The Buy Nothing Project

I joined my local Buy Nothing Group about a year ago, and started serving as the admin for the group about eight months ago.  I kinda love it.  

According to the Buy Nothing Project:   

We offer people a way to give and receive, share, lend, and express gratitude through a worldwide network of hyper-local gift economies in which the true wealth is the web of connections formed between people who are real-life neighbors.

Basically, it’s a Facebook group.  To join, members must be adults and live within the group’s geographic borders in real life.  The borders delineate the hyper-local gift economy.  So the Los Angeles area has 75 Buy Nothing Groups, with several more mapped out and waiting to start.   Each group has anywhere from 20 to over 1,000 members.  Liesl Clark and Rebecca Rockefeller founded the Buy Nothing Project in 2013 in Bainbridge Island, Washington.  Within five years, the founders’ one little gifting economy turned into a worldwide network. Now it spans six continents, 30 countries and 3,500 Facebook groups with over 750,000 members.  (I got these numbers from my regional admin Jaime Rosier.)

The point is to create groups of real life neighbors and then buy nothing.  Obviously people still need to buy some things, like groceries and gas and co-pays.  Still, there’s lots to share, and sharing the abundance that exists within neighborhoods and communities helps eliminate waste.  When I first joined, it just seemed like a great way to get stuff for free and an easy way to donate the things I didn’t want anymore.  Instead of having to drive to the donation center, I could just leave the stuff on the front porch and a neighbor takes it away.

Turns out, it’s so much better than that.  Yes, it is an easy way to get a surprising variety of things for free.  Some of my favorite gifts I’ve received include the bird feeder in our backyard and a Batman cape for my son.  I’ve borrowed costumes for Halloween and snow gear for weekend adventures.  Recently, someone fixed a tear in one of my pants.  We’ve been gifted entire wardrobes for both kids.  I’ve also seen neighbors help completely furnish a nursery and offer rides to pickup bulky items. One guy cleans and repairs rusted tools. People have gifted pet gear, shower hooks, plant cuttings, electronics, and art.  Recently, someone offered cases of just the lids to mason jars.  SEVERAL neighbors responded and received them as gifts.  Who knew so many people would need just the lids?

Members are free to ask for gifts, big and small.  People are free to give or to lend, but there can be no trades or payment of any kind. Gifts are usually things, but they may also be time or talent.  The gift giver may pick, for whatever reason, who receives their gift, unlike most marketplace groups which require things be given to the first commenter.  Most people are both gift-givers and gift-receivers.

I finally got around to offering my group lemons from our super fertile tree. 

A lemon ? haiku
So many lemons
On the big, yellow tree.  Lots.
Do you wants some too?

Let me know if you’d like some lemons ? 
and I’ll split them up and set them out this afternoon. 

I left the post up for a day.  Ten neighbors are coming by to get some lemons.  A couple even wrote me haikus!  

I love lemons too. Please consider me for them. 
Yay for tart lemons!

Lemons lemons yum 
Need some want some got some yum 
Coming for some yum.

Lemons! Lemons, please. Sour, sweet and yummy too. 
Lemons equal bliss.

The Project fundamentally functions on the premise that there exists abundance in every community and it serves to help neighbors connect and tap into that abundance.  It’s the difference between a gift economy and a charity.  The Buy Nothing Project states, “We see no difference between want and need, waste and treasure.”  

This is profound.

The gift economy works because there is abundance and there is need.  Neighbors who give and neighbors who receive are vital to the gift economy.  New life is given to the things one neighbor is done with and another wants and treasures.  It isn’t about getting free stuff, like I thought.  It isn’t about getting rid of the junk I don’t want anymore.  It really is about neighborliness – participating in a community in order to serve others through giving and receiving.  As a result, I’ve noticed a reduction in waste and personal expenses, a connection to my neighbors, and an increasing sense of gratitude and belonging.

Over time, this group has changed how I see my community and how I see things.  Now, when we need or want something – a new dresser, help with homework, beach toys – I check with my Buy Nothing Group first. I consider whether I actually need to own the item.  Does it really have to be “new with tags” and mine for keeps.  When I’m cleaning and decluttering, I think of my neighbors.  I’d hate to let go of this purple lampshade I bought back in college, but didn’t someone just post of picture of their daughter’s room and wouldn’t the lamp just look perfect there?  It makes me so happy when something I no longer have use for goes to someone in town who needs just that thing.  

Of course there are times when community life is not idyllic – the disappointment of not getting picked for a particularly desirable item, neighbors failing to pick up items in a timely manner, or people being rude.  It’s not the norm but it does happen.  Still, it’s one of my favorite places on social media.

Search Facebook to find your local Buy Nothing Group and join.  I’m willing to bet you’ll discover your neighborhood is better than you imagined.  You’ll find gifts and gratitude surround you.