Friday TechTips

Good Friday afternoon everyone! This week’s tip isn’t so much about the technology associated with the service as it is the good it potentially offers! In honor of Earth Day this past week I’d like to tell you about FreeCycle, which I know some of you are already familiar with. FreeCycle allows you to post items to give away that you would have otherwise taken to Goodwill or thrown away, thus taking up landfill space.

FreeCycle’s organizational website is located at http://freecycle.org, but they utilize Yahoo! Groups to run each community’s site.  You can browse all the groups, or go directly to the Richmond group here. The only requirement for use is a Yahoo! login.  Registration is free and is done in a few seconds. To list an item, simply create a new post with the term "offer." For example:

Offer: Lightly Used iPhone

You should also provide a brief description of the item.  You can either rely on responses via email to your Yahoo! email address or provide a phone number (I recommend cell) for them to call.  Once someone has arranged to take the item, you can either provide directions for them to pickup or select a location to drop off the item.

You should post another message to the group after the item has been taken to alert others that the item has been claimed.

Taken: Lightly Used iPhone

Personally, we’ve been able to get rid of several things via FreeCycle and have gotten some great freebie kid toys and even a Weber charcoal grill that was in near new condition (retails for $149.00)!  I encourage you to give it a try as your junk is probably someone else’s treasure!

Enjoy your weekend!