Lovely stories from other freeglers!

We love your stories! It's great to hear why people freegle - and here are some recent tales from other freeglers. Be inspired - tell us your story, or get freegling! Tell us your story!  Give something   Find something  Built a garage using donations from Freegle From a freegler on North Shropshire - Market Drayton, Whitchurch & Wem I have recently completed a garage using bricks, roof tiles and window frames from generous users of Freegle. Of course I had to buy some materials but their donations have halved the price of the build while keeping this stuff out of landfill. Thanks to all who have donated to this great sharing site. I intend to keep giving stuff away as my part of the Freegle pact. There is no such place as "away" so not possible to "throw things away". From a freegler on Wokingham Freegle The most powerful message I ever heard about waste was also the most simple: "It is impossible to "throw things away". There is no such place as "away"." For some reason this really resonates with me, and makes me think of the film Wall-E, in which the mountains of "waste" sent to landfill result in humans abandoning planet Earth entirely. I actually find it really hard to get rid of anything I own and struggle to take it to a charity shop where I think it may well sit, unloved, until someone throws it "away". I love finding someone who really wants an item I could live without and hearing how they will use it / how much they will enjoy it. It helps me declutter and I have given so many things away knowing they are going safely to new homes. I also enjoy knowing I am frequently meeting people who care as much as I do about keeping items out of landfill. Trash and Treasure From a freegler on Bexhill Freegle I have given away many things, over the years, to people on Freegle. From a sewing machine to a sand pit etc. A lifetime of accumulating items that, at the time, was something one could not live without, only to find it at the back of the cupboard because it takes too much effort to use. If someone else can get some use from it then we have a win win situation. Keeping items out of the landfill can only be a good thing. My husband and I have also found some items of use for ourselves. We have never been disappointed with the condition of anything we have requested and been lucky enough to find. The exercise bike is one item in question.......considering it was destined for the tip or landfill. Everyone we have met have been friendly and pleasant to talk to. I hope the availability of Freegle continues long into the future. My garden is almost entirely Freegle! From a freegler on Penrith and Eden District Freegle We have had numerous compost bins; a bicycle to convert into a compost trommel; railway sleepers to make bridges; spare decking for various other applications; fencing wire; glass bricks for cold frames; wrought iron gates; fence posts; lots of lovely plants, bulbs, rhizomes; a fire place (now a garden incinerator); a snow plough;. We haven't yet found a chaff cutter, a contorted hazel and one or two other desirables, but hey! It's great fun! And we like to think that our blackcurrant cuttings, old doors, angle irons and various other things are constructively adorning other people's projects too. A lovely person gave us a caravan From a freegler on Elmbridge Recycle We are a small charity promoting environmental empowerment, upcycling and reuse and we travel around the Country promoting the cause through theatre, walkabout and entertainment. Two years ago we were very fortunate to acquire a small caravan because we were lucky enough to spot one that had been sitting in a local pub car park for many years and was offered to anyone who wished to take it away because the pub was about to be converted to housing. It required many hours of love and care as it had been neglected, squatted and attacked at one point with an axe! Suddenly our lifestyle was transformed from sleeping in our windowless van to the absolute luxury of accommodation with windows, a sink and all the accoutrements associated with caravan living. Last year we had the caravan parked off season up a friend's small driveway when is disappeared without trace along with many of our belongings. Having no resources to purchase another one and unfortunately no insurance, we turned to Freegle Wanted on the offchance that someone may have one languishing in their back garden. We had no response for over a week but suddenly, out of the blue I received a text late one evening on my phone (I included my mobile number) and after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing are now delighted to say we have been offered a perfectly good specimen that is waiting for us to pick up from a caravan site on the south coast - not requiring any restoration or repair. We now look forward to the Summer Season due to the generosity of a fellow Freegler of which we are eternally grateful. Freegle helps me to help From a freegler on Bradford Freegle I volunteer for a refugees and asylum seekers project. Sometimes people arrive and they have where to live but lack the most basic things: coats, shoes, basic household stuff. We collect donations but often we don't have what people are asking for. So I look up on freegle and when I see something that is useful I ask for it: hoovers, boots, beds, drawers, saucepans etc have found a new happy home Community spirit From a freegler on Dartford Freegle I discovered the Freegle community groups after relocating from South Africa to the UK. We shipped all of our belongings across and once we had found a suitable home here to put down some roots, we discovered that some of our furniture etc. didn't fit into the new space. I did some web surfing and saw a way to recycle AND help the local community at the same time through Freegle. Just a few of the items I've given away would be a new microwave oven and a lava lamp to a young man moving into his first flat. Some kitchen goods for someone going to university. A desk, bookshelves & rug to a chap who needed it for his office, a boutique dress to a lady who wanted it for her granddaughter for a formal event, bits and bobs for a lady who works with autistic children and plants from my garden for a lovely family who was keen to do a garden makeover! I've met some great people along the way and it makes me happy to think that in some small way, by passing these items on to local people, we have made a difference to their lives, promoted community spirit and saved perfectly good items from becoming landfill. Why not have a Spring clean? Your unwanted items may be treasure to someone else! :-) trouble with bubble From a freegler on Bedford Freegle when you'v e unpacked all the stuff you ordered, what happens to a mountain of bubble wrap? Freegle it! So along comes a Discovery van, and wow, it all goes in! What happens to it then? Well, it gets reused as packaging for fragile pottery and goes all over the world in little pieces. Now that's what I call 're-cycling! A pop star's gift From a freegler on Malvern-Hills-Freegle I once needed a wardrobe, when I was living in London, but could not afford to buy one. Somebody offered me one, which was the perfect size. My husband managed to hire a van via our car club and we set off to a part of North London I was unfamiliar with. When we arrived I realised that the owner was very wealthy as the house was an imposing detached house. I felt quite embarrassed and nervous as we were quite tatty looking and I had never been to such a grand house before. As it happened, the owners were extremely friendly and even helped us load the furniture into the van. My husband assumed that the person who helped us was a workman but. Later, however, I discovered that "the workman" was an extremely well known pop artist who had had a number 1 hit. It taught me that even wealthy people can show acts of kindness to strangers and also, that my husband and I were fantastically out of touch with popular culture! Jammy tales From a freegler on Lewes and Seahaven Freegle As a recent preserver and baker for our country market I'm always on the lookout for jam jars and anything else that may help me to keep going. I think my first 'donation' was plums, kindly delivered to me as I don't have a car. Then followed the jam jars, I think I must have received over 100 so far. This has saved me from buying new ones- I still cant get my head round this fact- a new jam jar would cost me more than a jar of the basic marmalade in 2 well known supermarkets. At one point I considered buying them and dumping the contents just so I could use the jars! But thanks to freegle friends I can keep preserving! Big Big thank you! This mail was sent to vpsenthilcool01.wood@blogger.com. You are set to receive Freegle newsletters. You can change your settings by clicking here, or turn these newsletter emails off by emailing newslettersoff-624099@users.ilovefreegle.org Freegle is registered as a charity with HMRC (ref. XT32865) and is run by volunteers. Which is nice.