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Whether Burleson and Crowley residents are looking for fiberglass goat shelters or twin-sized box-spring mattresses, one online site provides them with the goods, for free.
Freecycle’s Burleson-Crowley Internet community has expanded since it’s inception in 2004 and is now home to about 1,800 recycling fans.
The concept of Freecycle is simple: When individuals find themselves with items they either don’t want or don’t need, they e-mail fellow Freecycle members in their area, wait for replies, then give away their wares to chosen respondents. Commonly the recipient will pick up the free items from the giver’s porch and no face-to-face interaction is made, according to www.freecycle.org.
The system allows participants to both give and receive without spending a nickel.
“We’ve given away clothes, houseware, furniture, games. I give away things I have in lieu of having a garage sale,” said Varina Denman of Burleson. “It’s way easier and less time-consuming.”
Denman has been a member of the Burleson-area Freecycle group for several years, and she said she has given away items on nearly 50 occasions.
“Usually we’ll just correspond through e-mails, and I’ll know who is coming and just leave the stuff on the porch at a certain time,” she said.
The majority of Denman’s Freecycle experiences has yielded positive results, but she said every once in a while, an issue arises.
She said she has dealt with people who say they will pick up items from her porch only to change their minds without notice.
“If I’m giving something away and lot of people respond, I’d rather give it away to someone I’ve worked with before because I know they will pick it up,” she said.
Denman said she has also received a few nice things from the network, namely plant clippings. She said when she went to pick up the clippings she was promised, the lady giving them away walked her through the yard, allowing Denman to take clippings of the plants she liked.
“She pretty much landscaped our yard,” Denman said.
Another pleasant surprise was receiving a chair her daughter loves, she said.
“Freecycle’s a risk,” she said. “Sometimes things sound a little better than they really are, and sometimes they are actually better than they sound ... It’s just a good opportunity to keep things out of the landfill.”
Pam Toole, a fellow area Freecycler, said she has given away items such as a Diaper Genie and a washing machine during the year she has been a member of the group.
“I think it’s excellent, myself,” she said. “It’s good to give away things you don’t really need.”
Like Denman, Toole said she would rather use Freecycle than have a garage sale because the exchange is a good way for people to get what they need but don’t have the means to purchase.
For information about the Burleson/Crowley Freecycle, visit yahoo.com, click on the “groups” icon on the left-hand side of the page, and enter the words “Burleson Freecycle” in the search bar.
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