ReadyMade’s Top 20 Projects of 2010

Reuse-Friendly magazine/website ReadyMade has posted their top 20 projects of 2010.  Not the easiest projects, per se, but certainly motivational.

http://www.readymade.com/magazine/slideshow/top_20_projects_of_2010

Reuse Resource: Freecycle

One of our favorite resources for creative reuse is freecycle.org.  While not the prettiest or fanciest of websites, it is an indispensable resource for those looking to forgo buying something new when used will do 99% of the time – not to mention it’s cheaper.  In fact, as the name implies, everything on freecycle is…FREE!!!  How it works is you go to their website, look up your local freecycle chapter, and sign up for emails.  Next thing you know you’ll be getting emails with either WANTED, OFFER, or TAKEN in the subject, referring respectively to something someone wants, something being offered, or something that’s been taken (pretty straightforward, right?).  If you’re looking for, say, a vacuum just send off an email to the freecycle email address for your group with the correct format and wait and see if anyone out there has what you’re looking for.

Now, of course you can change your email preferences to whatever you can handle – for instance, if getting 10-20 additional emails a day doesn’t excite you you can subscribe to the “daily digest” or just not get any email, using the service just to post emails when you want something or want to offer something.

I’ve used the service in both Santa Monica and Portland, ME and have nothing but good things to say about it.  Sure, there will be the occasional flakey respondent who never shows up to pick something up, but that comes with the territory.  If you ask me, that’s a small price to pay for a free resource for everything from coat hangers to above ground pools and treadmills (no joke).

Any crazy freecycle finds out there?

http://www.freecycle.org/