Freecycle

I can't believe it, but I am considering joining Freecycle again. I know lots of people love it and think it's great but it was the worst few months of my life (OK, that's an exaggeration, but I REALLY dreaded checking my email, which was awful). People were SOOOOO ungrateful, they would come pick up their stuff then start asking me for everything they see (hello!! My house is not a store!!), people regularly would ask for the most ridiculous things (like cars. I know, if you don't ask, you won't get but who is going to give a new car in running condition away for free and have to drive it three hours away, no less??) and there were constant debates over the yardsalers (basically, people would sign up and ask for every single item, regardless of what it was for the sale of selling it. That is NOT in the spirit of Freecycle, IMO).

I have been going through my house, going through the decluttering part of simplification and it's staggering how much we have to get rid of. I know the Salvation Army never seemed that impressed when we'd show up with 10 garbage bags of stuff in the past and they're in a smaller location now and they have no parking so we'd have to trudge this stuff all over creation to get it there. Sigh.

The kids toys have been way easier than I thought. I did get the kids involved a bit. They had a garbage bag of playfood. They could not play with it as there was too much stuff. The kids and I went through it and kept a small little bag, literally a 10th of what they had, and a tea party set. Voila! They started playing with it again. I started going through their Little People (of which they had tons). DS actually offered to give up one of his houses! What a sweetheart. I told him we would wait as we're going to move the Little People back to his room where they would have room to play with it again. (We are getting rid of some though)

That's the biggest problem we have; no room! We moved some of the kids toys into a section of the living room but there is no room to play. We have wood in DS's room right now to finish building his bunk bed (we lost the instructions years ago as we have only been using part of it until DS was old enough to use a bunk bed). Clothes are all over his room as that is my sorting area. It's all a big mess. This is why I need to declutter, so we can LIVE again! So the kids can play again. So I can get stuff done again!!

I will go through my items and make a list for freecycle. I will just ignore the people who take away from the spirit of Freecycle and give to those who have a true need. I bagged up nearly 10 bags worth so far plus have a lot of big ticket items to give away too. I find I am seeing things with new eyes. I can see there will be light at the end of the tunnel. It's going to be slow going getting there and will involve learning new habits and a new way of living, but I can see that there will be happiness there.