My ears perked up today when someone mentioned getting a free sandbox for his son on "Trash Nothing." Eh? What’s that? When he explained, I said, "Oh, sounds like freecycle"–the Yahoo group I’ve long been part of where people offer up stuff they want to give away.
Turns out, Trash Nothing is kind of an aggregator for freecycle and other similar groups. You get an account, choose the groups you’re part of, and let TN pull together all the e-mails you’d been getting in one central place.
There are some neat features, too, like color-coding that helps you easily sift through messages, e-mail alerts that help you nab the stuff you want when it’s posted, and (I love this) a "personal balance" that keeps track of how much stuff you’re offering versus receiving.
Anyone used this? Has it improved your life? I am a big fan of freecycle because I’ve gotten some rather large items through it (a dryer, a co-sleeper for our baby), but finding those things did require a lot of patience for tedious scrolling. If TN makes freecycle even easier to use, I’m all for it.