On Buy Nothing’s 10th Anniversary, 10 Tales of Gratitude and Community

The things that get passed around my neighborhood’s Buy Nothing group range from used clothing to leftover cake to entire houses worth of furniture. Mylar balloons travel from party to party. We have a ton of young families, so baby and toddler stuff gets swapped regularly. No one wants an Exersaucer to stick around longer than necessary, can you imagine?

Full disclosure: I’m sitting here on a Buy Nothing chair, at a Buy Nothing desk, typing this story.

Buy Nothing is an online group where neighbors give each other things they no longer need. Members can ask for things, and give away gently used items to keep them out of the landfill. The Buy Nothing Project was launched by two women on Bainbridge Island in 2013. In this past decade, according to Buy Nothing, it has grown to 7.5 million users from every country on the planet.