Freecycle & Craigslist

Check out Freecycle - an online global network consisting of individuals who are giving and receiving "stuff" for free in their communities. It's fairly simple - sign up for free, find your local town or community group, and begin searching, or post something you want to give away. The only hitch is you need a Yahoo! account, because the whole system runs through Yahoo! Groups. It's pretty easy to create a Yahoo! account though, if you don't already have one.

Another similar network is Craigslist's "free" section. Visit Craigslist, find your state or nearest big city, and in the middle of the page in the "for sale" section, click on "free" - a place where people are giving away everything from firewood to sewing machines to ping pong tables. I've used it to get some free moving boxes and packing materials when we moved to our new house. It's a great resource if you need something, but don't necessarily need it new, and don't feel like spending the money.

The whole idea here is to reuse your old stuff (or find others who will) in order to keep that stuff out of the landfill.