Blown Away

Sometimes I'm just amazed at the generosity of others.

I finally signed up for Freecycle yesterday at around lunch time. I've been meaning to do it for a while but to be honest I either kept forgetting to do or I was caught up in something else.

But there has been some chat about it over on Folksy lately so I figured it couldn't hurt to give it a try.

I offered a large artist's easel which the husband made for me in another life. I'm a bit of a hobby nut so obviously a flitted through painting for a little while. I'm rubbish so the only painting I do these days is with a roller and a tin of vinyl silk.

I had a quick look through the listings and once I was sure that one wasn't already listed I placed a "want" for a sewing machine. I said that I didn't mind if it didn't work and needed repairs because I'd happily consider anything.

I'm a bit handy with electrics and I can generally fix a fair amount of small problems, however the husband is very good with electrics so I figured if I couldn't get something to work, he could and if he couldn't then it maybe wasn't something that would be economical to fix.

Anyway, I placed the listing at lunch times yesterday and before the husband even arrived home from work I had a local artist lined up to collect the easel tonight and before I went to bed a lovely woman contacted me to offer her Singer sewing machine. She said that it had served her well for years, but she went to use the machine it "popped" so she packed it up with the intention of having it looked at and her daughter went out and bout her a new one.

"Popping" electrics is usually a good thing, best case scenario the machine has a blown fuse, worst case scenario is that some other part of the machine has shorted out causing the fuse to blow but either way it'll be a quick job to check and see which it is and then decide if the later is true whether it's worth having it fixed.

So fingers crossed I should soon have a functioning sewing machine.

If you don't already use Freecycle, you should definitely consider it. Bear in mind that we have big stores here now apparently dedicated to keeping serviceable and useful items out of landfill, however those stores scavenge their stock from local charity shops for pennies and in some cases even landfill. The items are cleaned up, a sometimes hefty price tag is slapped on and the owner makes a huge profit. Wouldn't you rather see the things you no longer need go to a good home with someone who genuinely needs it but maybe can't afford to pay those hefty prices.

And a lot of the time it can even be beneficial to you to list certain things. Someone mentioned on Folksy that she listed a quantity of flag stones from her garden to see if anyone was interested. Someone replied and then arranged to call at her house, lift the flag stones and take them away. The way they saw it, it was a bit of hard work for free flag stones which they needed and she was happy too because she didn't have to lift the heavy flags by herself and then pay her local Council to take them away for her.

Give it a go, there are local groups now all over the UK and Ireland, you might to find exactly what you're after or at the very least make a bit of extra room on the garage.