I'm Part of the Problem (And You Should Be Too)

I’m typing on a Bluetooth keyboard that I found on the Free Stuff Shelf in our laundry room long ago. The original batteries died, so I replaced them from a bag of batteries, also found on the Free Stuff Shelf. The giant mug I use for my morning coffee is something that someone had left on the Free Stuff Shelf as well — I’m a taker! But I am also a giver. I have left an assortment of dishes, pots, flower pots, potted plants, and artwork on the shelf. I leave nice stuff. I normally bring stuff down in the course of doing my laundry. As I leave the laundry room, it never fails to delight me to see people examining, considering, and taking the things I've left behind!

In the course of human events, we cycle through stuff. Our kids outgrow their games, we want to reclaim space taken up by unused cookware or athletic equipment, we want to declutter, the quantity of something we purchased is more than we need, and so on. There is a dynamic mismatch between the stuff we have at a given moment and what we still want to keep. But our stuff has value, and we don't want it to go to waste! Fortunately, though, we live in a large community, and our mismatch has two sides — many of the things we want carted away are simultaneously desired by our neighbors!

There has always been a "stuff economy" in our buildings — people would drop off unwanted stuff on a laundry room shelf and other people would pick it up. It's part of our culture. Problems with this should be addressed, but instead of addressing them, our Board recently decided to declare that the "Free Stuff Shelves" are now "Books Only Shelves". And to emphasize this point, they announced that cameras were being installed and that Shareholders "dumping" other items will be fined!

Not only does this new policy do a disservice to the people who might want items that become available, but is a cultural disservice, as well — recall that the Lower East Side co-ops were built as quality homes for the working class, and that thrift and stewardship were core values in every aspect of thier development! These values are part of our tradition; they ought to be respected and retained. And frankly, this policy is also a disservice to those who don't want the things they are discarding to end up in landfills. And speaking of landfills, this policy is a profound disservice to our planet as well — The Story of Stuff is an excellent video that presents the scope and implications of our consumption-and-disposal driven lifestyle.

Finally, apart for all this disservice, the tone of the Board's memo — warning that cameras are trained on the Free Stuff Shelves and that violators will be fined — is flat-out offensive. SPC is a people-centered community, and we ought to facilitate people-centered activities such as being able to exchange our stuff.

What to do?

First, it would be worth knowing which Directors voted for this policy to be enacted. These Directors should be pressed to articulate their opinions on the matter, and they should be urged to reconsider.

Second, and regardless, we should officially turn the Free Stuff Shelves back into shelves for free stuff, with some guiding policies:

1. We should establish types of items that can be accepted. For example, no perishables, no mattresses, no broken stuff, no trash.
2. Markers and painter’s tape should be made available, and, when leaving items, Shareholders should clearly mark them with the date. Items with no dates would be discarded immediately.
3. When cleaning the room at the end of every week, items that are more than a week (or two) old should be discarded.
4. The size of the shelves vary in the different buildings. We should ensure that the shelves are big enough to hold a reasonable assortment of stuff without it falling to the floor.