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April 28, 2008

One man's trash...

Dumps are fascinating places. When I was a kid, any time my dad took us to the dump, it seemed like we always left with more than we took in. That was in the days before recycling programs and when dumps were vast expanses of exposed loot. There were comic books and toys and all sorts of other neat things - identifiable and unidentifiable - that a kid could love. My Mum would inevitably groan with displeasure when we returned, laden with our trashy treasures.

I pretty sure the days of dump-roaming are gone in most municipal dumps. Fortunately, the Whitehorse dump has a great little shack known as "The Free Store". People drop useable and salvageable things off and, sometimes within seconds, someone else scoops it up for their own use.

While you might not have a Free Store in your own community, there's something that's even better.

While this would be the logical time to tell you about it, I'm going to keep you in suspense.

Cruel, eh?

I will tell you, though, that I got a twin bed from this even better source.

And I got a practically-out-of-the-box baby swing from this even better source.

And it was all free.

Really curious now, aren't you?

It's called Freecycle. Check out the website because there might be one where you live. 

And if there isn't, there should be.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Down here, we just use craigslist. We're craigslist freaks. We remodeled our entire Master Suite with goodies off of Craigslist.

Granted, they weren't free. But they were definitely less expensive than new.

I just talked to one of my friends though, who works at the county office for recycling. She mentioned such a site. I guess I'll have to look it up.

If you were a recycled object, what would you be? :-)

Anonymous said...

We have Freecycle here but haven't had any luck. More people searching and you have to be quick to the chase.

Where we have been lucky is the city's FREE DAY. Everyone puts items they would like people to take at the curb and you walk/bike/drive around and grab what you'd like. We even got Hershey a dog house last year.

Anonymous said...

there's freecycle in Ottawa, as well as "kanatafreestore". it's fantastic. I got ZEm a bike, and have gotten rid of baby sheets and suck. TONS of stuff. And I think I must mention it to about 2-3 people a week who have never heard of it.

Anonymous said...

that should have been "I got Em a bike, and have gotten rid of baby sheets and stuff."

just goes to show you that typing with a screaming toddler on your lap is not a good idea...

Meandering Michael said...

yukonjen - If I were a recycled object? I AM a recycled object. Everything that I'm made of was once part of something else.