I chose candles as my need-to-have item. I don't see them listed on the disaster site; I guess they figure a flashlight will work just fine. However, I'm always very glad to have candles around when the power goes out, plus they can smell nice and flashlights don't! I have way more of them than anyone should ever have though, so I figured I could spare a few or 20.

I wasn't very hopeful that anyone would even respond to my CL post, since I've tried to give things away free on there before and failed. However, I got 4 responses fairly quickly. I decided to go with first come, first served. I had to go get my car from the shop when he was going to come pick them up so I left them outside in a box for him labeled "Bag O' Candles FOR: Mike"

Here is what my cheesy Craigslist post said:

Bag O' Candles

A bag of 20 scented votive candles, mostly Yankee brand. You'll never have to worry about the lights going out with Bag O' Candles.

Scents include:
Meadow Mist,
Spiced Apple,
Home Sweet Home,
Vanilla Cookie,
Fresh Peach,
Cinnamon Toast,
Banana Nut Bread,
Blueberry,
Lilac Blossoms,
And more!

I got a response from the recipient later that night: "Hey thanks for the candles! they smell better than my roomates greasy cooking and he hates the girly smell so best of both worlds!"

I said you're welcome, and he wrote back: "If you don't mind me asking, why did you want to get rid of all of these candles anyways?"
So I said, "The smell was starting to permeate my apartment and was kind of making me feel sick :-P
I bought two variety bags of Yankee candles awhile ago; that makes up a lot of the bag. I just can't seem to stop buying them!
Also, I did it as a game task for this website: www.sf0.org
Here's the completed post:
http://sf0.org/moviestar/taskDetail/?id=112

I didn't think you would get so involved lol! I hope you find it as amusing as I do :-)"

I haven't heard from him since. I hope he wasn't weirded out or anything! :-P