Willow Glen Resident

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Photograph by Vicki Thompson

Playtime: Maya Guiterrez of Willow Glen enjoys her Barbie castle. Her mother, Christine Tyler, picked up the castle and all the accessories through the Freecycle Network.

Online swap village is way to help planet

By Alicia Upano

If one person's trash is another's treasure, than the Freecycle Network is a gold mine.

Broken terracotta pots become a mosaic maker's delight, unused wooden planks become someone's box garden, and automotive tools find a new home with a mechanic-in-training.

At any hour of the day, residents offer their used household items--including toys and furniture--for free to lucky takers who pick them up in front of porches throughout Campbell and Willow Glen.

The Freecycle Network is an online swap between neighbors. It has attracted more than 1,500 residents in Campbell and more than 4,500 residents in San Jose. Similar groups, such as San Jose Reecycle, also operate in this area.

The movement began in 2003, when Tucson, Ariz., resident Deron Beal set up a Yahoo Groups mailing list to enable people to give away items and minimize dumping in landfills. Today, Freecycle boasts 3 million members worldwide.

"I like the idea because people respond if they need the item, so people will get what they really need or want," Campbell resident Lynne Holland says. "It's so nice to know it's going on and having a second life."

Holland, an avid user, heard about the online group through a friend, and uses it as an opportunity to go through her three daughters' old clothes and toys. She also offers miscellaneous items such as vacuum cleaner bags, old decorations and books.

The goods go quickly. During a day in January, Holland offered a box of children's clothes and within hours received a dozen emails requesting the items. When she receives numerous responses, Holland says she tends to give the items to those who need it the most.

Last year, for example, Holland gave scraps of fabric to a woman who makes cat toys at a rescue clinic. This month, a spare set of sheets went to a foster mother seeking to outfit her home for her foster children.

Although the swap is largely anonymous, with bags left on porches for pickup with little interaction, Holland says she's gotten to know several mothers during the months she has been using Freecycle. Their children are younger than Holland's and frequently receive things Holland's children have outgrown.

On the receiving end, Willow Glen resident Christine Tyler was able find a Barbie castle for her 2-year-old daughter.

"I wanted to get my daughter a doll house, but I didn't want to spend a ton of money," Tyler says. "It's amazing."

Tyler was so touched by the other Willow Glen resident who offered the house, and how much her daughter enjoys playing with it, that Tyler is in the process of wrapping up a small gift for the mother and daughter who loved playing with the house before it became part of Tyler's home.

Tyler began using Freecycle after her family moved to Willow Glen two years ago. She was looking for a patio table for her back yard. She located it through Freecycle when another Willow Glen resident offered her a bistro table, chairs and a two-person bench through the online swap organization.

For Tyler, freesharing makes it easier to part with much loved but rarely used items, because she knows where the items are going.

For example, when she previously lived in New Mexico, a colleague gave her a turquoise brooch.

"It was beautiful, but I'm not a pin wearer," she says.

The pin solicited numerous responses when she offered it through Freecycle, but Tyler opted to give it to the Cambrian School District, which was holding a diversity exhibit. Old history books, from her partner Andy Gutierrez's undergraduate studies, went to a history teacher at Willow Glen High School.

Diane Solomon also donated some of her art supplies to Willow Glen High School and to Willow Street business, A Work of Heart.

Solomon's choice to share her goods, rather than dump them, was environmental.

"I don't want things to go into the landfill, because I'm conscientious about ewaste," says Solomon, who has also offered CD players and a vintage vacuum cleaner.

Tyler agrees, adding that freecycling is simply "good karma."

However, there are some takers who are only seeking the items for resale, the freecyclers warn.

Many groups have certain rules, such as offering only free, legal and age-appropriate items. Members can post only items that are offered, taken or wanted.

"After a while, you can kind of tell who is in earnest and who is an entrepreneur," Willow Glen resident Donna Seigart says.

Seigart, a self-proclaimed packrat, has found a bit of salvation through Freecycle. Her husband, who died four years ago, was even worse, she says. Seigart's husband enjoyed working on cars and bicycles and had a trove of items. Seigart didn't want to bother with a garage sale, and she wasn't sure second-hand stores could use the items.

"If it hadn't been for freecycling, the junk would still be in the garage," she jokes. The only difference between giving items away and donating them to a charity or second-hand store is there's no tax deduction for sharing, she says.

"There's more to life than a tax deduction," she says. "I just feel good about helping someone out."

For more information or to join the Freecycle Network or a freesharing group in the area, visit www.freecycle.org or www.freesharing.org.