With moving soon we've been needing a lot of things and in the past have given a lot of things away. The best way I've found to do that is through freecycle. You can go to www.freecycle.org and find a freecycle group in your area (hopefully). Then you subscribe to a yahoogroup where people can post things they want to give away and things they want.
When we were getting ready to paint, I posted that I wanted leftover paint if anyone had any. We're on a low budget so I've been trying to get by as cheaply as possible. I was fortunate to have someone who lived near our new house e-mail that they had about 10 partial gallons of paint they would love for me to take. I agreed to take it all. In it I got a yellow that matched perfectly my oldest son's room, a lavendar that worked perfectly in my girls' room, another yellow that I mixed with some blue I already had to make a green to do the green in my twins' room. I also used an exterior gray paint to paint a wooden sand table I'm putting on our deck to make it more waterproof. I think there also was some white that I used as well.
I was also fortunate that one of the men who helped us from our new church had been given tons 5-gallong jugs of paint from someone so I had 5 gallons of white which I used to mix other colors with, and also 5 gallons of a taupe/off-white color which went in our living room and bathroom! So all in all we only bought one gallon of paint and we painted 7 rooms I think! God sure took care of us there!
I've also received a like-new lg-sized stir-crazy popcorn popper, a weigh scale, an electric skillet (I had heard they're good for teaching kids cooking techniques as they can be put down at their level), a mitten/plastic bag drying rack, and 2 "perching stools" which we're using for taller chairs for our 6 & 8yo to use at the table. They actually sit instead of kneeling while they eat now! I'm also hoping to post for scrap wood or fencing for using with our garden or clothesline stuff just in case I can get any of these things free as well.
In the past I've given away tons of stuff this way when I was getting ready to move the first time. It is so fun blessing people this way! So if you need to de-junk, consider helping others through freecycle and if you're in need of things, try out the freecycle first!
I haven't checked a freecycle site in years, but I have several things to give and many to I'd sure like to get! Thanks for inspiration. Great job on getting all that paint too, how wonderful!
Dianna
I love using freecycle. I've used to get rid of lots of things and I've received a few things myself. I remember when the kids broke one of the twin box springs on their bed and we didn't have the money to replace it. I got a nice one off of freecycle. That is great that you got so much paint for free.
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• Thu 26 Apr 2007 - Thanks for the reminder!
Dianna