Buy Nothing Groups: How to Get (and Give) Free

A Buy Nothing group is a hyper-local gift economy: neighbors give each other things outright, nothing is sold, nothing is traded, and joining costs nothing. The project describes itself as the world’s largest free-goods platform, with more than 14 million members across 50-plus countries, and you get in one of two ways — a neighborhood Facebook group or the BuyNothing app on iOS, Android and web. For parents it is, in plain terms, the best-value freebie source that exists, because the things it moves fastest are exactly the things babies outgrow in eight weeks. Here’s how to use it without being the person everyone mutes.

The one rule that changes all the etiquette

No money. Not “cheap,” not “trade you for it,” not “I’ll cover shipping.” The Buy Nothing Project Verified August 2026 runs on gifting between neighbors, and the whole social contract rests on that. It’s a Public Benefit Corporation, and by its own accounting more than 162,000 metric tons of goods get shared through it — a number that only works because nobody’s running a side business inside it.

What follows from the no-money rule is the part newcomers get wrong: gifts are not first-come-first-served. Most givers wait a while and then choose, often at random, often favoring someone who hasn’t received recently. Replying “me!” nine seconds after a post does not put you at the front of any line, and in some groups it puts you behind.

Joining: app or Facebook group

The app is the newer route and the tidier one — you set your neighborhood, and asks and gives are organized instead of buried in a feed. Facebook groups are the older route and still the busier one in many areas, especially where a group has been running for years and everyone in the neighborhood is already in it. If both exist near you, the honest answer is to join both for a month and see which one actually has traffic; activity is intensely local and one can be dead while the other is thriving three blocks over.

Groups are boundary-limited on purpose — that’s the “hyper-local” part. You’ll be asked to join the one covering where you live rather than the one covering the nicer neighborhood two miles away, and moderators do check.

What moves fastest for parents

• Clothing by size, in bundles. The single highest-volume category. Sizes 0–24 months move within hours.
• Baby gear with short useful lives: bouncers, swings, playmats, bumbo-style seats, bath tubs, toddler step stools.
• Maternity and nursing clothes, which people are usually delighted to hand on.
• Books and puzzles, endlessly.
• Half-used practical supplies: unopened diaper packs in an outgrown size, unopened wipes, unopened formula within date. Diapers in the wrong size are the classic Buy Nothing gift — and if you’re short right now, the faster structural routes are in how to get free diapers.
• Party and holiday one-offs — costumes, decorations, the birthday banner nobody needs twice.

What moves slowly: large furniture, anything requiring two people and a truck, and car seats (see below).

How to write an ask that gets answered

Short, specific, and with a reason attached. Compare:

“ISO baby stuff, anything helpful, thanks!”

with

“ISO: 12-month sleep sacks or a size 3 diaper pack. Baby just jumped a size and I’m caught out. Can collect any evening this week, [neighborhood].”

The second one gets answered because it’s easy to say yes to. It names the thing, gives a window, and tells the giver you’ll come to them. Add “no rush” and “happy to take one or several” and you’ve removed every reason to hesitate.

Two habits worth keeping: say thank you publicly in the thread once you’ve collected, and don’t ask for the same category repeatedly in a short window. Groups are small, and people notice.

What I never take secondhand

This is the part most Buy Nothing guides skip, and it matters more than the etiquette.

• Car seats. They expire, they have crash histories you can’t verify, and a seat that’s been in a collision is compromised even if it looks fine. A free car seat from a stranger is the one gift where “free” is the wrong frame entirely.
• Crib mattresses. Buy this new. Firmness and fit are safety features, and a used mattress can be softened or contaminated in ways you cannot inspect. Cribs of unknown vintage go on the same list, along with anything with a drop side.
• Anything banned or recalled — inclined sleepers and crib bumpers among them. If someone offers one in good faith, the kind reply is to say why you’re passing. The full take-it-free-versus-buy-it-new sort is in a sleep-friendly nursery on a freebies budget.
• Breast pumps, unless it’s a genuine multi-user hospital-grade unit with new personal parts. Personal-use pumps aren’t designed to change hands.
• Opened food, formula past date, or medication. Ever.

Check anything you do accept against the CPSC’s recall listings before it goes into use. It takes a minute on your phone in the driveway.

Giving is the part that makes it work

Groups die when everyone asks and nobody gives, so the practical advice is to post the outgrown box before you post your first ask. Photograph it in daylight, describe flaws honestly (“stain on left knee, ignore it or bleach it”), name a porch pickup window, and let it go to whoever turns up.

Two things to never do: don’t take a gift and resell it, and don’t collect gifts to flip in bulk. Moderators watch for it, members remember it, and it’s the fastest way to lose access to something worth far more than the twenty dollars. This isn’t a side hustle. It’s a neighborhood.

Where it beats corporate freebies, and where it doesn’t

It beats them on volume, on value and on speed — no sample box has ever come close to a bag of 6–12 month clothes. It loses on the specific and the new: nobody’s gifting you the exact bottle nipple your baby will take, and the consumables you need on a schedule aren’t there. That’s what brand programs and sample platforms are for, and the mom-directed version of that list is free stuff for new moms beyond baby samples.

FAQ: Buy Nothing groups

Is Buy Nothing free to join?

Yes, entirely. There’s no membership fee, no premium tier and no shipping charge, because everything is local pickup. Any group asking for money isn’t running the model.

Buy Nothing app or Facebook group — which should I use?

Whichever one is busy where you live. The app is better organized; Facebook groups are often more active in neighborhoods where they’ve existed for years. Join both, watch for a month, keep the one with traffic.

Can I ask for something, or is it only giving?

Asking is normal and expected. Be specific, give a collection window, and don’t repeat the same ask weekly.

Why didn’t I get the thing I replied to first?

Because it isn’t first-come-first-served. Most givers wait, then choose — often at random, often favoring someone who hasn’t received lately. That’s the design, not bad luck.

What shouldn’t I accept secondhand?

Car seats, crib mattresses, cribs of unknown age, anything recalled or banned, personal-use breast pumps, and any opened consumable. Everything else is fair game, checked against current recall listings first.