I donate to the Bethesda Gently Used Store. They have not turned down anything and believe it or not no one uses their store for a dumping ground for old sofas, etc.. Some large things I have put out by the curb and put a "free" sign on them. gone in an hour.

We aren't allowed to put things to the curb here. The city will fine you if they see you do it.

I like to shop at local thrift stores. Many years ago, I had to move out of a 4th floor walk up. I had an old 27" TV that needed to go. I didn't want to pay to have it taken away so I went to the thrift store. I saw a nice young man looking at the TV's.

I asked if he would be interested in one for nothing. He asked what the catch was. I said all he had to do was come over and carry that heavy monster down the stairs and it was his!

Problem solved! He brought his girlfriend and I gave her a few sundry items I knew I wouldn't need as well. They really appreciated it as they were expecting a child.

I've used Freecycle, yard sales, Craigslist and my own lawn to get rid of stuff. Always makes me feel good when it goes to someone who I can tell really needs it.

This year we decided to participate in the neighborhood yard sale. But we just put everything out free. I've seen family member run sales, it's time consuming. For the relatively small amount of decent stuff we had, it was well worth it to us to have the day free and the stuff gone!

Now if we had a lot, or stuff worth selling for more than a nominal amount, it might have been different. But this time we all won!

I put things for free on Craigslist. It gets things out of my house and to someone who at least "thinks" they want it. I once put a huge broken floorlamp out on the street for the garbagemen, but someone came and took it before the garbage truck. I only pray it didn't start a fire. It had been overheating and throwing out my circuitbreaker/fusebox.

I've done Freecycle, and so far it has worked out, but I'm hesitant about inviting strangers to come by and pick stuff up. I unloaded a faulty dehumidifier (I was honest about it), an oak stand for a fish tank, and (in a separate bundle) just every sort of supply other than the tank itself (waaayy too grody) that a freshwater fish fan might need. Presswood furniture however doesn't seem to go, and I think soon I'll be breaking that up for the landfill. If it doesn't go in the tag sale I'll hold by summer's end. I think I may go the "name your price" route -- the main thing is to get it gone, and if it can get into the hands of someone who can use something, so much the better.

After doing a purge of too much stuff, I really didn't want to put price tags in everything, so I did a ,make an offer sale at home, and let everyone know that all the proceeds were to go to our church's "Hope fund". We collected over $1500 and got rid of nearly everything on just two days. And we got a nice clean garage to park our cars in again.

I never tried a yard sale before. Mainly cause I do not throw off old stuffs. I try to recycle them in some way, on my own. But obviously, when it comes to furniture, I may have to keep a yard sale.