I tried signing up for our local Freecycle (several times), but I guess the moderator doesn't check his email for join requests so I've never been able to use the website. One of the few benefits of living on a busy-ish road is that I can put out anything in the alley and it'll be gone in a few hours!

I signed up, got 100,000 emails every day, got takers for stuff, left it downstairs for them and guess what. It was never picked up. Seems that's like a chronic freecycle issue.

Really a shame. Now I just put it down on the street. Doesn't last very long.

Freecycle where I live (north of San Francisco) is a great way to get and get rid of things. A few no-shows, but most people seem respectful of commitments. I've been on both ends, giving and receiving and really appreciate it.... If I'm getting rid of something, I sometimes find placing an ad in the "Free" category of Craigslist gets more responses. It depends on what it is, but either way, I feel good about someone using what I don't want vs. having it go to a landfill.

I recently tried to join the local Freecycle group here in San Francisco. I thought it would be a great way to pass on some nice and/or working items to someone who might want them, and easier than trying to sell them on Craigslist. The Freecycle joining process has you sign up by providing them with your contact information and the reason you want to join. Your membership is then on hold while they "approve" your zipcode. (Apparently they want to ensure you won't be driving in from what they consider too far away.) I live in San Francisco proper. Roughly a week later I received a form email telling me that my application to join Freecycle had been denied -- with no explanation -- and that the denial could not be appealed. I was stunned. Later a friend told me that she was "reprimanded" by Freecycle for some imagined impropriety in how she listed an item.

I think I'm okay with not joining this group.

Like katkatf, I've had good experience listing stuff for free on craigslist with photos (silicon valley area). Usually gone in 2 hours.

We used it heavily after an estate liquidation and were dealing with leftovers. Even had someone who wanted the parts to a really cheap (pressboard) floor to ceiling wide entertainment center. He asked to disassemble it on site. I said fine, as long as all the parts go away. I think it took him 2 hours!

The only downside was when there as frenzy of people at once for a lot of giveaways. One person grabbed several bags of clothes (fine with me), but we later found them dumped on a corner several blocks away. I guess they grabbed them, picked them over away from competition and littered the rest. We hauled those bags to goodwill (it was all very clean, very good condition vintage clothing, but the much less desirable leftovers after several rounds of sales including a few private-to-reseller sales).

Here's a question: I'm assuming craigslist a good place to sell your older functional appliances? Should we try to get them sold before uninstalling them, so they can be demoed (i.e. is there much of a price premium from being able to prove they turn on and heat/cool/etc)? Or is it better to have them in ready-to-haul state.

I LOVE Freecycle and Craigslist. we give away and get lots on Freecycle and we buy and sell sometimes on Craigslist. We usually sell the appliances NOT hooked up but hook them up to demonstrate as needed.

Totally with you, Rococo.

When we were staging our house we got rid of a lot a lot of stuff. It was one of those old large homes where you always seem to be able to find a place for something We had moved there from a 1br but 10 years later, we needed a lot of editing!

I went thru a lot of trouble using freecycle, fielded calls, etc. Never got rid of anything.

We were on a fairly busy suburban street, so we made a big sign that said "free" and just took to leaving things out. Worked like a charm. Thomas the Tank engine set was gone in about 5 minutes. Even the tough items. like a sink vanity, never took more than a few hours. It was very satisfying, except for my 8yo daughter who swears she will need therapy to get over seeing her beloved purple plastic hair salon whisked away in someone's minivan...

zartimis I'm in the same area as you are. You asked about selling used appliances. I've had good experience selling on CL after they've been removed. I posted my ad before removal, saying "will be removed on xxx date" in case anyone wanted to confirm that they worked. No one did - for both the wall oven and the cooktop the buyers just wanted to pick them up from my garage.

We've listed free items on CL in the Bay Area to have people call and ask if we'll deliver! (Otherwise, it's a great way to find a home for unwanted items.)

I think this is very location-dependent. CL seemed to stop working for me here in LA about a year ago; all I get is spam ("sorry I can't show up in person, wire money, blah blah blah blah). Freecycle still works as does the free section of CL. I've had most luck with a mom-email-list that went viral and is actually 10K+ strong. It's pretty wacky.

I think the take-home message is to acknowledge that it might not work in your locale but perhaps will in another, and to persist in trying different lists until you find one that does; just because one is broken doesn't mean others are. And then there is always the street, as noted!

Note that in our city it's free to collect old appliances but there's a different day for this collection and you have to phone to schedule pickup. I'm sure the details vary between cities. I'm very grateful for this use of my tax dollars!!

What about donating to Habitat for Humanity? They take just about everything. The items donated are used for the building of the HfH houses or are sold to raise money for the houses.
Our local HfH has such an interesting collection of items and things I thought would be sitting there forever have been snatched up.

Rebuilding Together takes appliances too.