A Freecycling Tale

I did say I’d tell the story… Me well and truly having the hoarding gene I have a habit of accumulating stuff. It’s even been know for people who can’t bear to throw something away to give it to me knowing I’ll be even less able to sling it than them. As such Freecycle is sometimes a real blessing, as it makes it easier to part with things knowing they are going on to be used. There’s too much perfectly good stuff going into landfill, and I hate to contribute.

So, the other week I made up a ‘various’ list with a whole list of miscellaneous junk. There must have been 15 or so items in all. Sadly nobody wanted the old radio alarm clock, the freebie CDs, napkin rings or blue glass candle holders. I guess some of those will be off to Oxfam. The tray with a pattern of basketwork, leaves and fruit in red, green and gold did get one taker, but it fell through at the arrangements stage. The person emailed me to ask if I had a dog. I said no, but there was one next door, which she was unlikely to see if she came round. She was not heard from again.

But, as there often is, there was one item that caused a huge response. I found myself deluged with enquiries about a huge old-fashioned gold picture frame, which judging by the label once held a print of an old master. After wondering if I should have sold it (and slapping myself and reminding myself how many wonderful things I’ve got off Freecycle) I started on the task of choosing a recipient. I don’t like to do the ‘first person gets it’ thing (being a hoarder it’s often difficult enough to give things up! I want to know the person getting it really appreciates it!). But it seemed almost impossible to choose: artists, student and otherwise. People decorating shops and homes. So many people longing for the elusive gold frame. I eliminated those who’d simply said ‘I’d like it’, and sent out a picture and a little more info to those left. Unsurprisingly, this being Freecylce, half the originals didn’t get back to me. But there was still no making the decision… and in spite of me asking for no more applications I had a photographer begging to be considered.

It’s at that point I had a crazy idea. I’d already decided that the frame’s future home would just have to be chosen from the deserving by picking a name from a hat. But I also noticed a whole list of those applying wanted the frame for upcoming art shows. It occurred to me that maybe it would be possible for the frame to go out on a rota? How wonderful if before going to its final, permanent home, it could help out a whole list of people. How wonderful it would be to visit it at show after show. Maybe the artists would even be inspired to share what other frames they managed to find…

It’s at that point I mentioned it in this blog, caught up in the wonderful future the frame was going to have. Of course, my list of artists didn’t get back to me… After all that I was left with only one temporary booking (the latecomer photographer) and about 4 permanent home offers, out of which an artist looking for frames for her work won out.

Meanwhile I’d also put out a ‘wanted’ for pea seeds, got multiple replies, gone got them, planted them, and had them sprouting. Ah well, such is Freecycle! And it’s nice to know the frame is helping not one, but two people.