The spirit of freecycling

Now that the summer is long gone, I thought I will go through the kids shoes and throw away the ones that are damaged.
My kids have an uncanny ability to destroy shoes and I am so tempted to tell them how I wore the same sandal for two years ( Remember the one I was so sick of wearing and sliced the strap with the blade and Amma melted the edge and stuck it back!!). I don’t tell them because I know exactly what they will tell me.

Amma was watching me.

In the end when I bundled them all in to a grocery bag, so I could throw them in the garbage bin.
Amma asked me
money ! Why don’t you place an ad in the freecycle? Won’t people come and pick up stuff?”

I don’t know what makes people like my mother think that someone else would want the stuff we ourselves can no longer use.
I remember my mother so generously giving our ‘old’ clothes to a beggar family that came to our house one Sunday afternoon. Later that evening I followed Amma to the flour mill and on the way we saw all our clothes being dumped by the side of the road. Even the beggars didn’t want them!
( And by the way, Amma really wanted to pick up those clothes,so she could give them to someone who would appreciate it!!!)

3 thoughts on “The spirit of freecycling

  1. well…. I've been giving gently worn clothes to the good will (or other group)for years… they sell them but that is fine with me…. I just can't throw them away either….course my daughter usually out grew something before it was to old or worn to be useful to someone else.

    It freecycling I see here is usually people asking for things rather than offering.

  2. Onedia: I am an ardent follower of Freecycle. I never have a problem giving or receiving stuff.90. But I do hate it very much when people try to give stuff that are damaged and can't be fixed without telling the recipient. i know one person's junk is another's treassure, but there is a limit. Imagine someone driving to my home to pick up shoes for their kids only to find them soleless, strapless etc etc!

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