A Freecycling Excursion Gone Wrong

This is a short but true story about a freecycling offer that turned into a slight nightmare. For those of you who don't know, Freecycling is the act of offering up items that you no longer want or need to a group of people, usually in a Yahoo Group setting, rather than to dispose of them in a landfill. Sometimes you are the one offering and sometimes you find yourself the one responding to an offer.

In this case I was a new mom to twins who were about 4 months old. I found myself exploring the world of cloth diapers and thought it would be a great idea to ask my local Freecycling Group, which was over 3,000 strong, if anyone had any cloth diapers they'd like to get rid of.

I was delighted to get a response to my request. A woman stated that she had an entire box of assorted cloth diapers that were given to her and that she had never used. My heart raced at the thought of a whole box of pricey cloth diapers for FREE! I imagined the box to be filled to the brim with Fuzzi Bunz, Happy Heinys, Diaper Covers, Prefolds and more! I was definitely getting my hopes up to say the least.

I was quick to respond to her email and accept her offer. "Do you know what brand the diapers are?" I asked, trying not to seem to eager or too expecting. "No I sure don't," she said. Bummer I thought, but my hopes were still high. She emailed me her address and said she'd leave the box of diapers for me in her carport so that I could pick them up anytime. I of course, wanted to drive straight there to collect my loot.

The disappointing thing was that her address was about 45 minutes north of my home and I had yet to take longer than a 15 minute car ride alone with my tribe of three kids. I was nervous at the thought but it would be worth it I was sure.

I printed the directions out on MapQuest, loaded the kids up in the car, and set out on my journey. It felt like it took an eternity to get there and as I got closer I wondered if what I was doing was really safe? What if she really didn't have cloth diapers? What if.....? The area seemed to go from bad to worse but I was determined to not have traveled all that way for nothing.

I used my map and found the house, which turned out to be a trailer. The yard was void of grass and mostly consisted of dirt and weeds. There were cars parked there and I knew that people were home. I drove by twice trying to spot the box of diapers that were supposed to be out for me.

I parked the car and started up to the carport only to awaken a scary dog who was chained up there. He alerted the trailers occupants to my presence yet no one seemed to care. Like some sort of cruel joke, the box of diapers lay about 2 feet from where the dog could reach on his chain.

I grabbed the box, hurried back to my car and placed them on the seat next to me. I took off and was inspecting the contents from the corner of my eye as I drove off. The cardboard was brittle and dry like the box had been there in the carport for years. The diapers, yes it was full of them, looked like they were the same make and model that my mother would have used on me when I was a toddler back in the 70's. They were all faded and worn, full of moth holes and covered in small dead bugs like they'd been left underneath a bug lamp.

I wanted to cry as I realized my dreams of free Fuzzi Bunz was going down the drain. Now I started to fear that as I drove some creepy crawly bug might escape the box and terrorize me as I made my way home.

It was a serious disappointment and I'm not sure I ever took any other freecyclers up on their offers again. Why a person would have knowingly allowed me to make a 2 hour trip with three kids, for a box of rotted out old cloth diapers that were clearly garbage, is beyond me.