How to create a better office environment with furniture, supplies, and products

All I've been hearing about lately is the Freecycle Network. Freecycle this, Freecycle that. Does Freecycle really live up to the hype?

You can supposedly find anything you need with Freecycle. So, what about office supplies? Free office supplies sound pretty good. Not being a Freecycle junkie myself I’ve decided to investigate today. Would you care to join me?

Ok, I’m clicking onto the Freecycle homepage  as I type. I like the layout; clean, nice font, not a ton of text. Here’s what the homepage welcome says:

“Welcome! The Freecycle Network is made up of many individual groups across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them's good people). Membership is free. To sign up, find your community by entering it into the search box above or by clicking on “Browse Groups” above the search box. Have fun!”

So far so good…

Let’s check out the Q&A first. Some of the info listed in this section includes:

It’s a free service that’s goal is to reduce waste and the recycling of goods.

You use it at your own risk.

There’s a ton of pages telling how to subscribe and unsubscribe.

I don’t see any info about the kind of stuff people give; but I suppose that varies.

I’m going to use the search box and locate a group near me. Vancouver (Washington) came up right away. I click on this and it takes me to a yahoo groups page. It won’t let me look and see what sort of office supplies might be on the list unless I sign up for an account (which I don’t plan to do). But I wonder if all Freecycle groups are the same. I’ll check out the next closest city; Portland, Oregon. They’re trying to get me to apply as well.  

Alright new plan; I see that there is a brows groups link http://www.freecycle.org/group/ so I’ll click on that. Now this area looks fairly neat – if it were being used. I think it’s supposed to be a quick shot of what a specific group may be offering but every single city I click on says, “There were no matching messages, or this group is not taking advantage of this search facility... If you are interested in joining this group, it is currently being run using Yahoo!Groups.”

Hmm, so I guess my question is what exactly is the point of the Freecycle website if none of the cities are actually posting on said website. Why not just have them all at Yahoo Groups? Now I’m determined. I actually thought this would be a short assignment. I’d either find a lot of office supplies or not. The end. Now it looks like I need to apply for a membership.

Personally, I do not enjoy groups that don’t at least let you see messages before joining. I understand them not letting you post; but not even see? I don’t know what they’re talking about on there. Here’s what I’ll do; I’ll join my local group and report back later. For now I guess I’ll leave you with some articles about Freecycle.

One review - mostly good.  

And another really good.  

And a fellow who worked there and HATES them.  

Once I get my membership; I will see what sort of office supplies I can find.