Freecycle London & Reuse Organisations

Junk Diaries

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Guide to Freecycle London and other local organisations for reusing furniture

Looking for information on Freecycle London and other ways to reuse stuff or find preloved items for free in London? Well, you are in the right place! Here we break down how Freecycle London works and review all the alternatives for giving away and finding great things for free in London. Key sections are:

1. Freecycle London
2. Trashnothing London
3. Gumtree Freebies
4. LoveJunk marketplace
5. Charity reuse stores
   • North London
   • South London
   • Interactive Map of reuse stores
6. Other useful resources for London householders

1. Freecycle London

Freecycle is an online platform where members can give and receive pre-owned items free of charge. It works by connecting people regionally via town groups.

It has around 40 local town groups operating London. Some bigger than others. To find your nearest, go to Freecycle’s Find A Town and type in your borough.  Alternatively, to join the largest Londoin group which operates London wide, join their City of London group . This has over 100,000 members. 

Note: Freecycle can sometimes confuse people because lots of organisations have picked up the term over the years to refer to their own free reuse sites. All you need to know is that Freecycle.org and The Freecycle Network refer to this platform in particular. 

How to join:

To use Freecycle London you’ll need to sign up using an email or your Facebook profile. Then you can list any items you want to get rid of, along with a couple of pictures, and somebody in your area will offer to come and pick it up. Alternatively, have a scroll through your town group or nearby ones and see if there’s anything that catches your eye. The person receiving usually goes to pick up the item, but you organise this individually! 

Some helpful tips when you use Freecycle in London:

• Anything to do with politics, spam or money is a big no-no
• No personal ads (you or somebody else)
• What you post must be legal (no drugs)
• Don’t post any animals

2. Trashnothing London

Trashnothing is another free reuse platform. Uniquely, listings from different freecycling and reuse sites appear together in one place. Just like Freecycle, Trashnothing has town groups that connect people to their neighbours. 

Confusingly, Trashnothing’s town groups often include some variation of Freecycle or Freegle. In this instance, Londoners can browse London Freecycle, a group with over 27,000 members. If you want to find more localised town groups, have a look for your borough on this list of London town groups. 

Signing up and using Trashnothing is easy and very similar to Freecycle. 

3. LoveJunk

LoveJunk is an online marketplace that covers all of London for unwanted larger items, including furniture, household electrical appliances, and garden equipment.  It is open to licensed waste collectors and people looking for free stuff. 

To get rid of something, click “Find Your Cheapest Collector”. Follow the instructions to create a free listing which posts to the marketplace. When it’s live, LoveJunk shows your item to nearby reusers and also licensed waste collectors. Both can contact you through the site where you can decide which option to go with. Reusers collect your item for free, which is great! And if nobody wants your item, no problem – you can still pay for a waste collector to come and get it, so you get rid of it either way. 

To get free stuff with LoveJunk, you must register as a Reuser (otherwise known as a LoveJunk JunkLover) on app. You can set filters to show items in and around London. Anything you like the look of, just message the owner to collect for free. 

FIND A REUSER ON LOVEJUNK

4. Gumtree London Freebies section

Gumtree is a well-known site for classified ads selling all manner of items and services. As well as the buy and sell features, it also has a ‘Freebies’ section. There, you can find items that members are giving away free of charge. You can set your filters to show free items in London. 

Sign up for free to talk to members about their listings and to make your own. A basic listing is free to make. If you want to boost the visibility of your item so that more people see it in London, there are various levels of extra charges. You don’t have to pay anything to reply to a boosted listing. 

If you want to be savvy using Gumtree, try searching for your item with ‘free’ at the end. Sometimes members list their items on normal Gumtree pages and this will help you find them. 

5. Reuse and charity shops in London

Luckily for Londoners, there’s a whole world of reuse shops and charities that take larger items in the city. We’ve compiled a list below. Get in touch with us at [email protected] if you have a reuse shop you want to recommend!

North London locations

Age UK – Westminster, Hammersmith	More Life Home – Poplar
All Aboard Shop – Finchley	Mr Allsorts – Dalston
Barnardo’s – Marylebone	North London Hospice Furniture – Whetstone
Barnet Furniture Centre – Barnet	Octavia Foundation – Chelsea
British Heart Foundation (Furniture & Electrical) – Seven Sisters,	Petit Miracle – Shepherds Bush
British Red Cross (Furniture & Electrical) – Fulham	Sense – Hackney, Seven Sisters
Eighty-seven – Highbury	Shop from Crisis – Finsbury Park, Hackney, Islington, Camden, Hammersmith
Emmaus – Poplar	Sue Ryder
Fernish – Chiswick	TCL reuse – Barking
Finchley North Furniture & Electric – Finchley	The Furniture Shop – Fulham
FRP (Forest Recycling Project) – Walthamstow	The Old Cinema – Chiswick
London Energy ReUse shop – Waltham Forest	Things Matter: Reuse store – Tottenham
Mary’s Living & Giving Shop – Fulham, Chiswick, Primrose Hill	Trinity Furniture Store – Hayes, Uxbridge
Mission Green – Kensington	Vision Foundation – Kensington, Portobello Road, Willesden
Mobilyum Furniture – Tottenham	YMCA – West Ealing

FIND A REUSER ON LOVEJUNK

South London locations

Age UK – Lambeth, Greenwich, Lewisham	Maddisons – Streatham
A C Second Hand Furniture and Removals – Mitcham	Mary’s Living & Giving Shop – Wandsworth, East Dulwich, Wimbledon,
Barker & Stonehouse – Battersea	Remar Furniture – Southwark
Barnardo’s – Brixton	Richmond furniture scheme – Twickenham
British Heart Foundation (Furniture & Electrical) – Wandsworth, Brixton, Walworth	Sense – Kennington, Peckham, Deptford
Community Reuse – Sutton	Shop from Crisis – Elephant & Castle, Camberwell, Peckham
DEBRA – Greenwich, Wimbledon, Croydon	St Christopher’s Hospice – East Dulwich
Deens Furniture – Brixton	Sue Ryder – Rotherhithe, Dulwich
Emmaus – Woolwich, Lewisham, Brixton	UpMarket Charity – Rotherhithe
Give A Little – Streatham	Vintique – Peckham
InUse-ReUse – Camberwell	Vision Foundation – Tulse Hill, Walworth, West Norwood
Kingston Community Furniture – Kingston upon Thames	Wandsworth Oasis – Wandsworth

London reuse organisation interactive map

View London Reusers in a full screen map

6. Other useful resources for London householders

If you’ve found Freecycle London useful, you might like to read these as well:

• How to dispose of rubbish in London – for when reuse just isn’t possible, here’s a guide to getting those larger items collected and disposed of
• Ultimate Guide to Furniture Removal London – how to reuse furniture specifically for Londoners

Have you ever tried renting things instead of buying? If you’re trying to save money in London, have a look at Library of Things. 

CHEAPEST RUBBISH CLEARANCE

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