yours2share “freecycles” to Norfolk

I’m kind of glad this week is over. We’ve moved house, yours2share and two dogs from West London to Norfolk. My desk is now a packing case free zone, but my access to the internet is a BTopenzone hotspot outside a training centre in a nearby village because we have no broadband yet. Why it takes ten working days from the point when the line is active is completely beyond me: the phone line was transferred immediately.

As part of the move we got rid of a lot of clutter that we had collected over many years. This involved heavy use of eBay, the rubbish tip, and a great service called Freecycle. If like us, you have stuff that has no value (you’ve checked on eBay) but seems too good to throw away, then Freecycle is what you need. Freecycle is a network of groups where you can post ads for items you are willing to give away provided someone comes to pick them up. So you don’t even have to take things to the tip. Last week, we freecycled a washing machine, dryer, cooker, keyboards, lots of china, a whole set of kitchen units and about fifty plants.

At the One Life Live exhibition a couple of weeks, several people asked me if yours2share was the same as Freecycle. Initially I was thrown by this question as yours2share is designed to help people share assets, not give them away free. But then I realised that the mentality is similar: both Freecycle and yours2share enable people to make the most of resources. Freecycle by giving away items that you would throw away anyway and yours2share by sharing items when you aren’t using them (admittedly this is not usually free of charge!)