah]

Round here, I think there are "destination" car boots - in a nice bit of countryside, with lots of vans selling good takeaway food, it's a bit like going to an outdoor shopping mall But the ones that are easily accessible, near a big train station etc, are exactly what you're describing. Or even worse, they've been taken over by people who've bought very cheap job lots from China on ebay, mostly clothes they're like going to a downmarket Primark.

No takers on my sofa frame and cushions that started the whole thing off for me there are quite a few sofas on there at the mo, actually.