Buy Nothing – Facebook groups
Buy Nothing is a social movement that connects local community members to exchange many different kinds of free items. A Facebook account is required to participate in your local group; to make your account you must provide a name, email or phone number, birthday, and gender.
Once you have made a Facebook account, you can ask to join your local community’s Buy Nothing group. Visit the link at the top to find groups that are active in your city. To find your city or neighborhood more easily, press CTRL + F on your keyboard and type your area’s name into the search window that appears. Click the link for the one that is closest to you and request to join. You may be asked to provide some information to assure the people who run the group that you are a local.
Once you have been accepted into a Buy Nothing group, you can make posts for items you would like to give or items you are looking for. If you are giving an item, it is helpful to provide a short description of the items, a picture of the items, and a general location where people can pick them up. People will then message you on Facebook or comment on the post if they are interested. If you are interested in someone else’s item, comment on the post or message them directly. If you are looking for an item, make a post describing the item you are looking for and someone may have one to offer you.
Tip: While most Buy Nothing transactions are friendly, please be careful when meeting with strangers. Here are some safety tips to make sure that you are not harmed when giving or taking items from a Buy Nothing group:
- Meet in a public place, not your own home
- Bring a friend and tell others where you are going
- Check the Facebook account of the person you are doing the transaction with. If it does not look trustworthy to you, you do not need to follow through with the transaction.
- Do not give away personal information such as your address, birth date, financial information, identification, etc.
Craigslist is an internet marketplace, where people in the community (including yourself) can post items and apartments for sale, as well as make community posts and post job applications. At the link above, you will see the Seattle Craigslist page. You can easily change the location by clicking on “Seattle-Tacoma” at the top of the page, typing in your city, and clicking “choose this location.” Then you can search for furniture, vacuums, sewing machines, or other things that you might need, and use the filters to refine your search for specific products, prices, or locations. To sell something on Craigslist, you can click “create a posting” in the top left corner and navigate through the menus to include information about what you are offering.
Tip: While most Craigslist transactions are friendly, please be careful when meeting with strangers. Here are some safety tips to make sure that you are not harmed when buying items from strangers:
- Meet in a public place, not your own home
- Bring a friend and tell others where you are going
- Do not give away personal information such as your address, birth date, financial information, identification, etc.
- Use safe and instant payment methods such as PayPal, Venmo, CashApp, or Facebook Messenger. Each of these apps can be downloaded on your phone and offer payment protection options so you can get your money back if the item is not as described. Make sure to label the money sent as a purchase and not a personal transaction to enable purchase protection.
Facebook Marketplace is an online storefront where anyone can post items for sale, including you. A Facebook account is required to participate in Marketplace; to make your account you must provide a name, email or phone number, birthday, and gender. You can look at items without an account but you will not be able to contact a seller. You can use the search bar or categories to find the types of items you are looking for.
Once you have made a Facebook account, you can message the seller of any items you need. You can ask them questions, work out how much you will buy the item for, where you will meet to pick up the item, and settle other details about the transaction.
Scam alert: If someone sends you a request for a “code” Scammers are now trying to make you prove who you are in a multi-step scam. They’ll send you a text message with a six-digit Google Voice verification code and ask you for that code. If you give it to them, they’ll try to use it to create a Google Voice number linked to your phone number
Tip: While most Facebook Marketplace transactions are friendly, please be careful when meeting with strangers. Here are some safety tips to make sure that you are not harmed when buying items from strangers:
- Meet in a public place, not your own home
- Bring a friend and tell others where you are going
- Check the Facebook account of the person you are doing the transaction with. If it does not look trustworthy to you, you do not need to follow through with the transaction.
- Do not give away personal information such as your address, birth date, financial information, identification, etc.
- Use safe and instant payment methods such as PayPal, Venmo, CashApp, or Facebook Messenger. Each of these apps can be downloaded on your phone and offer payment protection options so you can get your money back if the item is not as described. Make sure to label the money sent as a purchase and not a personal transaction to enable purchase protection. Options such as Zelle do not offer purchase protection and are not recommended for Facebook Marketplace.
Grassroots nonprofit hoping to reduce waste by listing free furniture and household items. The Freecycle Network® is made up of more than 5,000 local Town groups with over 9 million members across the globe. It’s a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Membership is free, and everything posted must be free, legal and appropriate for all ages.
When you sign up for Freecycle, you join one or more local Town groups and/or invite some local friends to form a Friends Circle. You make posts about things you want to give or receive. Other members reply, and then you arrange a pickup time and location.