'Freecycle' Items You Want to Receive or Get Rid of

Do you have items you want to get rid of? Like that chair in your living room, a fax machine, or an old door? 

Not sure how? Or don't want to spend money?

If you haven't heard of Freecycle – it's a Yahoo group for local residents where they can post items they want to receive, or items they want to get rid of. And everything is free.

"It’s a great way to pass things along to people who can use them," said Michelle Varela, a Yorktown resident. "For example, I just upgraded my knives at home. I posted on Freecycle that I was offering a set of used knives. Within an hour I had about 10 interested parties."

People can email each other privately to set up the details of the pickup. Usually items are left outside the home where they get picked up.

"It’s a great service that I don’t think too many people are aware of," Varela said. "And the more people that join, the better."

The local group for the area, Westchester NY Freecycle (TM), is open to all who want to "recycle" rather than throw their items away. It's also open to those looking to acquire something themselves The group warns that "everything posted must be free, legal and appropriate for all ages."

Membership is free and the network is made up of 5,040 groups with 8,937,630 members around the world. It's described as a nonprofit movement of people who want to reuse and keep stuff out of landfills. 

To check out and join the Westchester group, click here.

For more information, check out their website: http://www.freecycle.org/

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