Buy Nothing Wallingford

We’ve all faced that dilemma: you’ve got something perfectly good, that you just don’t want: an old chair that it would just be a shame to throw away (it’s got lots of life left in it), a beautiful dress (it will fit someone, just not me), or maybe a lamp (need one that doesn’t clash with the new sofa). So what do you do with it?

Don’t throw it away, and no need to carry it all the way to the Goodwill donation box: try posting it to one of the local Buy Nothing Facebook groups, Buy Nothing Wallingford Central/East or Buy  Nothing Fremont/West Wallingford. One of your neighbors would be happy to spirit them away. And, while you’re at it, you can pick up something you need for free.

The two are part of a worldwide network of Buy Nothing Project groups, founded to encourage “hyper-local gift economies”: nothing is bought or sold or, nor even bartered or exchanged, only given. The it works is simple:

If you have something to give away, you post a description / photo to the Facebook group. People who want it reply to the post. You decide who gets it.

Anything worth having usually gets anywhere from a handful to a couple dozen requests, and the poster is under no obligation to give it to the first person who asks. Some do choose the first, but others say they’ll choose randomly or even ask those who reply to explain why they want it, so they can choose a “worthy” cause. Many opt for “whoever can come get it out of my house the fastest”.

It’s similar to The Freecycle Network, a similarly missioned network of Yahoo mailing lists, but the Buy Nothing groups are explicitly “hyper-local”: whereas there was one Seattle-wide Freecycle mailing list, the neighborhood of Wallingford alone has been divided into two separate groups, and you must be a resident of the area to join.

Recent items that have been posted include:

• Bluetooth earphones (“Great sound, easy to use and hold up to jogging….must be charged nightly (so I forget and then revert to my plug-in versions).”
• Bunch of Knitting Needles (“mismatched”)
• Two boxes of baby and toddler toys (one box all wooden, one box all plastic)
• Queen / princess dress (“would fit a four year old”)
• Leather motorcycle jacket (“vintage, worn a ton and embellished”)
• 3 moth collections (“in their glass and wood cases … Tried to donate these but UW connection is taking too long”)

And much more. You can also ask for things you need (“Rain paints? Rain boots? I just moved here and the gear I have for biking in just ain’t gonna cut it, I found out the other day,” Chuck declared), but there’s less of that.

According to the Buy Nothing about page:

The Buy Nothing Project began when two friends, Rebecca Rockefeller and Liesl Clark, created an experimental hyper-local gift economy on Bainbridge Island, WA. In just two and a half years, it has become a worldwide social movement, growing to over 280,000 members in 18 nations with 1300 groups and over 1700 volunteers.

If you’d like to join, visit the Facebook page appropriate to your address (Wallingford Central/East or Fremont/West Wallingford) and then read the READ THIS FIRST description that appears in the right-hand bar. It has instructions for who to contact for admittance (it depends on which group you’re applying to and your last name, there are several administrators).

And, if your extras are a little too valuable to just give away, you can also check out the LOCALS ONLY: Fremont/Wallingford Seattle – Buy, Sell, Swap Facebook group, which, as the name implies, allows you to buy, sell and, you guess it, swap items with your neighbors.