Freecycle! Liberating all my old tat to appreciative new homes.

^{Much to my surprise, I found I was the proud owner of three orbital sanders when I cleared out the garage. This one, still in its box, is in perfect working order and dates from at least 2000. It's sitting on a mobile BBQ with integral stand.}

Oh, and the woodchip is going, too (see picture above). It's all over the downstairs wall and ceilings, the stairs and landing and the back bedroom. I've never felt brave enough to tackle it.

After more than two years planning, the builders are finally starting the work on my house. Next Wednesday, in fact.

I've been getting rid of stuff for the whole of the past two years and really enjoying offloading excess furniture and no longer wanted or needed possessions. Last summer, I enjoyed having a bedroom with a bed in it, and a separate dressing room with wardrobe and dresser and full length mirror.

Cleaning was so easy! My little cordless vacuum cleaner with seventeen minutes running time ran round both rooms, the landing and bathroom with ease and eight minutes to spare - sometimes I did the stairs for good measure.

Last summer I got rid of big furniture, beds and mattresses and two thirds of the heavy leather covered recliner suite (we kept one big chair for my knitting). The pine bed frame and other furniture went to a charity recycling place and I never thought about them again.

This week, I had planned another charity furniture collection, but when they came, the drivers turned down this and that. Some of it was a bit annoying - they only accept new mowers, for example, which they could have told me on the phone - and I was left with a forlorn pile of unwanted but still useful items.

(I have to say, even with what did go, I am ravelling in every extra bit of space)!

Well, I thought, time for Freecycle, not least because I wasn't sure how I was going to get several heavy and bulky items to the re-cycling centre (the builders had already moved some things from upstairs when they called to discuss the job).

I was a bit trepidatious. My last experience had been mixed. People would arrive at your home to collect something and then start asking about other items, which you weren't even going to give away. Still others were very pushy and wanted everything.

I wondered whether anyone would be interested or whether my listed items would languish unnoticed, until finally I would be forced to apologise to the builder for the pile of old tat in the living room and ask him if he could put it in the skip. Sigh.

Anyway, I put on my big girl's pants and got on with it, taking photographs and measurements and tapping away on the provided template. Before I was even half way through listing everything, my inbox was overflowing with replies. I got in a right muddle sorting out who I had spoken to and about which item. Should have got a pen and a piece of paper!

Soon I was organised and do you know what? More than half the items have gone in less than three hours and all the items have had interest. And it has been fun!

Top rules that I soon learned was to request a phone number and indication of when the person could collect in the listing. That way, you had an idea of who was ready and could collect quickly, and having a phone number made it so easy to set up arrangements.

The site recommends that you talk to one person at a time and then move on to another if that one doesn't work out. Once I'd got my pen and paper to hand and noted down details as I went, it became very straightforward.

The most popular items have been the lawnmower, BBQ and garden screening, which I guess makes sense, given the time of year and that we do have lovely weather today. But even my odd leftover skirting boards and tongue and groove panels have had responses.

It does make a difference that the site takes photographs now - that saves a lot of time: people can see straightaway if it is what they are looking for.

I'm really pleased that items have found willing takers and so quickly, and I'm loving the weightlessness of less items. It is slightly addictive, though, and I'm starting to look around for what else I can list ...

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