In the age of inflation, more people are giving away their stuff on Facebook | CBC News

Years before Facebook existed, Darlene Sovran hosted a small group of friends in her Sudbury, Ont., home for regular swap meets.

“So people would bring their things and we would all gather around,” she said, describing the get-togethers that started in 2000.

“There’s lots of ways you can do it. Some people just have it where they all put things in big piles and people go around grabbing at things the way that I used to run it.”

Those meet-ups went on for years. Sovran said it was a way to give new life to items she no longer needed, and to prevent other people’s things from ending up in a landfill.

“Each person would take their turn, and they would open up their bag and they would pull out item by item, and if somebody wanted it, their hand would go up,” she said.

“If more than one person wanted it, it would go into a sub pile where after the whole thing was done, if someone had a huge pile and someone else didn’t find much, well then they get it.”

Sovran said the meet-ups also gave people a chance to share stories about the items they chose to give away.

“Maybe you travelled to India and you got this piece. So it’s incorporating stories with the items, and the nostalgia of it.”

Once it’s gone, it’s gone. So my brain isn’t holding on to them.– Darlene Sovran

When the COVID-19 pandemic started early in 2020, it became more difficult to host the swap meets in person. Sovran’s friend, Holly Graham, created a private Facebook group to take it online so members could keep sharing items while maintaining a safe distance.

Through word of mouth, the group has grown to include more than 800 members across Greater Sudbury.

If someone has an item they want to give away, they post a comment with a description and some photos. The first person to claim it in the comments gets first dibs on the item.

They would then contact the person who posted the item in a private message to arrange for a pickup.

Sovran said she’s picked up everything from free clothing, to a lava lamp and even a Guitar Hero controller from the group.

As for the items she has given away, she said that’s harder to remember.

“Once it’s gone, it’s gone. So my brain isn’t holding on to them,” she said. 

Sovran said the group has remained private so it doesn’t grow too quickly and to make it easier to ensure people follow the rules.

Because of those precautions, she said issues — where someone takes an item they didn’t claim, for example — have been rare.

While the group is slow to expand, Sovran said it’s easy for anyone to start their own online swap groups with their friends.

“All it takes is a person going on Facebook and saying, ‘Hey, let’s do this,'” she said.

A group for parents

Jennifer Holub followed that advice. She’s a member of Sovran’s private group, but noticed a large number of children’s items were posted.

So she started a spinoff group for parents called Buy Nothing as they Grow.

Because young children grow so quickly, Holub said, there was a need for a separate group with a more specific focus.

“We wanted to have a child, but we definitely didn’t want to have our child make a crazy big impact on the world the way babies do, you know, with disposable diapers and plastic going into landfills,” Holub said.

“So this swap group has been amazing.”

Holub said most of the things she has for her daughter — including toys, books and clothes — came from the swap group.

To pay it forward, she regularly posts items when her daughter grows out of them or no longer has any interest in them.

“As soon as our daughter doesn’t need something anymore or grows out of it, it goes right back into the swap group because we are allergic to stuff,” Holub said.

Once a month, Holub posts an “in search of” update where people can list particular children’s items they need.

As with the general group, she said, Buy Nothing as they Grow has expanded in size rapidly and also has more than 800 members.

A pandemic reason to buy nothing

Liesl Clark, co-founder and chief executive officer of the Buy Nothing Project, said buy nothing or swap groups have grown rapidly across North America since the pandemic.

Buy Nothing is a U.S.-based benefit corporation that tracks and lists buy nothing or swap groups around the world, and provides resources to support those communities. (A benefit corporation is for profit, and must legally have a beneficial social or environmental purpose). 

Clark said they estimate there are over seven million people around the world who are part of online buy nothing groups. 

“During the pandemic, within the first year, we grew by a third, and now we’ve essentially tripled in size in terms of numbers of people.”

In Canada, Buy Nothing lists nearly 600 online swap groups. But Clark said that number doesn’t capture them all. The private groups in Sudbury, for example, aren’t listed.

Clark said some people join buy nothing groups for environmental reasons, but for others, there’s also a financial incentive. 

“With some supply chain disruptions, with interest rates rising, we are finding that people are coming to buy nothing literally as an economic safety net to help each other through this sort of social media.”

Now Buy Nothing also has its own app so people not on Facebook can participate. 

Liesl said young people, who are less likely to use Facebook, are especially interested in the app as a way of participating in the gifting economy.