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Carrie Combs sorts through a pile of clothes at the Freecycle giveaway. 'Honey, I made out!' she'd say later.
John Maurer of Fredericksburg flips through old albums at the home of Freecycle organizer Lynda Greene.
Jennifer Surles of Stafford and her children find books at the giveaway. They're among hundreds of area Freecycle members. |
By 9:30 on a recent Saturday morning, the Combs family of Spotsylvania County had loaded a minor mountain of treasure into the back of their pickup.
Mom Carrie, a nursing student, got a pile of reference books. Dad Stephen hit the paperback jackpot with titles from Stephen King and Louis L'Amour. Nine-year-old Michael got brand-new jigsaw puzzles still in shrink wrap and a bagful of cool toys.
And then there were a new waffle iron, a pastel-patterned quilt, a nearly new winter jacket, a Kenny G CD and a dress for church.
"Honey, I made out!" Carrie Combs said as she tucked the last of her windfall into the pickup and shut the tailgate.
It didn't cost them a penny.
They and dozens of other area residents were in Lynda Greene's Spotsylvania farm field for a yard sale that wasn't really a yard sale. It was a giveaway run by and for participants in the Spotsylvania group of the Freecycle Network.
Freecycle is a simple idea that caught fire thanks to the Internet and people's innate fascination with acquiring and getting rid of stuff.
Instead of cluttering landfills with usable but no longer wanted items, participants post offers online, on mailing lists run by and for people in their communities. Each offer is accompanied by a description of the item, its condition, and a contact e-mail.
Most items are claimed the day they're offered, sometimes within minutes. It's up to recipients to pick up items at appointed spots.
The catch is that everything-from the lowliest box of knickknacks to computers and cars must be given and received without charge.
The Freecycle yard giveaway on a May weekend was a visible, one-stop example of what goes on in this area and elsewhere every day.
The Combses heard about Freecycle from a parent of one of Michael's fellow Cub Scouts. Within days, they were unburdening their Chancellor-area house and their consciences.
The neglected home gym was snapped right up. Same with the 30-odd cans of half-used paint. And little stuff, too, stuff the family moved from state to state and never managed to get rid of. Carrie Combs found it suddenly liberating to go through drawers and closets, "decluttering my life."
Of course, Freecycle works the other way, as well.
Stephen once claimed $400 worth of drywall for a basement refinishing project. Carrie got a solid oak bookcase for Stephen's big collection of paperbacks, many of which he received through Freecycle.
To Carrie Combs, Freecycle is one solution for the guilt of a disposable society. With the availability of cheap, new products, people buy more than they need.
"People are so wasteful now," she said, "they don't know what to do with their stuff."
Easing that burden seems to be at the heart of the Freecycle Network, which began in Arizona in 2003 and now has local groups throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom. The network hit its 2-million-member mark earlier this year.
Freecycle organizers estimate that they're keeping about 50 tons per day out of landfills.
Virginia has thousands of members in about 70 Freecycle groups. The Combses are among 917 participants in the Spotsylvania group run by Lynda Greene.
Other local examples are Stafford County and Fredericksburg (1,285 members); Culpeper County (645); Caroline County (245); King George County (190); and Orange County (141).
Contact and membership information is available through the nonprofit organization's main Web site, Freecycle.org.
Just about anything is fair game for Freecycle. Gardeners divide and give away irises and lamb's ear and liriope. Pet owners find homes for Chihuahuas and lizards and hermit crabs.
Parents give and receive clothes for fast-sprouting infants and toddlers. Car seats, cribs, lawnmowers, building supplies, computer accessories, furniture and toys are giveaway-list regulars.
Some items posted are utterly random. A two-ton hydraulic floor jack recently found a taker. So did a blow-up Cinderella castle bed, two bags of clothes hangers, personalized bowling trophies and some semipermanent red, blue and purple hair dye.
That's the beauty of Freecycle, said member Jeanne Troy of Fredericksburg. "If you post something ever so slightly better than dirty old socks, people write you back in two seconds."
Even better, they'll come pick it up right off the front porch. "You don't even have to take what you have to the Salvation Army."
Greene started the Spotsylvania Freecycle group a couple of years ago, after she and her late husband, Burton, bought a busload of computers at auction. They gave some to their grandchildren but had tons more left.
The lure of free computers grew the group by dozens of members a day, and solved a big storage problem for the Greenes.
As Burton Greene struggled with heart problems, several loyal moderators took over the day-to-day running of the mailing list, Lynda Greene recalled.
Earlier this year, Burton Greene died. Grieving, Lynda Greene found comfort from her Freecycle friends and redoubled her efforts for the group.
Moderator Jolynn Richardson came up with the yard-non-sale idea two years ago.
This year's event collected about 200 pounds of canned goods for donation. And any giveaway items not claimed were to be picked up the next day by a veterans' organization charity.
The event drew more than 150 carloads of participants--all Freecycle members--in its first two hours.
While several participants happily sorted through piles of clothes, toys, computers and books, others just came to get rid of stuff.
That's typical of Freecycle members, Greene said.
"Most on there have stuff to get rid of," she said, "and never ask for anything in return."
To reach LAURA MOYER:
Email: lmoyer@freelancestar.com
