Freecycle 2025

I’m a big fan of freecycling – the giving, or receiving, of goods with no monetary exchange or trade. When I have items I don’t need I donate them to our local recycling centre that operates a ReStore or I post them on our Facebook community bulletin board. And the converse is true as well – when I need something I post an ‘in search of’ (ISO) ad and have been rewarded with lots of useful things.

For me, it’s a combination of upcycling things that might otherwise be destined for the landfill, cutting my budget and the thrill of the hunt. There’s something of a rush when you find just what you are looking for, and for free. If I end up not using it I pass it along to someone else – for free.

I’m also a habitual list maker. Even as a kid I had a written catalogue of all my Halloween candy and would carefully amend the numbers as I munched through my stash. This post is a mashup of those two pursuits. If you’ve followed my year-end freecycle posts you’ll notice that I’ve made lots of small scores but also some big ones like a microscope complete with supplies to do fecal float testing, car canopy shelters or best of all, chickens.

Keeping chickens is relatively inexpensive, but the costs can add up: birds, housing, feed, shavings, equipment, first aid supplies and vet bills. There are some things that you can’t eliminate, but there are ways to trim your spending.

If you don’t have a formal freecycling network in your area, you’re probably engaged in the giving or receiving of goods with no monetary exchange or trade regardless. I love checking out the free section of online classifieds or local Facebook community bulletin boards. Even better are the free piles at yard sales where I have picked up all kinds of things I would have been happy to pay for.

My mum was frugal and loved getting a bargain. When she came to visit and later, during the six years she lived with my partner and me, we spent every Saturday hunting down treasures at garage sales and our local recycling centre and Re-Store. When my mum saw how much free stuff I hauled home (I used to have a pick up truck) she encouraged me to keep a list. I’ve been doing that since 2013. The first few years were kind of slow, but in 2016 things took off: I started picking up unsold produce at our local food recovery program and from a grocery store in the town where I work, and I was more proactive on the trail of freebies.

One of my mum’s favourite phrases was ‘Begin as you mean to go on’, the simple idea about starting something in the way you intend to carry on or how you’d like things to end up. It’s perhaps more poetic than traditional New Year’s resolutions and has broader implications. I thought it was a fitting philosophy for my first post of the year, and about subjects dear to my heart: to work, buy, consume and throw away less; to consciously carve out a smaller footprint; and to be mindful of what our impact is on the environment around us.

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Here are some of my chicken-related scores from the past year:

I live on a small island and commute via ferry to a small city (pop. 110,000), both of which have food recovery programs that I access.

• 225 totes of unsold produce

• 38 pkgs veggie burgers/falafels/hotdogs
• 9 tofu 
• 35 yoghurt/cottage cheese
• 12.4 lbs peanuts in shell
• 54 bags bulk nuts
• 1 case wheat crackers

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For years I’ve been able to get beautiful dry planer shavings from the local Timberframe Building School. Sadly, the owner retired a couple of years ago and I thought my steady supply of coop bedding might dry up. Last year I was lucky as they started preparing their timber for sale, which requires planing the beams. I went over to the place several times (luckily they are located around the corner from my house). They have a large lightweight shovel perfectly suited for the job so I was able to load up in a short time and since the shavings aren’t heavy it wasn’t an arduous job on a hot summer day.  Total = 103 bags

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• 11 buckets ashes (dust bath)
• 80+ fly strips
• 2 feed scoops, 2 litter scoops
• Dozens of egg cartons

• 1 Epsom salts, 2 Iodine, 4 Preparation H (first aid supplies)
• 2 Safer’s Miticide
• 7 Little Giant chick feeders

• 2 egg coolers

• 61 cans and 25 bags of dog and cat food (donated by my vet, a local pet store and a couple of food recovery programs)

I live in a small community where folks are keen on getting things free or cheap. We can donate resellable items to our local ReStore, offer them online or put them out at curbside. My best score came from the latter. Whenever I’m driving I scan both sides of the road – to avoid hitting deer, but also looking for free stuff. I screeched to a halt when I saw two chicken waterers. I assumed they were being offered for free but, when I saw the owner in his garden, I confirmed before snagging them. Thankfully, I was right. Never one to be shy, I asked if he had any more poultry gear. Turns out he did. He disappeared somewhere behind the house and came back with more waterers, feeders and a tote full of birdseed. Then he asked if I was interested in some nest boxes. Once more, he disappeared and returned with two Little Giant nest boxes. All this stuff was good quality, in good condition and, best of all, free.

Little Giant: two 3 gallon waterers, one 2 gallon waterer, 1 chick waterer, 1 metal feeder, 1 plastic feeder, 2 plastic nest boxes, 1 tote birdseed

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In the summer of 2023, I was approached by a manufacturer of automatic coop doors and asked if they could send me one of their doors to test. As it turned out it wasn’t a quality product and I was unable to write a positive review. It did, however, spark my interest in asking various companies to see if they would be willing to send me some of their products in exchange for an honest review. Many companies didn’t bother to respond or just said, ‘No, thanks’, but some did and I am most appreciative to have received automatic coop doors from Omlet and Run-Chicken, rubber stamps for eggs and egg cartons, My Favourite Chicken nest box pads and herbs, and a Brinsea Egg Candler. 

In 2025, I received two Owltra rodent traps (mouse and rat) and large size feeder and waterers.

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This beauty, an insulated Omlet chicken waterer, arrived two days before the end of the year – just in time to make this post. I set it up today and will write a post about my flock’s feedback soon.

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This one is technically not free as there was a bit of a barter in the mix. I’ll tell you the story and you be the judge. A few years ago, a Barred Owl flew in the path of my friend’s car as they were driving at night. Unfortunately, it died and not wanting to leave it at the side of the road they took it home. My email handle is ‘skullgrrrl’ reflecting my hobby of collecting animal skulls. They passed the owl on to me hoping I could make use of it. The bird was relegated to my freezer until a few weeks ago when an opportunity arose. I had previously traded some of my skulls to a local tattoo artist in exchange for gift certificates for my friends Tracy and Keith, who would never take payment for the many chicken projects they had helped me with. This time I decided to get some ink done for myself. The owl got exchanged for this guy on my inner wrist. Yes, it was a trade but the owl was free so in a roundabout way the tattoo was too. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

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If you have a freecycle story you’d like to share drop me a line using the ‘contact’ button on my homepage.

“Where nerds and hens flock together.”