11 Sep Happiness is sharing
Please enjoy below another great article from Gimundo.com that relates to happiness and community…or happiness and giving.
Clear Your Clutter, Find Cool Stuff: Freecycle
Look around your house. If you’re anything like us, your humble domicile is stuffed to the gills with all sorts of useless junk. Sure, that deep fryer seemed like a good idea at the time – before all those onion rings started wreaking havoc on your waistline. And since you’ve taken your music into the digital dimension, your CDs have gained a lowly second life as coasters.
Your cast-offs are too good for the trash heap, but not valuable enough to sell. So what can you do with them?
Easy: Freecycle. It’s just what it sounds like – a free way to recycle your unwanted possessions. At freecycle.org, you can sign up for a local Freecycle online mailing list. Each day, you’ll receive notifications of what people near you are giving away – it could be anything from a bicycle to a box of diapers (unused, of course). Whenever you see something you want, just send an email to claim it – no strings attached.
Reciprocity, of course, is the key here – no one likes a moocher. So if you just can’t bear to part with any of your neglected possessions, you may not be cut out for Freecycle. But if you’d happily swap an old camera for a collection of gently used clothes (or vice-versa), then you’re sure to fit right in with the organization’s altruistic spirit. Everyone’s trash is someone’s treasure, after all – it may as well be yours.
Other great places to share your stuff:
Neighborrow.com – Much like Freecycle.org, this site allows you to recycle your own stuff throughout the community, and to claim others’ cast-offs. But it also allows you and your neighbors to borrow from one another: Anything from DVDs to videogames to, yes – a cup of sugar.
Paperbackswap.com – When you finish a book, you know you’ll probably never read it again. Why let it waste space on your bookshelf? With this site, you can pass on your old favorites to new readers, and choose from the 1.5 million books currently available for swapping. If music’s more your thing, check out their partner site, www.swapacd.com.