Our society is dumpster-happy. Millions of items are thrown away every day that are perfectly useable. I live in a 3rd floor apartment and can see into our dumpster and my heart breaks over the items I see thrown out. This week we’re going to look at another “R”- we’ve covered reduce, we’ve covered refuse, we’ve covered recycle… today we cover reuse!
What if I told you that my family hardly ever buys “stuff.” That’s right, we pretty much never spend money on things- we get them all for free. You can too!! Plus you can drastically improve your “re-usability” of items around your home you want to get rid of.
There are a number of great ways to get and give items for free. The ultimate in re-using:
*Join a Freecycle group at these are email groups based on your location. People can post items items they’re looking for or items to get rid of.
*Find a Buy Nothing group at http://buynothingproject.org/ Similar to Freecycle but often have other community activities and challenges as well
*Check out the free section on Craigslist. We’ve gotten rid of lots of things this way!
*Find a free stuff group on Facebook in your community. Typically these are found by searching for the name of your town and “free”
*Join Swap Mamas at http://www.swapmamas.com/ This is a great place to swap all kinds of items with people all over the country!
*Host a swap day with friends. Some of my friends did a kid-stuff swap and we all ended up getting our Christmas gifts for free!
*Donate to a local thrift store!
No matter what you choose to do you’ll love simplifying your home by getting rid of things and saving money by obtaining items for free! Many cities allow residents to do swaps and sales in the parking lots of police stations to help improve security. Public parking lots are also a good option.
I would love to see pictures of some of your best finds or upcycle projects!! Email me at blog@keeper.com
Here’s to keeping more items out of the dumps!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Olivia lives in Boulder, Colorado with her husband and 4 year old son. She enjoys spending time in the mountains, studying about essential oils, natural remedies and herbs, as well as upcycling/ DIY projects. Olivia’s family made the move last year towards becoming a Zero Waste household. They have gotten down to one bathroom sized trashcan a month of garbage but hope to be totally Zero Waste by the end of 2015.
Like this? Check out the rest of our Waste Less and Be Green in 2015 series for more tips!
