Freecycle.org

[botias]

When I am not hard at work on Chapter 4 of teh crack, I have been giving stuff away on my local Freecycle mailing list. Giving stuff away is fun, nearly as much fun as getting stuff for free. Which is good because I have mostly done the former.

Basically, you list things you don't want and people email you to come take it away. It's the lazy person's yard sale, but more effective than a yard sale in finding a home for useful things of no particular value. In my area, it is a moderated Yahoo group. I scored a free composter and have given away any number of things that I haven't missed or am very happy to see gone.

Somewhat depressing was when I gave away a steam cleaner I had gotten as a gift and ppl wrote to tell me how desperately they needed it. Their situations were no different from mine, including someone else with three small children, yet I never bothered to get it out of the case. I guess it's a personal thing whether one feels one NEEDS steam cleaned surfaces in one's home.

Really the clean thing is a bit of a fetish. Especially within one's own home, and double-extra especially regarding a spouse or children. Frankly, you are bathed in their bacterial fauna all the time. I won't deny that hand-washing can more-or-less reduce your odds of catching a cold, and that it is vitally important for food service workers and health workers, and after frequenting petting zoos, but frankly, the world is chock full of bacteria; Americans really ought to come to peace with that fact. It weirds me a little to read of people who end friendships because the person does not wash quite thoroughly enough after going to the restroom. Their friend is probably more likely to back over them by accident with their SUV than give them a serious illness through casual contact.

Comments

[harpygoddess.livejournal.com]

I've been doing the Freecycle thing for a couple of years now and have gotten several relatives in different parts of the country involved, too. I'm a total pack rat but I'm good with giving the packratted stuff away to people who actually want it, so tt's been really good for me. Also, as you said, the getting stuff - I put out a "wanted" for some carpeting for a playroom I'm finishing and saved quite a bit of money.

I agree with you about the clean thing, too. I'm pushing 60 now, and when my kids were little there were no carseats at all and seat belts were rare and rarely used. That's not to say that the things we do to keep our kids safe are a bad idea, but we need to lighten up a bit.

[botias.livejournal.com]

It's amazing the amount of stuff that flows into one's household. Though I have a mother who is an avid consumer that is prone to offload on me, so that might be part of it. :) Sometimes I worry that I am enabling packrats, rather than giving the stuff to people who have an immediate use, but what can you do? :)

Yes, I'm all for carseats. I don't think safety restraints during car trips have every crimped any child's development. But, I definitely hear a lot about how the world is not as safe as it once was, so children should be more closeted. I'm not sure the world is any less safe, it's just that access to information about rare abductions and freak accidents is much greater.

[brunettepet.livejournal.com]

This was a particularly comforting thought: "Their friend is probably more likely to back over them by accident with their SUV than give them a serious illness through casual contact." Freecycle sounds great. I'm going to have to look into it in my neck of the woods.

[botias.livejournal.com]

heh, um, sorry. Guess I should not write fortune cookies messages.

Do look it up! It is fun. :)

[diachrony.livejournal.com]

My own American family is extremely at peace with the bacteria thing. We're not slobs, and we bathe and wash hands regularly, but I'm always astonished by the extremes some people go to. The less exposure to bacteria, the weaker the immune system because it doesn't get the opportunity to work its muscles & keep in form, so to speak.

I've read newspaper articles where doctors bemoan the ever-increasing "antibacterial" soap & gel popularity. If you go to stores now it is near impossible to find a liquid hand soap that doesn't boast of its antibacterial ingredients. But what I read from doctors and scientists is that using this stuff on a regular basis *weakens* your body's ability to fend off harmful bacteria.

Some people are squeamish in a way that shows a great ignorance of how the ecosystem works. I recall a woman I met once who wouldn't eat salads, or fresh vegetables or fruit, because when the plants grow they have insects crawling on them. She thought it was healthier & more sanitary to eat bagged chips. I'm not joking.

[botias.livejournal.com]

I completely agree about the bacteria exposure, and how trying to live in a bubble actually works against your immune system. Not to mention that breeding anti-biotic resistant bacteria is never, ever a good idea. I'm not much for the notion of sin, but if sin exists than squandering the effectiveness of anti-biotics is probably in my personal top 10.