Buy Nothing Project: How to Get the Items You Need for Free

So what is the Buy Nothing Project?

This was a project started by two friends in the USA who looked around and saw that a lot of things were going to landfill that could be recycled and shared. The Buy Nothing Project is an awesome opportunity to be able to give, receive, share, lend and build an amazing community right where you live.

Each Buy Nothing community consists of about four or five suburbs. To find a group, you just put in where you live and they connect you. You can only be in one group at a time, so if you move, you can move groups.

I see such a wide range of things being gifted there, from baby things to home offers to garden. The list is endless. If you can think about it, it is there. Usually people post stuff when they have an excess or when their child grows out of something, so all the products are good quality and deserve a new life.

Buy Nothing Project rules

If you join, there are some Buy Nothing Project rules to follow: some are general, and some are unique to each group. When you are posting something, you are asked to use one of the following hashtags:

• #give or #gift
• #wanted or #lookingfor
• #gratitude, which is used to give back to the community and say thanks when you have received something and put it to use.

The Buy Nothing Project in the Facebook group for our area is awesome. I have been able to make some great friends as well, which is a bonus, and also reconnect with people I have not been in touch with for a while.

We are all invested in each other’s lives, checking how each other’s projects are going, and it really goes a long way to strengthen the community.

Apart from things that are gifted, we have some items that are traveling throughout the community, serving whoever needs them at a given moment. For instance, in our Buy Nothing group, there are traveling suitcases filled with clothes for different sizes and ages.

Once you get the suitcase, you go through it and pick out whatever you are interested in, perhaps add some things that you had lying around at home, and then pass it to the next person.

We also have a traveling sewing box and quite a few other items that get used by whoever needs them right now, such as steam cleaners, a vacuum cleaner, gardening tools, and so on. This way, when I need to use something, I always check if it is borrowable before spending money.

Often people will often ask for #giftofservice: if you need help from a professional or just someone with a skill, you can ask in the group. I often see posts looking for a sewer or a handyman, and it is amazing to see people volunteer to help.

We have a sewer in our group, and she often suggests her services to others. For example, she will write: “I am looking to create a pair of pants for a toddler, this is the material”, and whoever is interested will put their name below.

It is important to stress that there is no bartering in the Buy Nothing group. You give freely without the expectation of getting something in return. There is also no exchanging things: for example, when it comes to collectibles, you are welcome to give away your excess, but you cannot trade or swap in the group. Most groups would have a designated post for those collectibles, so the whole page is not flooded with them.

Of course, there is a bit of an etiquette in the Buy Nothing group that you would be best to abide by. For example, there is no “first come first served” tradition. When someone puts something up, you can claim you are interested in the comments and share the story of why you need that item, but it is up to the gifter to decide who gets it.

Usually offers come with a “will simmer for 24 hours” label, which means that after that time the gifter will contact whoever they pick. Of course, there are also posts marked as #flashgift, which means that the gifter wants the item gone ASAP. In that case, the item usually goes to the first person that says they can come and pick it up.

In my group, people are really generous, so they will often end up having a whole box of stuff at their front door, each item labeled with the name of a different taker. This is what happens when people are decluttering their entire home.

Indeed, you are expected to be respectful and only pick up what belongs to you. Once I get home, I always message the person and express my gratitude, and when I put the item to use, I take a photo and put it in the group with #gratitude. Sometimes those posts even get shared on the bigger Facebook page to share what is going on in our community and share the love.

Here are some of the things I have received over the past weeks:

• A book by Sophie Green, an author I really like
• Batting I am going to use for a quilt
• An IKEA organizer I am going to use to organize scrap papers for junk journaling
• Potato seeds, snowpeas, and chamomile seeds for my garden, as well as some other plants
• Bubble wrap to put on the windows in the winter
• Strawberry runners
• Oranges
• A glass jar to replace the coffee jar I have smashed
• A decorative teapot
• A bag of fabric scraps for junk journaling
• A whole lot of coat hangers
• A cake stand I am going to use for plants

Buy Nothing Project

I am so happy I joined the project, and I feel blessed to be part of such a great community. I hope I have inspired you to join your local Buy Nothing group. If you do, share your experience in the comments below!