Used furniture: Tips for discovering, purchasing and cleaning
Buying second-hand items is a budget-friendly option for many people.
The problem has been resolved
Naomi Serviss has won a bookshelves and guitar stands.
Michelle Wolf has gotten three spin bikes. Two spin bikes for teacher classrooms and one for myself.
Joni Holderman got a gentle used rug that was sold for $1,000.
They are part of a growing trend in consumers offering things free via “No Buy,” “Buy Nothing,” or local community groups that are often tagged with the word “free” and community name on Facebook or other web platforms.
These groups provide connections between community members and those looking for neighbors and items who want to provide things for free. We also support the environment by keeping unnecessary belongings out of waste and landfills.
Naomiservis in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, it is a hyperlocal gift economy. She received countless items and handed over by purchasing Nothing Groups, both in her current hometown and in New York City.
Give and receive “electric treasures”
Selvis is a long-standing slifter. But getting something for free is even better.
When Selvis lived on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, she acquired what she called a free “elic treasure.”
Among them were African masks, soft sculpture art, decorative sofa pillows, and even runner rugs that fit the hallways, she said.
“I was happy to hand over the branded raincoat, sporty hat and formal gowns for wedding guests, which I wore once to my neo’s Albany wedding eight years ago,” she told USA Today.
One of her favorite “Gets” was a “stellar” red embroidered kimono, Serviss said. She mounted it on the wall of her one bedroom apartment.
“It was a beauty thing, and when it came time to abandon it, I handed it over to an interesting neighbor,” she said.
When Celis and her husband moved to Rhode Island, she found a new local shopping group.
Servis presented a new set of turquoise IKEA stone products to anyone who posted a “ISO” or “search” message for kitchenware in his grandson’s new apartment.
“Come to this, that same member offered me an impressive antique African doll,” Celis said. “When she responded to my interests, she mentioned how much her grandson loved cooking and wanted me to have a doll!”
Whatever the buy group would buy anything?
The largest network of the Buy Nothing Group through Facebook and the web portal is via the Buy Nothing Project, founded in 2013 by two friends, Liesl Clark and Rebecca Rockefeller.
There were three reasons why women started their first group, Clark told USA Today in an interview: to help save the environment, create an economy of gifts to share items, and help people connect socially with each other.
“We all need each other, and we can create a circular economy within our community and continue to share clothes with our children in particular,” she said.
The woman met on Freecycle. Freecycle is a long-standing web platform where people can post what they have to offer.
Friends launched their own concept on Facebook and created the first Buy Nothing Group on Bainbridge Island, Washington.
Within a few hours, they had gone from two women to hundreds.
The idea is now a global social movement, with 12.85 million users of Facebook groups and 1.5 million people participating in the BuyNothing app available online at https://buynothingproject.org. People in 44 countries have registered groups on Facebook that have not purchased anything, and app downloads come from around 193 countries, Clark said.
“We had no intention of growing the social movement,” she said. “We were meant to solve problems in our own community. That was the amount of plastic we wash on land.”
How to join a no-buy group
It doesn’t cost people to join a buying group. If someone wants to create a new purchase group on Facebook, the license costs $10. The project then stated that it would set up groups and load general rules to start groups.
Clark said there are groups on Facebook who do not register using the name Nothing. She said Facebook also has a similar concept of offering free items within its community, as well as people who provide things on the Facebook Marketplace and don’t belong to it.
Buy Nothing Project also developed a mobile app and website https://buynothingproject.org that can be used by people who do not want to join Facebook. People can find local groups, join global groups online or on the app, or pay minimal shipping for free items. It helps to open up the concept to people in the community who may be too small for their group, Clark said.
What are the rules for a group that buys nothing or is free?
All purchasing groups cannot be accompanied by money and nothing agrees with some general rules, including that illegal activities are not permitted. However, after that, each group has its own rules.
A group of Michelle Wolf near Pleasantville, New York, asks the gifter to wait six hours before choosing a “winner.” Wolf said when she’s giving something, sometimes she picks someone based on their “story” and sometimes she uses the app to randomly choose someone.
Wolf “wind” the spin bike when a friend, a teacher of a disabled student, explained that he had broken a spin bike in the classroom.
The kids in the classroom were excited, so did the gifters, Wolf said. She also got a second bike for her friend’s classroom, then one bike for herself.
Holderman said he loves The Buy Nothing Group because he “changes our way of thinking from one of rarity and struggles to one of agriculture and sharing.”
$1,000 “free” rug
The best thing that Joni Holderman from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina received in her group was a West Elm 8 x 10-foot rug, which when she looked at retail value, turned out to be worth $1,000.
“I know it was lightly used, but it’s great,” she said.
Holderman handed me a big beach themed dresser, a sofa and more. She still donates to charities, but for something like a couch, she has to pull it. Instead, someone came and got it.
Instead of making money to sell on the Facebook Marketplace, Holderman wants to pass things on to someone he appreciates. “There’s a whole thing beyond the price. It’s almost antagonistic relationship.”
Free groups help people struggling in this economy
According to Clark, there is nothing particularly useful in today’s economy that communities and similar groups are.
“Everyday people struggle, and we have doubts about where our economy is going and we want to be that safety net,” Clark said.
Groups connect people with one another.
“They come for things,” Clark said, “and they stay for the community.”
Betty Lin-Fisher is a consumer reporter for USA Today. Contact her at blinfisher @usatoday.com or follow her on X, Facebook, or Instagram @Blinfisher, @Blinfisher.bsky.social.. Sign up for our free daily money newsletter. This includes Friday’s Consumer News.
