Really Really Free Market KC

You can search "free store" to find one near you. Many counties, cities, cool anarchists, and some churches, run "stores" where people drop off donations and then you can go and have the things for free. This is very similar to thrifting, except you don't pay $12 for a temu t-shirt. You just get the t-shirt for free. Some of my absolute favorite pieces of clothing have come from places like this. They will sometimes be called "community closets", "free markets", "swap meets" (not all swap meets are free, some are more like a garage sale type thing), and a variety of other names.

There are also "buy nothing" groups on Facebook that are very very good, $0 items on online marketplaces, an entire "free" category of Craigslist, and even people giving things away on those creepy panopticon "neighborhood" apps like next door. I use an aggregator called "freebie alerts", it's free and you can choose which websites it pulls from and set up "whitelist" notifications for items you are looking for (for example, I had one set up that gave me a notification anytime someone posted an office chair. It did not take very long to find a good office chair after that, very convenient.)

Support the Gainesville Free Store

Hi! The city of Gainesville, Florida is one of the worst places in America to be homeless, but the good news is that it's also in the middle of an apocalyptic housing crisis. One of the community initiatives helping ease the pressure on Gainesville's impoverished, racialized, and over-policed communities is the Gainesville Free Store, run out of the beloved Civic Media Center and Stetson Kennedy Library. On the 3rd Saturday, the Gainesville Free Store sets up to distribute donations of clothes, shoes, housewares, toys, and anything else one might need, all free of charge. A lot of people depend on the Free Store, especially with the weather getting colder and the holidays coming up, and with the way things are going it looks like Gainesville is gonna be needing its Free Store more and more as time goes on. They could use some help!

Donations of goods can be made at the Civic Media Center at 433 South Main Street, but these can only accepted while the store is operational (every 3rd Saturday: check Facebook and Instagram for specific dates / requested donations)

The overwhelming majority of the people reading this almost certainly don't live anywhere near Gainesville, Florida, but they accept monetary donations! Kick your spare change over to https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/cmc4ever or https://account.venmo.com/u/cmc4ever and put "For the Free Store" in the note (don't worry if u forget -- unspecified donations to the CMC will go to the upkeep of the space!)

Reblog this post! Getting more eyes on this project would be super helpful all on its own! Share it far and wide!