A few years ago I read in a book about some groups called Buy Nothing Groups. I found one of this groups in FB and it has been really cool to see how this one in particular works. I have not used any other groups so I can only speak about this one. The idea is that neighbors that live geographically close by can post items onto the wall of the group that they won’t be using anymore and will be donating to GoodWill. Then the other neighbors can reply and say hey I am interested in that chair, or poster, or pants, jewelry, etc, there are lots of items. If there are a few people interested the original owner can decide who the item goes to, and then they coordinate pick up etc.
I see the group activity is particularly busy towards the end of the month since the pandemic, when lots of people move out, and they are trying to get rid of lots of stuff.
In this group there are a few Admins and moderators and there is one lady that is particularly active, she is basically the glue of the group and along with her other admins, they keep the group running smoothly, keeping things orderly, they have some rules set up and for what I have seen they run a nice community group. They even organize in person events to swap things but I have not made it to one of those but one time during later part of the pandemic they organized a onesie get together at the park, and I did make it because it was the perfect opportunity to use my pink care bear onesie! That was such a cute event and some Pikachu’s showed up! 😄
I have posted some items on the group and people have claimed them and I have picked up a few items in there as well. During the pandemic, lots of puzzles were passed around the neighborhood and that was super fun!
A few weeks ago some friends proposed a trip to the river so we can float down the stream and have a warm summer day outside of the fog! I, of course, am interested! We need to get floaty devices and that was one thing I didn’t want to spend money on since most likely it will be a one time thing and who knows when I would be doing the same activity.
I decided to try out the Buy nothing group and posted a ISO/Borrow post with a picture of a floating device to see if someone out there would be willing to lend me one. I got 3 answers from the ladies, and funny enough, one of the ladies recognized me because we used to take our daughters to swim class when they were little and they were in the guppy class! Ohhh so sweet. I don’t have this lady in my FB friends and her last name was sort of cryptic, plus she doesn’t have a picture of herself in the profile, but I still knew who she was with her name and the swim memory! How funny!
One of the friends that is going with me to the river, asked if I could get some for her, so now we have 3 floaties available and I am hoping all goes well because of course if they get damaged we will have to find replacements, but at least we are trying not to buy more plastic stuff for realistically very low use.
I recommend you look for these groups in your area. I know some people don’t even want to be on FB at all, but some of the groups and community forums could be quite useful and informative!
I know we are getting a unicorn shape floaty, a donut, and the third one is unspecified, so not sure what shape it will be, but I am so thankful for the power of this type of groups!
I searched for a few floaties and this came up, the crab one is so funny! Cherio!
Brownie! 