Dangerous pastimes

In the past few years, I've committed myself to reusing as much as I can. There are two benefits: 1. it reduces my waste footprint in this world and 2. it is usually much much cheaper to reuse than to buy new each time I need something. I think #2 is probably the main reason why I do this.

Usually, it means looking at what I have an re-purposing stuff or shopping at thrift stores or craigslist and using hand-me-d0wns. So the part that has gotten a bit dangerous for me lately is that I finally signed onto freecycle. Oh boy. It is great. People give away lots and lots of things. Bed frames, TV's, BABY ITEMS (!!!), garden supplies, you name it, someone will eventually give it away (or take it away from you if you want to get rid of something).

So why is this dangerous for me? Well, people post things all the time on the site. And if you are not quick, it can be taken up by someone pretty fast, especially if it is a high demand item (like the two baby carriers I missed out on a few days ago). I signed up for the "digest" version, which bundles a bunch of posts together and sends it to you in email form. Between last night and this afternoon, I received 5 of those email bundles already! And the more you look at the lists, the more you think, "Hmm... I could use one of those...." All in all, I could spend all day on the site accumulating lots and lots of stuff.

Dangerous.

But I guess this was what it was like when I first started thrifting or craigslisting. Eventually, I will develop my freecycle callouses and will not be so easily sucked into this. Until then, I guess these are dangerous times for me.