Share resources and goods
Create a neighborhood area to exchange unwanted items.
Start, join, or become a moderator for your local online reuse group such as Freecycle or Buy Nothing (details on these groups listed above).
Collaborate with your neighbors on a multi-family or neighborhood-wide yard sale.
Rent, borrow, or share large equipment, snow blowers, lawn mowers, and other large equipment with your neighbors, coworkers, and friends.
Contact your town’s Department of Public Works to find out if there is a community Swap Shed where residents can bring or pick up household items. If they don’t have one, request that they set one up.
Online Resources
Buy Nothing Project: A free online “gift economy” for reusing items, offering or requesting, that is made up of hyper-local neighborhood groups. Group moderators confirm your location from a social media profile and only allow members to join the group in their own neighborhood.
Craig’s List: A free online community for sharing resources, job listings, pets, rideshares—everything under the sun. The “For Sale” section includes free items as well.
Freecycle.org®: An online community for reusing items, offering or requesting, that is made up of local groups. Group membership is free after signing up with email. There are freecyle groups across Massachusetts, including Cambridge, Boston, and Somerville.
Thredup.com: An online thrifting and consignment experience. Women’s clothing only.
Poshmark.com: Buy and sell fashion, home decor, beauty, and more.
Instagram Accounts to follow: @sustainablemit, @netzerocompany, @earthlyeducation, @theoceancleanup
Local Charities
Solutions At Work, and the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence: Local non-profit charity organizations that accept donations of select household goods and clothing including children’s clothing and professional attire.
MIT Furniture Exchange – A service project of the MIT Women’s League open to MIT, Harvard, Emerson, BU, Suffolk, or Tufts community members with ID’s.