Middle-class households struggling to cope with the downturn in the economy are resorting to an internet swap shop to obtain goods and services for nothing.

The number of British users logging on to Freecycle, a website that allows members to exchange unwanted products, has doubled to more than 1m in the last year.

Once the preserve of eco-warriors keen to promote recycling, the site is fast becoming the hunting ground of professional class families feeling the pinch.

First-time home buyers are using it to furnish new properties, mothers are scouring it for school uniforms and secondhand toys, while some users are even getting their cars fixed for free.

As the cost of living continues to rise and consumers shun the high street, Freecycle is attracting more than 2,000 new members a day. It is estimated that users will have given away more than 5m items by the end of the year.

Deron Beal was inspired in 2003 to create the first Freecycle group in Tucson, Arizona, to tackle the number of white goods harbouring chemical pollution ending up in landfill.

“I set it up from a tree-hugger perspective but it’s become much broader than that,” he said. “It is becoming increasingly accepted by the middle class.

“Years ago, reusing things and buying old clothes would have been frowned upon, but today we have closets packed with junk. In a time of economic downturn people are realising that they don’t have to buy new things all the time.”

Freecycle users can sign up to one of 480 local mailing lists.

They receive daily messages from fellow members, either offering goods and services or making requests.

Members must offer an item when they first join and they are prohibited from giving away drugs, firearms or adult material. A guide on etiquette urges members of the “community” to be “nice” to donors.

The website has been embraced in Britain as rising food and fuel prices have taken their toll on household budgets.

The average family with two children is now at least 15% worse off than five years ago, according to research by Ernst & Young, the accountants.

While average household incomes have risen by £507 a month to £2,859, essential outgoings – including the cost of running a car, mortgage repayments, energy bills and public transport – have gone up by £644 a month to £2,086.

Sian Hagan, 41, from Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, said: “When household bills, food prices and petrol are going up so much, Freecycle just makes sense. I picked up a bicycle for free, which I now use instead of the car for short journeys to save on petrol.”

Hagan, a mother of two, began using the site 18 months ago when she was looking for a replacement dishwasher. Despite initial scepticism, she soon picked one up from a local family who were having a new kitchen fitted.

Since then she has acquired an Ikea sofa bed, a widescreen television, a spare Brownie uniform for her 10-year-old daughter and a school uniform for her son.

In return, Hagan has given away a John Lewis maternity dress and her children’s clothes and toys as they have grown older. “For a normal family like us it’s made a really big difference,” she said. “When I first started doing it I wasn’t sure whether I’d have to get involved in the whole eco thing, but it couldn’t be simpler.”

The site can be invaluable for first-time buyers. When Ellie Callanmonk, 23, and her boyfriend Guy Thouret, 24, bought a two-bedroom flat in Stockport, Cheshire, last year, they furnished most of their home using Freecycle. Callanmonk, a public relations manager, said: “We posted a list of things we needed and the response we got was amazing.”

Within a month the couple were given a sofa, an armchair, a dining table with six chairs, a dishwasher, a sideboard, shelves and accessories for the kitchen.

Additional reporting: Kimberley Smith

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