Buy Nothing Charlestown Facebook Group Helps You De-Clutter
Have you made a resolution to de-clutter your home? Do you have something that you want to get rid of, but can’t bear to send to the landfill, or maybe it isn’t quite valuable enough to deal with the hassle of trying to sell it? Well there’s a Facebook group to answer all these questions and it turns out it does more than just remove clutter, it also helps to build community.
Buy Nothing Facebook groups are a global movement that help people live sustainably by saving them money, reducing waste, and strengthening their community. Our local group is Buy Nothing Charlestown. Locals can post items they want to give away or are in need of — for free. The founders of the Buy Nothing Project call their Facebook groups a “gift economy.”
If you have a Facebook account, then to join the group, go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/249490964346220 and click on the “Join Group” button. This page will also display the rules for the group, some of which are displayed below.
Some of the Buy Nothing rules:
- Give, receive, lend, share, and show gratitude in hyper-local gift economies, where the true wealth is the connections between real neighbors.
- Members use their personal Facebook profiles (no business accounts).
- Anything legal is allowed as a gift/ask. Follow all national and local laws, as well as Facebook’s Community Guidelines/Regulated Goods list.
- Incivility, cruelty, insults, slurs or hate speech will not be tolerated.
- All gifts must be given without any strings attached and without any expectation of reward other than the joy of giving. No buying, selling, bartering, or trading.
Examples of items that have recently been given and received include children’s clothes and toys, dishes, canning supplies, indoor and outdoor furniture, gardening supplies, indoor plant pots and saucers, jewelry, books, Christmas decorations, luggage and lots more.
Once you join the group, you can watch for a few days to get an idea of what people might want and then you’ll be on your way to turning your clutter into someone else’s treasure.
I’ve given away over 200 canning jars, an unused digital thermometer, terracotta plant bottoms, ceramic plant pots, plastic plant pots, a vermicomposting system, a food dehydrator, a tomato press, baskets, a beautiful vase that I just didn’t have room for, a very large aquarium, roller skates, speakers, a room air conditioner, some gallon glass jars that someone actually had a need for, and other items I’ve already forgotten! This has been one of the easiest and most rewarding ways to reduce clutter and keep items out of the landfill.
Buy Nothing Charlestown is a “sprout” of the previous combined Charlestown and South Kingstown group. That group has been eliminated and two new groups created. If you previously were a member of the combined group, you will now need to rejoin, and in the case of Charestown residents and home owners you will now need to join the Charlestown only group.
You can learn more about the author, Ruth Platner, at her profile page.