The Buy Nothing Project And 5 Reasons Why It’s Awesome

The Buy Nothing Project

A few days ago in my last post, I mentioned the Buy Nothing Project and how it has helped us get back to a more frugal minimalist lifestyle.

So what exactly is it?

The Buy Nothing Project is a network of hyper-local gift economies with the founding principle of “Give Where You Live.”

It began in 2013 with two friends from the state of Washington and since then, it is now a worldwide social movement with groups in 20 nations.

The rules are simple:

“Post anything you’d like to give away, lend, or share amongst neighbors. Ask for anything you’d like to receive for free or borrow. Keep it legal. Keep it civil. No buying or selling, no trades or bartering, we’re strictly a gift economy.”

It is a grass-roots volunteer-driven movement that relies on the goodwill and generosity of its members.

How it works

The project uses the Facebook groups platform. This is because you can see mutual friends within your community and you can build trust based on real-life connections via personal profile information on Facebook.

It has a relatively strict criteria for membership. To summarize, you have to be an adult, adhere to the rules and principles of conduct, and join only one local group.

Want to join? Find a group. There are many Buy Nothing Project groups across the country. I was surprised to see that even smaller countries such as Brunei and Vanuatu have local groups!

Don’t see your community listed? Start a group and build a community.

 

Why It’s Awesome

1. Receiving goods and services for free

Need a pickup truck for the day to help move some large furniture? Want to go on a date night but need a nearby baby sitter? Need a 10 foot ladder for a quick job, but don’t have one? Hoping to pick up a stroller for free from someone who no longer needs it?

These are all things that you can ask for on Buy Nothing Project. While there is no guarantee that you will receive what you ask for, it doesn’t hurt to to ask.

You can also browse group postings to see if you like any of the items that people are giving away. Sometimes you can find quality listings. Getting free stuff is always a plus for people who live a frugally.

2. Decluttering and minimalism

Nowadays, most people in this country live with too much unnecessary “stuff”.

Many of us have so much stuff accumulated that we often lose track of the important things. Can’t find your keys? Maybe it’s hiding underneath a pile of stuff.

Some people have such an excessive amount of stuff that they have to rent storage units to store them. Often times these items are kept in storage for years, untouched and unused. If you haven’t seen this stuff for years, is it really necessary to hold on to them?

You get the idea. Americans in general have way to much stuff and it is cluttering our lives. Because of this, minimalism is becoming a popular trend. More and more people want to get rid of unnecessary excess in order to focus on the essential things in life.

The Buy Nothing Project encourages a healthy outlet for decluttering and minimizing excess.

3. Giving away stuff in a useful, less wasteful way

Everyone has their own version of minimalism. After all, minimalism is an art.

Unfortunately, some people practice “minimalism” in a very wasteful way. For instance, some folks jump on the minimalism bandwagon simply because it is a trendy thing to do. These people would typically get rid of their junk by throwing it in the trash only to eventually replace it with new trendy crap that they will likely get tired of in the future. In this sense, some people use minimalism as an excuse to buy new stuff (“out with the old, in with the new”). This is terribly wasteful.

Luckily these “fake” minimalists are in the minority. Most people have good intentions. Instead of throwing away their unwanted clutter in the trash, many people try to donate their stuff to the GoodWill. However, a lot of stuff that is donated ends up in the landfill too.

Through the Buy Nothing Project, people are encouraged to give away their unwanted items to people who will actually use/want/need them. Because of this, the giver avoids sending their stuff to the landfill. Additionally, the receiver gains something that they need for free, thus avoids purchasing a new item, which in turn reduces the perpetual cycle of excessive demand, production, and consumption of goods in our society.

Remember “reduce, reuse, recycle”???

Reducing and reusing are better for the environment compared to recycling. The Buy Nothing Project encourages people to reduce and reuse, and thus live a more zero waste lifestyle.

4. Building community

The Buy Nothing Project uses Facebook groups as a platform. Because everybody’s profile within the group is transparent, it makes it easier to form trusting relationships within the community. And like I mentioned earlier, the groups are closed to the public and you have to meet certain criteria in order to join.

This trust and exclusivity within the local community makes it a lot of safer to give things freely. In our local Buy Nothing Project group, most of the members are stay at home moms and many are mutual friends. My wife has befriended several of the other moms through this network.

This platform feels a lot safer compared to something like Craigslist where she could be giving stuff to some random Joe Blow who might be a total creepster…

5. Fostering generosity and gratitude

The Buy Nothing Project promotes community building by fostering generosity and gratitude.

Here are some of the principles that they list on their website:

• We believe in abundance, we give, we ask, we share, we lend and we express gratitude.
• We measure wealth by the personal connections made and trust between people.
• We value people and their stories and narratives above the ‘stuff.’

Members of the group are encouraged to connect and interact with each other on Facebook and in real life. I have experienced this first-hand by observing my wife interact with other members in the community. The recipients of our “give aways” are always so grateful!

Giving and sharing is incredibly infectious because being generous makes us feel good about ourselves. Generosity and gratitude are important aspects of happiness and fulfillment.

 

Real Life Example

Remember the white paper flowers from the previous post?

Below is a real life example of the Buy Nothing Project in action. This is the actual listing that my wife originally posted on our local Facebook group.

(People’s names, the name of our community, and some faces have been blocked for the purpose of maintaining privacy.)

 

Surprisingly, multiple people asked to be considered for these flowers!

Two people wanted to use the flowers for a day to decorate a birthday party. Another inquirer wanted to use the flowers to permanently decorate a bare wall in a baby nursery.

The cool thing is that all of the people who requested the flowers had a chance to use them in the way they wanted.

My wife gave the white paper flowers to the person who was throwing the first party.

A few days later, the following expression of gratitude shows up on the Buy Nothing Project group feed.

 

These people then gave the flowers to the second person who wanted to use them as party decorations.

Then a few days after that, the flowers were passed on to the person who wanted to permanently decorate her bare wall.

She sent a direct message of gratitude to all of the people who participated in the sharing of the flowers.

 

If you recall, my wife’s friend was about to throw these flowers away. But instead of being sent to the landfill, they have been graciously used by three very grateful people in our community.

This is a perfect example of how the Buy Nothing Project is a great hyper-local gifting/giving/sharing circular economy that fosters generosity and gratitude within the community!

 

Call For Action

Don’t you think the Buy Nothing Project is pretty awesome?

Whether you’re a minimalist who wants to declutter your things or a frugal person who wants free stuff, the Buy Nothing Project can add some value in your life.

Join you local group. And if one doesn’t exist in your community, start one!