We had just moved into our new house. Rather than put all the pretty dishes we received as wedding gifts on the moving truck, I transported them myself in my car. I gently placed them in the display hutch in the kitchen. Then I realized the furniture was blocking the outlet by half an inch so I asked my husband if he could just push it a little to the right. My friend who was helping us unpack told me we should empty the hutch. I thought, “it’s only half an inch. It will be fine.” I was so wrong.

I thought my husband knew the hutch was not connected to the base as we had just seen the movers bring in the 2 parts. He didn’t remember, and I didn’t think to tell him. He pushed from the top and the whole hutch and everything in it went crashing to the floor. What a horrifying sound that made. I fought back tears. The fact that I was holding our 1 year old in my arms and no one was hurt was a sigh of relief, but seeing all those precious dishes broken on the floor was heart breaking. I had tried to be so careful with them and a single half inch mistake had broken them all.

I swept up all the pieces with sadness and disbelief. It was now trash to me. But I knew it wasn’t trash to someone else. In fact, there were quite a few artists on Freeceycle that really wanted my box of broken dishes to make mosaics. These beautiful dishes would live on in another form rather than be tossed and added to a landfill.

Every day, things most people would throw away have been given new life and a new owner by using Freecycle or Craigs List Free. Broken shredder? Someone else wants the motor? Broken glass door on microwave? Someone is willing to fix it? Bunch of old magazines? A teacher wants them for projects. The possibilities are endless! So next time you have something that is broken or not suitable for donation, try Freecycle or Craigs List Free. There is probably someone out there who is happy to turn your trash into their treasure. Everyone wins and it stays out of the landfill.