One man's rubbish is another man's treasure - Freegle Kingston

Moving house, a few years ago, I found I needed some boxes to pack my collection of books in. After receiving 3 boxes from family and friends I was still very short. So my next step was to ask in the local Co-Op. I was told that the boxes were squashed because they were a fire hazard but if I came back that afternoon at 3pm I would be able to pick some up. I duly did this and received 2 large thin walled boxes that were not strong enough for my book collection.

Days later while eating dinner at a friend's house,  I moaned about the difficulty in getting boxes and was directed to the Freecycle Network.

The next day I signed up and a few days later saw that someone in a neighbouring borough was offering packing boxes. I contacted them and was luckily the first person who did so. We then agreed a time for me to go around to pick the boxes up, and two evenings later I found myself the content owner of some small but strong and double walled packing boxes.

Pleased with the results I decided that every time I had something that I didn't need that someone else would find useful, whether it be a book or a excess spider plants, to offer them on the list.

Freegle grew out of The Freecycle Network. The original Freecycle Network was an US idea and grew in a way that made it difficult for UK users to use therefore Freegle was created. The networks aim is to keep items out of landfill.

The Kingston Upon Thames Freegle group currently has 16514 members and if you want to get involved  the Freegle website is  top://www.ilovefreegle.org/

Oh and when I finished with the packing boxes I gave them to a friend to use.