My very good friend had to leave her home in a great hurry. When she and her young daughter arrived to stay with me, she had some clothes for them both and very little money.
When the time came for her to move into her own place, I placed a "Wanted" post on my local Freecycle.org group and also on Craigslist.org, explaining what she and her daughter needed and why.
Within 1 week, we had everything she needed to furnish a 2 bedroom apartment: 2 beds, a kitchen table with 4 chairs, a sofa, pots, pans, silverware, dishes, cleaning supplies, light bulbs and lamps, bedding, towels, bookcases, coffee table, desks, and a TV and DVD player. Nothing matched but everything was clean and in very usable condition. She gradually replaced things as she could afford to and in turn passed the items she received on the same way.
By kerre reese from NorCal
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What a great idea. What goes around, comes around.
Wow, what a brilliant move. Thank you for sharing, your story touched my heart. Faith in humanity:restored!
That is one of the greatest things I have read in a very long time - I am so glad that things worked out for you and that you gave us the idea to 'carry on as needed', thank you!
God is good and so are you. That was wonderful.
Thank you for the info. have friend who just moved in to an apartment and needs everything. I will pass it on to her.
Stating your friend 'left in a hurry' and then had to set up house supplies. We were 'part' of a similar situation where the wife got out with the children, a friend of hers networked her emails to about 50 of us, and we all came up with things, clothes, household items, money, etc. The safe house put her up, we delivered items to a local business who made it safe for everyone.
I find when I 'need to move things out' I donate household things to the safe house. How many times a year do you use those dishes for those few holidays? Made more sense to give a 20 place setting of good dishes that could be divided up with people who needed them. And I got cupboard space back.
Also, we have a Clothing Closet set up by the county where donations go all the time too. It is also the food shelf. When in need, you are not asked for reimbursement for anything. Most items $.25 to $50. All workers volunteers.
When it was time to move my mom from her own place to an Alzheimers facility we contacted a local women's shelter. They gave the info to a woman who was transitioning into her own place and she then contacted us, and made all the arrangements to get the things picked up and brought to her new home.
I'd like to also point out- if you don't live near a city, Craigslist and Freecycle aren't always the best options, since you could be driving a long way to pick up items.
In towns or more rural places, see if your area has a local "Buy, sell, trade" site on Facebook.
To do this, search on FB for the name of your town or county and "buy" (or "sell"). After a few tries you should find it if it's there. Also ask your FB friends.
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