With Buy Nothing, find free gifts in your neighborhood faster than Amazon Prime

With three days until Christmas, where can you find a vintage women’s bike, a spare full-sized bed, and a set of glass ornaments?

For free. Buy Nothing groups in Seattle. Buy Nothing is the name of an organization created on Bainbridge Island. It's an online platform, used through Facebook or a phone app, where people give and receive goods for free with neighbors. No money changes hands, no trades or bartering, just people giving away things from their home and neighbors claiming them. Vacuums, drapes, dog beds, candles, you name it.

Co-founder Liesl Clark shared how they conceived of the project: "It was certainly a joyful moment in realizing 'hey, we can create a circular economy right here in our community,’ where we just keep reusing and re-sharing, and creating this circle of giving and these materials never have to leave the community and we can pass them along from one family to the next."

Clark and Rebecca Rockefeller started Buy Nothing in 2013. This holiday they're challenging members to buy less, and instead give or ask for holiday gifts and other items.

And although the holidays have always been a time to give and receive new items, folks are changing how they think about gifts. Preschool teacher Toni Ray asked for holiday items one night, and the next morning multiple neighbors had gifts to offer her. Ray wanted to spoil her secret Santa at school... on a budget.

Awaiting her on a neighbor’s porch was a bag filled with new spa items, like a head massager, stress-relief foot balm, beauty face masks, and more.

"It's a really cool way to use less and waste less,” Ray said.

Buy Nothing has exploded since its days as a small, island giving group. There are 6,800 Buy Nothing groups worldwide. It's gotten a lot of national media attention this year, including in The Washington Post and The New York Times.

When we asked KUOW members to share their Buy Nothing stories, 70 wrote back. One person said they did a 'Buy Nothing' Christmas last year and it was not so popular among family, so they're not repeating it.

A listener named Ann wrote that she just gave away a golf bag that her neighbor will using as a Christmas gift, and Ann received a guitar book that she's gifting to her nephew.

Marit wrote: "I've only received one item — a vintage cookie press to make our family traditional Christmas cookies as my modern plastic one didn't cut it, and you can't buy the old ones easily!"

But it's not a great model for small businesses and entrepreneurs. As listener Sally Prangley wrote, "I am an artist and rely on patrons buying my artwork for my income.”

And this is America, after all. Nearly 70% of the U.S. economy is made up of consumer spending. So at this point, even while people are gifting and sharing, most are also buying.

For more information on the Buy Nothing Project, head to: https://buynothingproject.org/