Freecycle Does it Again!

Happy New Year everybody! We're finally back after being stranded in Colorado due to the storms. Luckily, we were at my parents house, and not in an airport.

This year, we carpooled with our housemate, whose parents live in Colorado as well, about two hours from where we were going. His brother met him at a halfway point in Colorado, and Kirk picked him up on Wednesday for the trip back. Our plan was to stay on Thursday for my sister's birthday and leave early on Friday. That did not work out, and it's lucky that we did not leave as planned, because we had A Problem.

Now, you remember I graduated from graduate school on December 15th. I had taken the train out to Colorado. My husband had joined me later. He also brought our house mate, our dog, our four guinea pigs, and our rabbit. The car was quite packed, even without me and my stuff. Then Christmas happened, and while none of us received anything terribly big or tons of things, it added to the amount we had to stuff into our car. Our little, little '89 Honda Accord. Did I mention that it is not a huge car? It really was impossible to fit all our stuff, animals, and ourselves in the car.

Our first thought was to mail things. It was going to be expensive, but we were really unsure what else we could do about it. It was when I was wishing to my mother that they still had their old cargo tub for the top of the car that a thought struck- why not try Freecycle for a top of the car cargo tub?

It was a long shot, but you won't receive unless you ask. I really did not expect that anybody would have something that big to give away. I barely even checked my e-mail during this time. I did not really expect anybody to reply.

But somebody did! They wanted to get rid of theirs, as was taking up too much room. All it needed were straps to attach it to the car, which were inexpensively found at Wal-Mart. I honestly still am in shock that we were granted this wonderful item. Our prayers were answered so directly. We are going to hold on to this item for awhile, as space is always an issue when we travel for long periods of time, but when we get rid of it, we've already committed to giving it away for free.

I think Freecycle is one of the frugal person's best tools, both for giving and receiving. It's a great way to clear clutter from your home. You never know- that item that has been gathering dust in your basement may be a prayed for blessing to somebody else.