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Ok...have you tried these yet?! Two are for buying/selling items to/from people in your local area and two are for gifting and receiving freely! And three of the four were started by local moms and dads right in our own Greater Seattle area community. Just one of the many reasons I love living here. ;-)
1) Freecycle
My first experience was with the longer standing group Freecycle which first got it start in Tucson, Arizona and is now used all around the world.
To date, I have received lots of things (and given things!) through the local Freecycle group. I have given away baby gates, and other related baby items. I have received a buffet/storage unit for our dining room, a two-wheeler bike for my son, a huge motorized ride-on toy vehicle and a few kids toys and books among other things for my son. In full disclosure I did pay $50 to rent a truck to move the buffet unit to our place...would have been completely without cost had we had a truck or van and we spent $15 on my son's bike to replace the seat, otherwise, it was in perfect condition. My son loved it even more than his expensive balance bike that was a gift from grandparents.
People post items offered or wanted and a moderator reviews them then posts to the site. The item usually goes to the first to respond or the first that can pick up the item. I have found that the best way to have better luck getting an offered item is to have the post go directly to your email and keep your phone nearby to wait for notifications. Also, if you are nearby the giver...state so! I usually respond right away and add that I live nearby at the end of the subject line if I do.
Also, if you say you are going to pick up during a certain time frame, do! If you don't or if you are a no-show a lot it will be reported to the moderators. You can also do a porch pick up on lots of occasions making scheduling easier on everyone. Of course, life being what it is...if something comes up like a sick child, etc. then communicate quickly and make other arrangements. People are understanding and you don't want to abuse the system. This is what makes it a little more reliable than listing on Craigslist, etc. So far I have been pretty happy with my Freecycle experience.
Benefits: lots of different things available, wide coverage area but less personal, helps save the environment and people save money.
Now for even more exciting options and to support our local dad/mompreneurs check out these new resources!
2) The Buy Nothing Project
" Buy Nothing: Give Freely. Share creatively. Post anything you'd like to give away, lend, or share among neighbors. Ask for anything you'd like to receive for free or borrow. Keep it legal. Keep it civil. No buying or selling, no trades or bartering, no soliciting for cash, we're an adult-only, hyper-local gift economy. "
UPDATE:
I have been doing this the past 3-4 weeks and I have to say I have met some amazing women (and men!), got some fun free toys and more for my son and others and gave away some cool stuff too. I have been going through the house and clearing out useful stuff that we don't need. I think the Buy Nothing Project is A-W-E-S-O-M-E! I would highly recommend it to anyone!
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| We just "gifted" this trike pictured here when my son was a toddler to another toddler to enjoy! |
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This one I am fairly new to but so far I think it is great! A friend, Jennifer, discovered it and because of her, so did I! This is freecycling done on the Facebook platform and is very cool. It was started by a mom right in our "backyard" namely Bainbridge last year and is already international!
Since it is used on a social media site per town it is much more interactive, familiar and builds a community! Items are posted and people pick receivers at random or dependent on what is said, i.e. how an item might be used! For instance, I received a beautiful necklace and bracelet set and said that I wanted to use it on "a date night"! You could see anything and everything offered from food to clothes to furnishings to anything else you could think of on this new and cool site!
What really caught my attention while on this new resource site was 2 posts yesterday of two different women needing something. I was so overwhelmed by the generosity. One young woman was getting ready to move into an appt. with her young son from her mother's house and had virtually nothing and within the same day multiple people offered cribs, beds, rockers, cookware and utensils, baby stuff, coffee tables, sofas, tv, entertainment center, chairs, dining tables, kitchen stuff, throw pillows, bookshelves, computer table, drawers, bedding, lamps, towels, baby clothes, glider, hi chair, and more! Needless to say I was blown away. The other woman that I mentioned had an upcoming kid's birthday to throw and again within hours she had all the supplies she needed from several moms to throw a fun birthday party without having to go and buy a ton of stuff. I believe the color theme of the party was red, blue and yellow. It was mostly party supplies left over and unused from other festive gatherings so it would have just sat in the storage areas/pantries or gotten thrown out because of being piecemeal.
So after seeing these two posts and the helpful and loving responses I am honored to be a part of this group! Plus, bonus they do Round Robin boxes of clothes, dvd's etc. (see site for more info.) and occasional get-togethers! Truly...it is a community!
Benefits: Less anonymous than Freecycle, hyper-local to each town, and a sense of community!
3) Swopboard
This is a new site started last year by a local mom in Magnolia! This is a site where you can get rid of your unwanted items and make some money or buy needed items within your local community as well as school community. You can sell your items and make room for new things, or just declutter your house and make money in the process! Its features include a search, where you can look for the items you want in your local and trusted communities, a message system where you can ask sellers questions, a social media sharing program so can share your listing further, and a secure site for paying for items. If you are looking for something special you can post the item to a "Want List" and see if someone in your community has it. The best part is, well one of the best parts, is that you can designate a school to receive a portion of the selling price. It starts at 10% but you can increase what you want the school to receive to a higher amount, if you like, per item. There is a transaction fee and a PayPal fee.
I am just checking into this but am excited about the prospects and am very excited to see a portion benefit a local school which can always use additional funds!
Benefits: Safer and community oriented, including school community, $$ for your designated school, online payment system.
And finally,
4) OfferUp.com
This was two local Seattle dads' answer to the time consuming matter of selling the 100's of accumulated baby items that each one of us end up having in our home after we start having children. Wanting an easier, less time consuming, and safer method to sell those items they came up with and launched OfferUp!
It features a picture load up app you can use right from your phone so you can go around your house and snap a picture of anything you want to sell and immediately post it. It is safer than Craigslist because communication is done through the site so no emails are used and you know who you are buying from with their user profiles and rating systems.
Benefits: Simple & fast posting method, communication through site, seller profile and rating systems.
To find out about each one of these cool resources please click on the orange links above!
Disclosure: This was NOT A SPONSORED post and I was not compensated in any way. This is 100% my opinion and just me sharing time saving, money saving and community oriented tips to make parenthood easier! Cheers!
Do you have any other resources that you like to use for buying/selling, gifting or sharing items? Please share in the comments below. Or let me know how you like the above resources and tell me what you think!
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