I saw some postings about "free stuff" that are just ads for membership websites where you "do offers" and "earn points"  although I don't have experience with such sites, it sounds like a hastle that will never pay off to me...

but I wanted to remind everyone that craigslist is a great place to buy stuff locally, you can also list stuff there for sale, and there is a FREE section, where people list stuff they are looking to get rid of for free.  This section is always bigger for larger city craigslist pages than smaller ones though...

Another site is freecycle.  I belong to a freecycle group through yahoo groups, although I know they have chapters all over the country.  What it is is a local group for your area where people list items that they are looking to give away, and you also list stuff you want to get rid of... I have used this for both getting stuff and getting rid of stuff, and it works great!

~Stacie