How many times have you driven by a pile of household items at the bottom of a neighbour’s driveway and thought, “Why didn’t they post that stuff for free on Used[your-city-name-here].com?” It happens to me all the time and if I’m going to be honest it drives me nuts! Not only does it make our neighbourhood look trashy, the stuff usually takes a beating by the weather or gets vandalized, so the chances of someone actually being able to reuse the abandoned things diminishes quickly. Case in point: I saw a free TV on the side of the road one day and by the next time I drove by it, someone had kicked in the screen.

This brings me to my “Ah-ha!” moment, I literally thought: they should have used UsedVictoria.com! That’s when it hit me, I pulled the car over, whipped out my iPhone and snapped a pic, hashtagged it with #ShouldaUsedVictoria and shared it on Twitter and Instagram. I’m not trying to shame anyone, I’m just saying, if they’d used the site, someone would have been happy to up-cycle some of these random goodies (skis, camping stove, a shelf, etc.).

My first ever #ShouldaUsed hashtag (history in the making, I’m sure!).

I rushed home super pleased with my brain-child and told my hubby about my latest scheme! We can literally start a grass-roots campaign to ensure everyone knows they can easily pass along unwanted household items by posting them to the free section of their local Used.ca site.

This led me to another realization; my entire house is filled with free or nearly-free finds from UsedVictoria.com and I thought, I would love to let more people know that being thrifty, environmentally-friendly and uniquely stylish is easy when #WeUsedVictoria. In our household #WeUsedVictoria to find a free BBQ (it’s still going strong two years later), #WeUsedVictoria to find our day-care and #WeUsedVictoria to sell our car. Clearly it’s a good thing I work for Used.ca now because we really do love the sites. We have loads of Used success stories in our house and I’m sure other people do too.

#WeUsedVictoria to score this vintage tulip table and mid-century modern chairs (the DIY bench is still a work-in-progress).

Have you ever encountered obscene, duplicate or generally sketchy ad postings on other classified sites? I have, and then I think to myself, #ShouldaUsedVictoria! Have you ever tried using a new classified website only to find there aren’t very many ads from real people on their site and thought to yourself: #ShouldUsedVictoria? This has so many fun applications! 

These make a very comfy bus stop, but really, these folks #ShouldaUsedVictoria to find this puffy set a new home.

How will you use these hashtags? We’ve made a driving game out of it; the kids yell when they see free stuff on the side of the road and I pull over to capture the offending pile of potential treasures. #Happy #Hashtagging #ShouldaUsed________