"Free"Cycle

I joined the group "Free"Cycle (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SaltLakefreecycle/) this week. FreeCycle is a way to recycle, but everything is free. You can offer things you want to give away and request things you would like to get. I had 11 rolls of film for my 35 mm camera that was getting older by the minute and not getting used. I offered them on FreeCycle. Within one day, I had 10 requests for my film. (I had already tried to sell it on KSL.com. I had one person interested, but she didn't want it when she found out how old it was.)

I decided to give it to a lady who emailed that she understood the risk of using old film. She wanted it, but couldn't come get it when her husband said he didn't want her going to a strangers house. Then I offered it to a lady who has 3 kids going to 3 different camps this year and she wants them all to take a camera. She came within 12 hours of me choosing her and my film is gone!

It was a little bit of a hassle to give my film away, but I feel better about it than if I had thrown it out, and I also don't have it sitting around my house getting older.

I also tried to get something on FreeCycle. I wanted legos. I posted it, but no one has contacted me yet, so maybe it's harder to find stuff you want. I'll have to wait and see.

Organizing the Freezer

It's spring, and for me, that's the best time to organize the freezer. Our chest freezer is in the garage, so I like it to be cool (not hot, not freezing) when I go through the freezer. If it's too hot, all the food thaws before I finish. If it's too cold, my fingers freeze. I also like spring because (at least in theory), we've just eaten most of the food over the winter, so it's a little more empty.

We cleaned and organized both of our freezers today and here are some things I thought about:

* I decided to keep all open bags of vegetables in the freezer door. I'm hoping that will help us find them and then use them until they're gone and then open a new bag.

* The challenge of a freezer is its depth. Once something is down deep, it's hard to find it again. As much as I could a tried to stack deep. I have stacks of chicken and hamburger that go from the bottom of the freezer, all the way to the top.

* When you have 2 freezers, (a freezer with your refrigerator and a chest freezer), it's a good idea to keep the things you use most in the smaller refrigerator freezer. I pulled most of my frozen pumpkin from the refrigerator freezer and moved it to my chest freezer. It opened up so much room and now I won't have it falling out on me anymore. I kept the vegetables, meats, cheese, butter, and other freezer stuff we reach for frequently in the refrigerator freezer.

* Freezers need to be organized every once in a while. I try to keep on top of mine, but I still found things I never thought could be in my freezer. Freezers also usually need to be defrosted and for sure cleaned out. We found styrofoam cup pieces, kernels of corn, meat labels and even a stray pepperoni in ours!