Showing posts with label House And Home. Show all posts

Bagging A Freebie Using Freecycle, Gumtree And Groups

Freecycle, Freegle, Gumtree and Facebook groups allow you to recycle stuff you don’t need by advertising it to people in your local area. You are able to advertise goods for free. All you have to do is add your item to a site and wait for someone to message you asking if they can have the item. This is a easy way to de-clutter and a lot of people use free sites meaning items are normally snapped up within the same day. A few years back I advertised a bed along with a mattress on our local freecycle and it was collected within just 2 hours.  We also advertised free drawers and they were collected by someone who lived just a few streets away!

Free sites are perfect if you are budget conscious and would rather re-use than buy new. The free sites are perfect for families, couples or even singles. People list small things on the sites such as clothes to large things such as furniture. Often furniture is advertised and although it may have seen better days, you can get creative and make something out of "nothing". Clothes can often have holes in however the material can be reused to make something more useful for your family such as a patchwork blanket. 


When using any free sites, always be conscience to ask what type of condition the advertised item is in, there is nothing worse than thinking you are getting a perfect leather sofa but instead it is scratched, ripped and is not repairable. If a item is repairable, I often try to find out if the item can be repaired and if so, how much it will cost me to repair it. Sometimes furniture items need a simple sand down and a paint however sometimes items need to be totally renovated which can cost hundreds. Before travelling to get the item I always try and work out how far away the item is and how much it will cost me to get it. Fuel is expensive these days and miles can often add up.

Some groups ask for you to give stuff away for free before you are allowed to ask for other items. A good thing to start off with is old cups and plates. I often list the mugs you find in Easter eggs as they never get used. I often sort out old toys of Maxwell's, any clothes which may not fit any more  and any other bric and brac items which I may find around the house.


If there is a lot of interest in a item that someone has listed, the person getting rid of the item may ask why you need the item. After getting many replies they will then go ahead and let the person who they think is more "needy" have it. Sometimes this can be a little unfair however I always find items come along like buses and there are plenty more items to come. The worst thing you can do is get disheartened.

Please remember to stay safe at all times when using free sites. If you are off to collect an item make sure someone knows where you are going. Please also remember you shouldn't ask for items because you want any old free stuff or you are wanting to make money out of peoples stuff they are giving away for free. There are needy people around that may need these items more than you.

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Alternative Uses - Toothpaste

Last week Maxwell had a fun session of drawing on our walls with crayon. As a parent I was horrified, horrified that he had actually drawn on the walls and horrified as I had no clue how to remove it. I was panicked that I would have to spend money out on redecorating however my mum suggested for me to use toothpaste and fortunately it removed the crayon stains. This meant I did not go out and spend money on paint to redecorate at the wall looked as good as new. Soon after the incident it got me thinking what else is toothpaste good for.


1. To remove toothpaste off walls you need to use a non-gel toothpaste. Simply apply a little toothpaste to a damp cloth and start scrubbing the wall in circular motions. Go on to apply a little more if the stain is not shifting. Slowly rinse off the wall with water. If the marks have not completely gone let the wall dry and retry cleaning the marks off.

2. Ben has many pairs of shoes however sometimes he struggles to get marks and stains off them. Occasionally he turns to using toothpaste to remove the stains. All he does is dab a little toothpaste on to his shoes and rubs at the mark/stain. If the stain only fades he tends to retry and remove the stain again a few days later.

3. All our appliances in our kitchen are chrome. I often struggle to keep the appliances shiny however recently I have been using Toothpaste. Just smear on the toothpaste and polish with a soft, dry cloth and the chrome should come up shiny.

4.Maxwell can be a messy toddler and we sometimes find carpet stains. Toothpaste can be used to remove them. Squeeze toothpaste directly onto the carpet stain and scrub it with a toothbrush. Then rinse and repeat the process until the stain disappears. Make sure you wipe any remaining toothpaste with a damp cloth.

Disney Movie Reward Points

This week Monsters Inc arrived free on DVD for Maxwell. Maxwell was of course pleased that he had a new DVD but I was also pleased that he had a new DVD which would have cost me around £8 for free. How did we get it for free? We signed up to Disney Movie Rewards, bought Disney products and saved enough points up to get our free DVD.. Is it worthwhile? YES!


Disney Movie Rewards is a reward scheme which enables you to get free products by buying other Disney products. Eligible Disney movies, music, video games and other products all include a code inside there cases, this code is worth a number of points. Once you have a code all you need to do is sign up to Disney Rewards and put the code into the top bar. You will also need the barcode on the back of the case of the product you found the code on. Once you input several codes and you have points you are then able to redeem DVD'S, Blu Rays, stickers, activity packs and iron ons for free.

To get Monsters Inc for free we used 5 codes from 5 different Disney films we had lying around. Unfortunately we kept finding Disney DVD's on our DVD shelf however they did not include a code as they were not the eligible Disney films which came with special codes, so please keep this in mind if you are buying films. You can check here to see if the film you want to buy is part of the Disney Movie Reward Scheme. 

If you are Disney fans but have no codes to redeem DVD's then why not print some of Disney's free activities off? For free you are able to print free activity packs, bookmarks and colouring sheets. The colouring and free activity packs look fun for this long bank holiday weekend.

Overall we are huge fans of the Disney Reward Scheme and we love everything about it. Personally I would love to see a wider range of reward DVD's that you are able to claim however there is a large choice and I am sure there is something for everyone to choose from. We would love to redeem Tangled next which is priced at around £10 in shops so these reward codes really do save you money.