Life With My Celiac Sweetie: Great Finds with Freecycle

Have you ever heard of Freecycle? It's a nation wide organization that has different groups set up for most cities. I joined the group for Virginia Beach a few weeks ago after a friend let me know that there was one for this area. The whole point of Freecycle is to allow something you would have thrown away to go to someone else for free, hence Freecycle (free+recycle).

At first, I just watched as things were offered, taken, wanted, and found. I get email notifications for each of these steps. It was interesting seeing some of the things being offered, such as broken freezers, old computer parts, and empty boxes. I began to feel a little more comfortable with this trading idea, so I decided to begin responding to some people on things I can use now or will in the not-too-distant future. In the past week, here's what I have picked up:

plastic bag full of white flower petals (for pictures)
wicker picnic basket with plates, utensils, and cups inside (also mainly for pictures)
baby food jars (for making Sophie's baby food coming up in the next few months)
baby girl clothes, sized 3-9 months (5 sleepers, 4 pairs of pants, and 6 onesies)
maternity clothes in my sizes (14 shirts, 2 dresses, 1 pair of shorts, 2 pants, 3 capris, 1jean skirt)

You may be wondering about the maternity clothes. Well...have you ever priced maternity clothes?? It is quite expensive! Since we plan on having more children, I thought this was a great thing to pick up for 2 reasons: 1) it was free, and 2) I WILL use it later. While some of it I'll be getting rid of because I won't use (such as a "Steelers fan in progress" shirt), the items that I'm keeping would still probably cost at least $250. Brandon thought it was a little unnecessary to get these clothes, but I'm confident that it was a good find. I'll just pack it away with the rest of my maternity clothes until I need it.

I'm quite proud of all that I have picked up! I'm hoping to find more props to use for taking pictures. I have a few particular things in mind I'm looking for, so I keep looking to see if they're offered. Who knows what kinds of things we need/want I'll find next!