And the circulation continues....

The AP has an article on the Freecycle(tm) phenomenon and it's increasing use. What surprises people is how may people are willing to give stuff away to others, but I think people are increasingly understanding the impact of stuff of all types in our lives. Not just the economic cost on our finances, the environmental impact on our planet, but also the mental cost in having to deal with it.

I think the movement to simplification is realizing that free has a cost, so you need to take a hard look at what gives you happiness. This is one of the tenets of the Your Money or Your Life program. One of the steps they recommend is to take stock of your possessions and your obligations and to understand what gives you happiness and what doesn't. What you find out is that much of your stuff actually degrades from your happiness.

An interesting thing about the stuff being given a new lease on life (Freecycle(tm) is trademarked and has been creating a lot of controversy for that. I can see both points, it reminds me of when Pat Riley trademarked "threepeat", if you are clever you should be acknowledged.) Is sometimes you get caught up in the hey it's free I should grab it, and then you realize hey I don't need it and what do you do, you offer it up again.

That's the beauty of the idea. There is also another way to think about it and that's community property, i.e. borrowing and using. That means stuff you own is utilized more fully. Good to see that community is being built while helping the earth.