AusFREE

A community service hosted by Austrey Website

You might have heard of sites like Freebay or Freegle, which enable people to give away or receive unwanted items.  AusFREE provides the same service, through the medium of the Austrey Parish Council website.  You may not want your old fridge, curtains, granny’s china, or those old pots or pallets cluttering up the garden any more, but there may be someone else in Austrey or in the local area who does!  

AusFREE is a community statement.  It says:

• We want to help people in our local community
• We want to keep anything reusable out of landfill

Our guidelines are:

1. All offers and requests must be free (no charge for the items you’re giving or receiving) and legal (use your common sense here – e.g. no knives to under 16's would be a good example)
2. All items must be of at least reasonable second hand quality - or if broken, good for spares.

Examples:

Just to give you a few examples.   I quite happily sit at my solidly built, folding, kitchen table which originally housed a 1930’s mangle – it was being thrown away when the elderly owner had to move into a nursing home.  My son wears good quality pre-loved clothes generously donated by families in the village.  I save money by burning logs on my fire from garden clearances.  I sit in my garden on folding wooden furniture scavenged (with permission) from a rubbish pile– it’s a bit wobbly but will be good for a few years and when it finally falls to pieces I can also burn it on my fire.  Oh, and my garage is the smartest in Austrey – with recycled wood-fronted kitchen units storing all my bits and bobs.

How it works:

1. Join the Austrey Website community.  Only community members will have posts accepted.
2. Post what you want to give away or swap in the forum below. Either leave your contact details or keep checking the site for a reply. 
3. Anyone visiting the site can see your offer or wanted ad.  They will contact you.  The person offering the item decides whether they wish to complete the exchange.
4. Between you, arrange for them to come and collect your item (or you arrange to go and pick up their item.
5. The item is collected / given
6. Hooray – everyone’s a winner!  You got to meet someone new in the community, got rid of (or received) the item in question, and also avoided landfill. 
7. Notify us that you wish your post removed.  We will do so as soon as we can.  Posts over 6 months old will automatically be deleted.

If you can’t get rid of your unwanted items, please consider giving to Charity.  Many charities like the Birmingham City Mission urgently need donations of furniture, duvets and covers, old pots and pans etc – see their website http://www.birminghamcitymission.co.uk/ and click on the “URGENT Furniture needed” link.

DISCLAIMER: AusFREE puts people who have unwanted items in touch with people who want those items.  Because of how it works, AusFREE never sees or checks items and they may not be in working order (although they may be good for spares).  Posting an advert or responding to an advert does not guarantee you will be able to get rid of unwanted items or get the items you want.  Any agreement you reach about any items will be between the person requesting or advertising items and you.  It is your responsibility to ensure you are not breaking any laws in offering or getting goods through AusFREE.

SAFETY NOTICE: Members of AusFREE use the service entirely at their own risk. Please take all reasonable measures to protect yourself and your family’s safety and privacy when posting to the list, receiving people to collect, or going to collect an item.