Lara Muse was looking for a hospital table to put by her bed so she could work on her laptop computer during a difficult pregnancy. Steve Allen happened to have one in his basement that he didn’t want.

Even though they both live in St. Joseph, they would never have known about each other’s situation just a few years ago. But thanks to the advent of stjoefreecycle.com, Ms. Mose now has the table, and Mr. Allen has less clutter in his basement at no cost to either of them. Stjoefreecycle.com is a local online community of The Freecycle Network, a nonprofit movement of people all over the world who are giving and getting with no strings attached. The main goal is to keep things out of the landfill by keeping usable things from being thrown away.

“This is for when you have a garage full of stuff you want to get rid of, but it’s too good to go the dump, and you don’t have the time or inclination to have a garage sale. So you “gift” it to somebody,” says Ms. Muse, who volunteers as the online moderator.

On a recent day, some of the “offers” (items to be given away) were a baby stroller, three-ring binders, Halloween decorations, girl’s clothes, men’s roller blade skates and a Guardian electrostatic filter. Wanted items included a top hat, a wood-burning stove and old crochet patterns.

It’s free to participate, Ms. Muse says, but there are a few rules. Everything posted must be free, legal and appropriate for all ages. And you can only post things you “want” once every two weeks. (And that doesn’t mean asking for things like new cars or money). In addition, if you say you want it, be prepared to go get it. Freecycle is not a charity, but a mutual exchange.

“The whole premise of you putting it on Freecycle is not that you are Santa Claus,” Mr. Allen says. “You want to get it out of your way.”

The Freecycle concept has boomed since it began in 2003 and has spread to more than 75 countries. Locally, there is a Freecycle site for St. Joseph, Atchison, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo. But Ms. Muse says with more volunteers, they soon hope to have one for Cameron and Maryville, Mo.

“There are communities in our country that have almost totally eliminated their dumps,” Ms. Muse says. “And they’ve replaced it with recycling. I think there is a lot to be said for that.”

If you are just wanting to give things away for free, you also can run a three-line classified ad for seven days at no charge in the St. Joseph News-Press by logging on to stjoenews.net. Click on “build your own ad” and follow the prompt.

Lifestyles reporter Sylvia Anderson may be reached at sylviaanderson@npgco.com