Like most Americans, I have too much stuff. I'll be honest, I have been struggling with ways to cut back my materialistic tendencies while still appreciating the information and technology that the 21st century has to offer. Which is one of the reasons I'm enjoying Swaptree so much.

In essence, Swaptree is a cross between Ebay and your local book exchange. Like Ebay, you can create wish lists and manage your sales inventory. Like the book exchange, the idea is to get you to swap titles rather than selling items, all while suffering minimal costs (only shipping items to others). But unlike the book exchange, this is more expansive: books, movies, music and video games right now (I don't think they are planning to expand, but I'll update this post if necessary). The idea is to pair items from your want list with your inventory so you are trading with one user instead of money-for-product transactions. I love it! It lets you minimize your crap (Micah, you probably could've used this site before the big move) while not worrying about filling up junkyards with Alanis albums and Kurt Russell DVDs. Why not swap them with someone who is bound to love them? Plus, it's helping me make up for many of the bad Best Buy purchases I made in summers past.