If you are moved by the abundance of waste in your neighborhood, are concerned about your neighbors in need, are a fan of building and strengthening community, want to take action to reject capitalism, or just enjoy the mystery of seeing colorful displays of random items, each with a story, you’re not alone! And that’s great news because teamwork is the dreamwork for creating a free store or neighborhood sharing hub. Free stores are an extension of the gift economy, where all items are available to anyone at no charge.
Autonomous systems of exchange and free stores can range from pop-up events to small sharing shelves to larger-scale, 24/7 structures, and brick-and-mortar storefronts. And you don’t need a lot of experience to start one!
Free stores are alive and evolve with their communities’ needs and abilities. In Hell’s Kitchen, New York City, our neighborhood group initially held store events called “Swap, Share and Shmooze.” We eventually launched the Hell’s Kitchen Free Store, a 24/7 outdoor sharing hub. Today, the volunteer community continues to hold pop-up events.
We love visiting free stores and learning from the awesome folks working on them, large and small, across the globe. This guide includes tips and considerations inspired by our collective best practices and lessons learned to ensure that your free store brings joy, needed resources, and success while remaining manageable. We hope they will be helpful as you work to get one more free store off the ground.
If you build it, they will come—almost guaranteed!
Identify a good location and space.
There is a lot to consider when securing a good location and getting started, particularly for a community 24/7 free store. This will vary based on your neighborhood, existing relationships, desire to go “by the book,” openness to “going rogue,” and more. For smaller-scale free stores, some folks just put a neighborhood sharing shelf in front of their own home or office. Indoor and brick-and-mortar-free stores are pretty fabulous too, although they are less likely to be accessible 24/7. For example, the Media Free Store in Media, PA, has a physical building open for shopping on Wednesdays and Saturdays for four hours a day. Below is a list of considerations for a free store location and space.
Consider convenience, traffic flow, and access.
Relatively quiet side streets, just off a busier street, may work well, with the right balance of quiet and foot traffic. Co-locating with a community fridge or other mutual aid initiative is also good. Ensure the free store is convenient for you and other volunteers to visit regularly.
Good lighting is key.
Whether light is built into the space, shines from street lights, or if you install it yourself (just beware, someone may think it’s available for taking), a well-lit space becomes better cared for space.
Ensure the space is accessible.
For free stores to be a community resource to all, remember the importance of inclusive design, like making sure the store is wheelchair accessible.
Consider not asking for permission.
Some of the most successful free stores have just set up shop without permission from building owners. This is sometimes the quickest way to get started, which is what we did for the Hell’s Kitchen Free Store. We set up shop in the boarded-up side entrance of a vacant storefront without permission and built trust with the building’s management company. Some landlords see the benefits and let it be. Some take it all down. And some may try to work out signed agreements.
Explore collaboration and partnership.
Several successful free stores have earned an impressive amount of positive media attention and even citations from elected officials. You may find a business or property owner interested in supporting and housing a free store community initiative. Community shops and restaurants may like having free stores nearby. Schools can also make good partners, especially with PTA support. Libraries and community gardens might make sense too.
Consider unconventional spaces.
- Vacant storefronts and boarded-up businesses can work well, especially ones with an awning to provide rain cover.
- Street parking spaces can be used to transform a public space from something that serves one car owner into something that serves an entire community. It might be possible to partner with a library, community center, restaurant, store, or other establishment to apply for permits and build a “community hub” sharing shelf. Or, of course, you can try it rogue.
- Remember, anything is possible! Even a driveway could work as a free store location.
Seek neighborhood input.
Free stores are community initiatives. You may get great location suggestions and some active participants by reaching out to neighbors or local groups.
Physically build the free store.
Building your free store will depend on your location, team, and other variables.
- You may want to start small and create a share shelf with one bookcase and two to three shelves—possibly for just books, like Little Free Libraries. Finding a bookshelf is relatively easy. Many can be found on the street ready for “trash” pickup. Others can be sourced from local Buy Nothing groups on Facebook or through similar freecycle networks.
- A clear sign at the top will help people feel it is legitimate.
- In the spirit of sharing, reuse, and repurposing, you should be able to acquire or borrow most materials you might need (lumber, nails, tarp, paint, brushes, drill, hammer, etc). Depending on your space, you might not need much in terms of materials. If you want to build an entire structure, the necessary materials can often be found, donated, or purchased at very low cost. Many of the existing free stores are happy to share their architecture models with simple instructions you can replicate, such as The Free Store Project.
Prioritize safety and security.
Ask yourself how secure the free store feels. Remember, bookshelves can topple! Drill shelves into plywood walls or determine how to make them optimally safe and secure. Keep in mind that anything and everything at the free store is fair game, so if you are using shelves or baskets that you love for displaying items, remember to nail them down or they will find their way to someone’s home!
Weatherproof
Weatherproofing is key for many types of free stores like outdoor sharing shelves. Some stores create curtains out of salvaged plastic or shower curtains that can easily open, close, and hang from a steel wire cable. Bring some creative minds from your team together to figure out the best plan for your store.
Decide and communicate accepted items.
Think about what you’d like to see exchanged and what you have enough space, resources, and volunteers to accommodate. Clothing? Kitchenware? Jewelry? Books? Tools? Food? All of the above? Think it through and remember, it can always evolve! Starting small can be beneficial.
For example, while clothing and food may be some of the most practical items for folks in need, they may require more space, maintenance, and daily attention than you and your team can handle as part of a 24/7 free store.
Stock the store.
Once word is out, those shelves will fill and empty incessantly! Sadly, there is no lack of items being tossed out by stores, offices, and neighbors. If made easy enough, people love donating instead of dumping.
- Purge your own excess and invite friends, neighbors, organizations, and businesses to do the same.
- Monitor and glean from the local residential and commercial trash. The end of the month often means move-outs. And don’t forget about the end of the school year too.
- Thrift shops discard more than you can imagine. You can try to make formal arrangements with them or find items ready for taking.
- Put out a call for specific items you know community members need, like menstrual products.
- Go to garage sales when they close and offer to take everything they have been unable to sell.
Build and embrace a solid team.
Teams will vary depending on whether you are part of an existing group (mutual aid, block association, anarchist collective, etc.) or are an individual in a community ready to start something new. Volunteers are key. But fear not—if you build it, even yourself, they will come.
- If you just want to get a 24/7 shelf up yourself to see how it will evolve organically (it will!), that is awesome. Just remember that maintenance, cleanliness, and good signage all take time and energy and happen much more quickly with more people. Burnout is real and a solid team is critical for community initiatives.
- Pitch your idea and hold an initial meeting to see who wants to help get it off the ground. Getting buy-in and having people feel vested can give the project momentum.
- Mutual aid groups, community fridge projects, block associations, and neighborhood groups like Buy Nothing on Facebook and Next Door are some good potential partners.
- Engage your visitors and empower every one of them to be part of the team. Everyone is a steward of the space.
Have a clear path for folks to get involved.
This could be a form to complete, an email address to write to, and a way to be added to a WhatsApp or other group communication.
Volunteers are critical.
- For larger-scale free stores, including brick-and-mortar free stores, creating a volunteer schedule can be helpful. In addition to the larger, critical group of volunteers who want to pitch in whenever they can, knowing you have two or three scheduled volunteers a day, particularly when launching, will both help things run smoothly and will also demonstrate to neighbors and building owners that this is a well-stewarded neighborhood initiative.
- Remember that volunteers may come and go, and people do what they can when they can. Support from the community will continue to build organically.
- Create systems for volunteers to communicate easily (e.g a WhatsApp thread for check-ins). This not only provides real-time updates to what’s happening at the store, it builds camaraderie and community and even offers a sneak peak at what might be found on the shelves!
- There can be many volunteer roles, ranging from social media manager to volunteer coordinator to graphics designer and everything in between. Some of the most important roles are monitors, stewards, and curators—the folks who ensure the store is only stocked with accepted items and everything is tidy.
- Share appreciation! A successful free store could only happen with the contributions (not just material items) of many!
Ensure the free store is open and welcoming to all.
- Remember that you have created an open community space, which means it should be open and welcoming to ALL. A free store is a space for everyone to give and take, both concrete items and ideas, stories, volunteerism, and more. Neighborhood-sharing hubs create a beautiful setting for neighbors to come together as equals.
- Encourage conversation and an openness to all of the possibilities for what might be attained at the free store! Empathy, compassion, and respect are at the core.
- Keep the space clean, tidy, and organized. This is instrumental for keeping building owners and neighbors okay with your free store, which might feel ludicrous or even frightening to them (remember, much of our society is mystified by this concept).
Institute clear guidelines and systems.
Once you have determined what your space and resources can accommodate, you will need to ensure permanent signage at the space and, ideally, clear messaging on social media, too.
Communicate clearly.
Clear signage and publicity are critical, on-site, online, and on the tip of everyone’s tongues. Make sure guidelines are adhered to, and don’t allow exceptions. It can be a slippery slope! For example, if you don’t accept clothing but people start to see clothing items, more people will start to bring clothing, too. If making a change, like to hours or acceptable items, for example, change the signage and let the public know!
Best practices for signage
- List what is accepted and not accepted
- Be as clear as possible
- Have the signs in more than one place
- Signs should be in multiple languages, depending on your neighborhood composition (Please note word gets out about free stores, and people will come from other neighborhoods, too.)
- Make it clear if your space doesn’t allow items to be left on the sidewalk
- Signs should also express what the store is about, i.e. “Take what you need. Leave what you can for others who may need it.”
- Depending on your location, it might be important to have large, clear signs reminding people not to leave large things like furniture and mattresses. When people start to dump larger items like those, you will likely run into problems with building owners and your local sanitation department.
- Have clear signage for how people can get involved and become a volunteer.
- List your email, social media page(s), and other relevant info.
Maintenance
- Upon launching, make sure you or others can regularly check on the free store to keep it tidy, ensure guidelines are being followed, and engage neighbors.
- A daily schedule of at least 2-3 site checks is ideal. You will also have many volunteers who aren’t officially on your list. Lots of people love to give the free stores love!
- Have efficient communication systems for volunteers. WhatsApp threads or Slack (depending on your volunteers’ tech access) can work well. Sharing photos for each check-in helps in many ways—including indicating that something has been lingering, occupying precious space for several days, and could/should be moved out.
- Building a roster of volunteers indicating interests, skills, or resources is helpful.
- Create a guide for volunteers and onboard them in person.
Plan for excess.
- If items have been sitting in the store for several days, they would likely continue to linger and should be removed to keep the store dynamic and space-optimized.
- Volunteer stewards should know the local neighborhood pantries, shelters, thrift stores, and other venues that accept items, as well as online resources like Buy Nothing groups, Freecycle, and social media pages like Stooping.
- By having a WhatsApp group or other form of communication for volunteers, someone can call for help to deal with large or unaccepted items.
Spread the word.
Publicity will happen organically from people passing by the free store. You might even get media attention without any effort. This might be enough and all that you have capacity for—that’s fine, even great! But for larger scale initiatives, you want to get accurate messaging out far and wide. Reach out to community groups like block associations, mutual aid groups, housing rights organizations, social service organizations, elected officials, libraries, and more to see if they can help get the word out.
Create a dedicated email address and a social media page.
- Think about your capacity upon set-up. You can always grow and add more. Linktree is a quick, easy, and free way to access all of your important information and documents online.
- Share the store location and guidelines in neighborhood social media pages like Facebook Buy Nothing groups, Next Door applications, and elsewhere.
Keep at least one social media platform regularly updated if you can (Instagram seems to be working well for many free stores). You can include reminders about guidelines, post useful and fun things found at the store, and more.
Flyer around your community.
Post about the store (including what is and isn’t accepted) around the neighborhood.
Additional tips
- Infusing the space with positive energy is key, especially in bigger cities with a lot of foot traffic! Free stores are also community centers for exchanges of resources, ideas, stories, and good energy.
- Defensiveness will push folks away, not lead them in. You want more people around, so be friendly, informative, and optimistic about the impact your free store will have in your community.
- Community bulletin boards for sharing resources and information go great with sharing shelves.
- Don’t try to control everything. Spoiler alert: You can’t.
- Be emotionally prepared for the free store to be shut down–or for it to thrive and take off with community support!
- Trust life, the process, and yourself and your community members.
Remember, if you build it, they will come! We can’t wait to hear about the new free store in your community.