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10 Places You Can Get Stuff for Free
Colleges (at the end of the year)
If you live in an area populated by a lot of colleges, you know that mid-May means a lot of college kids move out of their dorms or apartments. This means that they usually throw out a bunch of furniture, appliances, or other items that they can’t bring home with them. Looking at the streets near college dorms or apartment areas is a great way to try to find free stuff that is still in pretty good condition.
Moving Sales
Sometimes moving sales turn into people just giving items away because they need to get rid of them. Moving sales are very different from garage sales or yard sales because the entire focus is on getting rid of furniture or other items you don’t need. The free stuff is usually available at the end of the day and consists of the items that still haven’t sold.
Garage Sales
Garage sales are also another place to try to get stuff for free, especially if you time it so that you show up at the end of the sale. Most advertised garage or yard sales have designated selling times. Garage or yard sales are usually done so that people can clean out the items they don’t want anymore. Sometimes by the end of the sale you the people selling the items might be so desperate to get rid of certain items that they let you have them for free. While this isn’t the case at every garage sales, it happens a lot more than you would imagine.
Side of the Road
Have you ever driven by a piece of furniture on the side of the road? Maybe a nice bookcase or a desk or a set of table and chairs? A lot of people put used furniture that is still in decent condition on the side of the street because they either don’t want it anymore or have replaced it with newer furniture. Most of the furniture you find on the side of the street is in decent condition, so it’s worth stopping to check it out when you see a piece. After all, if it is in decent condition, you might end up getting a new bookcase or kitchen table!
Freecycle
Freecycle is an online website that focuses on giving and getting free stuff for members. Membership is free and everyone who has signed up for the website posts free items that are available in their community. The purpose of the site is not only help members get quality items for free but also to keep stuff out of landfills and help eliminate waste. If there is something that you need, but don’t need it right away, it’s a great place to see if you can pick it up for free. It’s also a great place to get rid of stuff that still have a useful life, but you don’t need and don’t want to bother selling or throwing away.
Craigslist
Craigslist is one of the best places to look if you’re trying to get almost anything for free. While a lot of people will attempt to sell the belongings they don’t want anymore, there are also a lot of people who use Craigslist to give away stuff they don’t want to sell or own anymore. These are often people who are moving away from an area and need to get rid of things quickly. The best thing about Craigslist is that you can search by state and narrow down each state by city or region.
Yelp
While Yelp is mainly a place to review and search out businesses in your community, it’s also a great social networking site. But every once in a while you can find a group dedicated to giving away free stuff or people looking to get rid of certain items they no longer want. While it’s not a surefire way to try to get stuff for free, it doesn’t hurt to browse the message boards for your respective city to see what items you might be able to find.
Facebook Marketplace
Facebook Marketplace is a great way to find free items that people are giving away. A lot of people will list items they no longer want and, if you make sure to program your Facebook settings correctly, they’ll pop up in your feed as an alert. This is probably one of the easiest ways to search for free stuff in your location online. Best of all, there’s guaranteed to be a variety of items to look through.
Social Media
Social media is great for many things in this day and age, and fortunately, it’s also a great, new way to find out about people or businesses who are giving stuff away for free. Whether it’s a business having a special promotion or going-out-of-business giveaway or friends or friends-of-friends who are trying to get rid of items in their possession, social media can be your ticket to learning about how to obtain free items.
Classifieds Sections
The most tried and true method of getting free items such as furniture, clothing, appliances, or other items and services is through the Classifieds section of a print or online newspaper for your local community. Plenty of people still post notices for items they’re giving away in the Classifieds. After all, this was the original form of Craigslist before the internet existed, so when in doubt, check it out!
Have you ever picked up free stuff from any of these venues? Please share your favorite place to score free things.
(Photo courtesy of frankh)
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