Coming Unmoored

In my attempts to streamline my belongings in preparation for my upcoming move to Portland, I’ve been using Freecycle to rid myself of some larger items that probably aren’t worth enough money to try to sell.

For those non-self-professed-tree-huggers who’ve been living in a cave for the past couple of years, Freecycle is a grassroots, nonprofit movement of people that promotes the reuse of items amongst the members of it’s local communities.

Let’s say Joe gets sick of looking at the plaid couch his cat tortured all through college. Joe posts on his local Freecycle group list “OFFER: plaid couch. Some mild wear.” Someone else reads Joe’s post and offers to come take the item off his hands. Joe unloads his couch without having to feel guilty that he’s contributing to a landfill somewhere. The new owner gets a couch for only a little effort.

I think this is a marvelous concept. When I first started listing items on Freecycle I wanted to give away, I felt happily virtuous. Unfortunately, like many of the wonderful things civilization has dreamed up over the years, the system starts to break down when you factor in the darker elements of human nature.

I would like to think that most days this entry would be a calmly-worded article titled “Etiquette Tips for People Using Freecycle”. But I’m crabby today, so you’re getting my unedited, bitch-list of problems I’ve encountered with Freecycle to-date…

1. People who can’t read. My local Freecycle group uses a Yahoo list to advertise items being offered. When an item is claimed, you are expected to post a second email saying the item has been taken. Usually items on Freecycle go in under a minute if you’re on top of things. I’m on top of things. So, at most, there may be a post or two between my initial “OFFER” email and the “TAKEN”. Even still, the average item I’ve posted garners somewhere between 10 and 30 emails from people asking if the item is still available. These continue arriving for several DAYS after the item was originally offered. I have had to go so far as to set up a separate email box so that my regular email doesn’t get inundated with these inquiries.

2. People who can’t write. The typical email I get from someone interested in an item reads like it was writing by E.E. Cummings on large amounts of crack.

3. People who don’t show. At least half the time someone has told me they’d pick up an item on a specific time/day, they either do not show at all or they arrive on something like a bicycle to pick up something unmanageably large–like a queen size futon and frame–and things than proceed to devolve into a 5-day logistical nightmare. (And this is after I make sure they know the dimensions and weight of the item they’re picking up.)

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but there seem to be a lot of people using Freecycle who, either by choice or necessity, don’t own cars. They commit to taking items when they have NO idea how they’re going to transport them. But instead of telling you that up front, they come up with more and more creative explanations on why they couldn’t show when they said they would.

In a couple of situations where people have lived closed by to me, if they had leveled with me up front, I would have been happy to run the item over to their place. Instead, I get these progressively sadder and more dramatic tales of woe as someone begs me not to give the item to someone else. And this is AFTER they have my home address and, in one case, announce they are going to come over and “mess me up” when I finally lost patience and let someone else have an item. (On the up-side, I figure if someone can’t get their ass over to my house to pick up a Target 3-drawer organizer, odds are good they aren’t going to muster the energy and resources just to harass me in person.)

4. People who show up, pick up the item, and then either ask for money or try to sell you something while they’re there. Call me strange, but I think that odds are good that if I’m giving multiple things away I probably don’t want to buy your watch.

This one just plain creeps me out and is one of the major reasons I now insist on leaving all items out on my porch rather than letting someone come inside to pick it up.

5. People who show up and pick up their item along with several others left out for other Freecycle members, which are CLEARLY LABELED as such. Or, better still, help themselves to things like the plant and watering can you had on your front stoop. I mean, come on, one nifty free thing that’s yours for the taking isn’t enough? You have to loot everything else that isn’t nailed down, too? Thanks to Freecycle, I’ve gotten rid of more items than I ever intended.

6. People who pick up the item only to list it for sale on Craigslist the following day. Ok, this one bugs me less than the others. At least someone is being enterprising and my item doesn’t end up in the trash.

In small part, I admire them having the energy to try to sell something I wasn’t willing to get off my butt to do myself. But, this still somehow rubs me the wrong way. For starters, it’s expressly against the guidelines of the local Freecycle group. Plus, it just feels to me like someone operating in bad faith. When I give an item away, I’m picturing it as being given to someone who could really use it, not someone who’s trying to make a buck off me.

Plus, if you’re motivated enough to travel all over town collecting people’s used toasters and old mattress sets to have something to sell, why not consider getting a regular job? Especially with the cost of gas these days. It’s gotta be an easier way to turn a buck…

Anyway, that’s the short of my current complaints. I’ve haven’t completely thrown in the towel on Freecycle. I’m too stubborn for that. I am, sadly, though, a little more jaded about the whole process.

So, those of you out there who see some of yourself in the description above, kindly knock it off, okay? Before you wreck a good thing.

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