One of my favorite pandemic trends that has stuck around has been the popularity of neighborhood Buy Nothing groups. If you aren’t familiar, these groups are online spaces where people can post freely-given items they no longer have a use for — not trash, but items of value that would be more valuable to a new owner. Our household has found untold treasures — a full-size table saw, stacks of puzzles, a coat sized for a Chihuahua but suitable to a Midwest winter, plants, containers and enough lumber to fuel multiple summers’ worth of hobby projects — and we’ve given away in kind. On top of being a wonderful way to support our home renovation habit, the group has been a nice mechanism for meeting neighbors and getting a sense of what people are up to around us, even when we don’t see them every day.
These groups — based on the concept of a “gift economy” — really re-frame the process of clearing the clutter from your home. When you see things as value, you might be tempted to hang on to certain high ticket items with the hope that you could sell them on Craigslist, or perhaps return to the hobby or project one day so you don’t waste the investment you made. When you see things as possibilities, once they aren’t possible for you any longer, it makes more sense to pass them on to someone who can realize their potential, rather than taking up space in your closet or garage.
That was one of my main takeaways from this weekend’s show, all about why we have so much stuff. Journalist Adam Minter shared an insight in that show that has resonated with me ever since — one of the most ecologically destructive things we can do is needlessly hang on to a piece of technology or stuff when it could instead be in the hands of someone who can make use of it — passing on that car or computer or phone or tool could keep one less thing from being needlessly produced.
—Mark