Freecycle

As experts often note, there are several health problems associated with clutter and mess. Severe hoarders may even struggle to deal with rats, roaches and other vermin. But even apart from these miseries, there are more reasons for decluttering your life than just finding the floor.

Are you a pack-rat? Do you have a habit of convincing yourself that one day your unused possessions may serve a purpose? Do you make impulse buys that ultimately end up gathering dust in the closet? Most of all do you enjoy receiving free stuff?If you answered yes to any of the above questions then...

Signing the dotted line on the first apartment is only the beginning of independent living. Gone are the luxuries of furnished dorms, but then again, so are those hefty on-campus housing rates. You might be glad to leave behind that standardized wooden dorm furniture and express your inner...

In a lot of ways, dumpster diving represents the ultimate battle between thrift and dignity. Dirty, smelly, and quasi-legal, it is also a great way to save money, get great stuff, and learn about your neighbors on a whole new level. Although "trash reclamation" has probably been around since the...

After doing a round of holiday cleaning at our apartment, I discovered a treasure trove of gadgets which still worked, but no longer met my needs. Thankfully I also found Gazelle.com, a company that buys old electronics for resale or recycle. I tested out Gazelle.com with three items I had on hand;...

While I'm sure ex-Lehman bankers (some of which are my former bosses) aren't scrounging through trash cans for perfectly good hot dogs, like the poster boy for Freecycling in this BusinessWeek article, I love the factoid near the end of the piece: "since Wall Street imploded [Freecycle] has been...