Where’s all the free stuff?
It’s been a busy week here. On top of all the usual to-ing and fro-ing, parenting stuff, trying-to-set-up-a-business stuff, and day-to-day stuff, I signed up the #naturehackchallenge on Facebook, which has meant allocating some time each day to decluttering (day 1), letting in light and thinking about the different play spaces in the house (day 2), building a nature table (day 3) and now, on day 4, sharing how we incorporate nature objects in our play (short answer: currently, we don’t.)
Today one of the other nature hackers in the group posted a link to a US-equivalent of Freecycle or Freegle; all popular sites that allow use to give away things we no longer need and also to find things we do for free. Of course! I was quite active Freegler when we were at our old house. In fact I dread to think what the value of all the stuff we gave away when we cleaned ot before our move. Probably enough for a holiday! Yes, we felt virtuous at the time. It seemed like a good idea, giving away lots of our low-value things that would cost more to move than to give away and re-find once we arrived. But that was without knowing that, it seems, no-one gives anything away here and everything that is no longer needed is sold for as high price as they can get! Even at vide greniers price are high. Maybe it’s because there are so many Brits here. I don’t know. But I have always had the sneaking feeling that there’s information I don’t have: part of the one price for the English (who are usually happy to pay “too much”) and the price for the more budget savvy French. Instead of paying through the nose on one of the (mostly expat driven and therefore expensive) Facebook sellings groups, or the French equivalent of Gumtree, called Leboncoin, there was something out there for those who wanted to give away their unwanted possessions rather than profit from them?
So I Googled. Of course, various sites turned up:
- A list of Freecycle groups in France https://www.freecycle.org/browse/FR
- A site called Donnons.org https://donnons.org/
Not a bad start. Whoopee! Now perhaps I could find some of the bits and bobs I need to finish off declutter (which of course somehow necessitates accumulating more stuff in the name of getting organised: boxes, baskets, and the like.)
Shame then when I find that although there are groups in Limoux and Carcassonne, there isn’t a single listing local to me. The Donnons site wasn’t quite as bad: one listing, 45 minutes from here, someone selling a bunch of drop files. Whoopee.
That leaves me having to plan a day trip so I can visit the Emmaus superstore in Pamiers (it’s not called a superstore but I’ve been told its gigantic so I’m setting my expectations high.) Hopefully I will be able to search out the bits and bobs I need to finish my #naturehackchallenge home decor changes and also potentially drop some off bits I want to get rid of. It’s just a shame because as much as I’m happy to support charities like Emmaus there was always something so simple about Freegling unwanted goods, often things you wouldn’t think to donate, like yarn or fabric scraps, broken but repairable electricals, that sort of thing. It was always nice to meet fellow Freeglers who would turn up at the door to drop off or collect something: some would stop for a chat, others it was quite matter of fact, formal and over in a flash. A few times someone I’d met before at an event but not seen since would arrive, so we’d have chance to catch up and arrange to connect in future! It had something of a community built around it. I’m convinced there is something like this here but am going to have to try harder to find it. I will report back!
In the meantime, here is the result of day 1 and day 2 of the challenge, the whole point of which is to re-evaluate space to encourage and enable creative play, bringing more nature into our homes as a way of facilitating this. It’s Day 4 today and I’m supposed to be sharing pics and inspiration about how we use natural loose parts and instead I’ve written this blog post. Time to catch up!