That couch probably came with a complimentary disco ball. On the color chart, it was a mix of toxic waste and strained peas.

Its beauty was in its comfort, anyway. The centerpiece of my college buddies' basement apartment aged as gracefully as Raquel Welch. Years had softened the cushions so they conformed perfectly to butt cheeks of any shape or size.

A regular crasher on that sofa, I never grasped why someone dumped it on the curb. Clearly, they didn't share our opinion that it was still in its prime.

At some point, though, Dumpster diving loses its coolness. You wonder less about how you could squeeze a thing into your hatchback and more about how it smells, saturated by two days of rain.

So Racinians dug around for a cleaner, more grown-up way to snatch freebies. They found Freecycle.

The e-mail list is part of a worldwide network operated by a nonprofit that claims to keep 300 tons of stuff from going into dumps each day. It's a simple idea: Post something you're ready to get rid of and someone else will snap it up.

It's like recycling, only with more immediate gratification. Because everything has to be given away, there are no eBay-style bidding wars. It still gave Kay Helson-Meyers a rush the first time she "won" an item.

More often, she's the one unloading stuff. And these givers aren't like the green couch people. They know their goodies aren't ready for the landfill.

I joined Freecycle hoping someone would validate that "one man's trash" saying. Surely one man would treasure the pile of empty CD cases that was gobbling our basement floor space.

Or one woman. When an e-mail came back within minutes, I promised her the whole lot - then watched a dozen more pleading messages scoot in.

"You're going to have to work on your technique," Helson-Meyers told me.

Never hurts to have backups. Only on her third try did someone follow through and take the tickets to the "High School Musical" ice show. Sometimes, she joked, a trip to Goodwill seems simpler.

Next time I'll be more selective. That's what Union Grove's Amy Nelson does. "I'll look through to see who sounds like they need it more," she said.

Plenty to choose from there. Take Racine's Michelle Burton, who asked for help in rebuilding her sister's fire-damaged house in Kentucky. Without insurance, that family is living with a tarp for a roof.

Burton is still looking for materials to replace the tin roof, but people did bring two televisions and a bunch of baby clothes for her expectant niece. When Burton delivered it all, her sister cried.

"She couldn't believe that I came through with all that stuff," Burton said.

Ben Lehner, an Americorps volunteer, asked for aquariums to help stock the soon-to-open Root River Environmental Education Center where he's coordinating activities. Someone promised 20 of them.

"That's one of those items that everyone's got one somewhere," Lehner said.

Rather than languish on some basement shelf or be tossed out, those aquariums will provide habitats where kids can watch tiny tadpoles transition into chubby frogs. Keep this up and Freecyclers might help curb Kestrel Hawk Park Landfill's practically insatiable appetite.

On the net

Racine's Freecycle group can be found at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Racine-Freecycle/ (or, if you have an item I mentioned, I can put you in touch with the people in need).

Mike Moore can be reached at (262) 631-1724 or

mike.moore@lee.net