Above is a photo of my new (to me!) stove. I got it free via Freecycle in my area. Through Freecycle I have also been the grateful recipient of a very fine sectional couch, an entertainment center, a computer desk, a computer, two La-Z-Boy recliners and a medium-size animal crate.
Freecycle is one expression of a burgeoning underground/gift economy in the U.S. There are more than 4,000 chapters in major cities and counties throughout the U.S. and I believe there are Freecycle Networks in the UK and other countries as well. The way it works is, you register to participate on a Freecycle internet list of people local to you, and you then begin to receive regular notices of items people want to give away and items people need or want. If you have what someone needs, you let them know and they come get it. If you need what someone is offering, you let them know. Usually it is first come first serve, but those who are offering make the decisions about who will receive what they’re giving if more than one Freecycler is interested. If you get the item you wanted, you make arrangements to pick it up. No money ever changes hands; in fact, rules prohibit money transactions as well as barter.
You get really good things on Freecycle. I bought my old sectional couch used at a consignment place years ago, and it served my family well for many years. But I raised lots of children during that couch’s (second) lifetime and finally I had to acknowledge it was time for a different one (not a new one; I virtually never buy anything new). I had removed the cushion covers and washed them so many times, the zippers didn’t work anymore, the seams were popping, the springs were broken. I had also cycled the couch cushions themselves through the washer a few times and they were falling apart. The couch had had its day.
The first week I signed on to Freecycle I found a sectional couch being offered in good colors for my living room. I e-mailed the offerer and she said it was mine; it was also her first Freecycle transaction. The couch is really nice, good quality, it just didn’t work in her new house for various reasons. She had attempted to offer it to Goodwill but Goodwill said she had to get it cleaned first. Freecycling the couch was just easier for her.
The stove up there that I picked up today is a wonderful gift! I am so excited, you just don’t know! I had posted a “stove wanted” e-mail months ago, when I was down to only one working element on my 23-year-old range and no working oven at all. In addition, the oven door latch was broken and the door had to be held in place with a strategically-placed chair that was a continual, aggravating obstruction to kitchen traffic. You should have seen it. The operative word was JANK.
But I didn’t have money for a new range, especially considering that the old one was a drop-in style; it wasn’t like I could just pick up any range at Goodwill and stick it in the hole, it had to be exactly the right size and configuration or something that I could make work with the hole in my countertop without complicated carpentry or electrical work. I called around, called a used appliance place I’ve bought things from in the past, and the owner did a search for me and told me the best he could find was an $1,800 range, and that was not counting any cabinet modifications I might need!
Yeah, right.
Anyway, the Freecycle woman who e-mailed me last week had seen my old “wanted” item. She said they were remodeling their kitchen and getting a wall oven, and that was why they were getting rid of the one above. It’s in perfect condition, has a ceramic top (no more dealing with coils and drip pans, yay!), is black and stainless steel, like my old stove was, so it matches my kitchen, and has an “Accubake” oven that will be perfect for my breadmaking! Plus it’s self-cleaning. The stove is only five years old and based on my research, is a great appliance. When I was at the woman’s house today picking it up, her husband said he had found their woodstove in the same way, via Freecycle. Someone was remodeling and getting a new woodstove and just wanted a Freecycler to come pick the old one up. It can be an incredible headache to get rid of a large piece of furniture or appliance for people who don’t have trucks or vans, don’t have money to rent them or friends who have them, can’t afford repairs or to get things cleaned, don’t have the physical ability to move heavy items, and so on.
I am such a believer in underground and gift economies! It’s not just about the environment and a less-heavy environmental footprint, it’s not just about minimizing waste and avoiding increasing the toxic and ever-growing mountains at the local landfill, it’s also about community. When people in an area exchange items in this way, offer things, let others know what they need, they get to know other people whose sensibilities and sometimes whose politics are a lot like their own. I’ve seen virtually everything on Freecycle: appliances, beds, the leftovers from garage sales, computers, menstrual pads, diapers, fire wood, seeds, plants, pets, chickens, office supplies, bags of food, toys, shoes, clothes, car parts, crutches, walkers, video games, you name it, people offer it or want it. Recently someone offered an operating car on my local Freecycle list! Currently one of the “wanted” items is tents and other supplies for homeless people.
You meet the coolest people this way. Recently I posted a “wanted” notice for humane cat traps. There are feral kitties on my land and I wanted to get them spayed on a special “Free Spay and Neuter for Feral Cats” day at a local low-cost animal clinic. I’d tried to borrow traps from local shelters and they were all out because everybody had the same idea; I’d checked local feed stores and traps the size I needed were over $30 each. I didn’t get humane cat traps, but through Freecycle, I was given the name and phone number of the local “Cat Lady,” a legendary heroine in my area who, when she learns of outside cats or feral cats or scaredy-cats running loose, comes to your house, traps them gently herself and then spays and neuters them. She never charges for this and her work is expert and excellent and so kind.
Gosh, the amazing work women do in the world that nobody knows about but us! And what a wonderful soul this woman is!
So this is a plug for Freecycle and this is also me, bragging on my new (to me!) range! Yay, four operating burners in time for winter! Yay, an oven that works! Yay, no more chair between the oven and the sink holding up the broken oven door! Yay, no more eyesore of a stove, causing me to wonder every single day whether I’d ever be able to replace it! Yay, it was absolutely FREE!
Just wanted to share. 
The Freecycle Network
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