I love free. It feels like such a gift. Well it is a gift.
In Kits, people are quite attuned to free. Walk down any alley and you might find items marked “free”!
I’m the administrator of the facebook group Buy Nothing Kitsilano (Central) where neighbours give away stuff; enjoy receiving stuff and–my favorite part–expressing their gratitude. And it’s not just stuff! We offer gifts of self. There are some rules, but they’re easy once you get used to them. Just stick to give, ask and gratitude and you’ll be fine. No outside resources or advice. So if someone asks for someone to hem their pants, unless you’re willing and able to do that, please don’t post a youtube video or a repair cafe. Just breathe and wait. One of your neighbours might volunteer. My group is for people who live in Kits and north of Broadway. There are groups all over the world. You can find yours by going to buynothingproject.org if you’re not in my area.
My main contribution is my Free Herb garden at the Roundabout Garden at 6th & Trafalgar. Click here for updated posts.
Please come by and pick anything you see.
Free Store on West Point Grey
First it was Little Free Libraries and now Free Stores are springing up in Vancouver. Well, one sprung up in West Point Grey and now the initiator of that one, Nic of Afeatherway and I are going to the next one. We’ll be inviting people to a design session and then a build session.
Our grant covers snacks and the materials for one free store – but you could come along and design and build your own store too.
I’d love housing co-ops to have free stores. What I think can work is that it’s a contained space rather than a spill-over space. I know free areas in housing co-ops have sometimes become unruly and then abandoned.
Here are photos for (so far as I know) Vancouver Free Store #1. Here’s an article about it: https://pricetags.wordpress.com/2017/03/23/community-free-store/ It’s between Bayswater & Balaclava on the south side of Point Grey Road.
Stay tuned for the next one.
What would your Free Store look like?