Buy Nothing Chelsea - The generosity. The Optimism. The Triumph. The total Nerve - NaBloPoMo Day 11

I joined this facebook group called "Buy Nothing Chelsea" where you give stuff away to your neighbors. It has to be totally free, no money can be exchanged. By way of background, here's few facts about Chelsea according Wikipedia:

1) 55,000 people live in Chelsea, a neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City.
2) It is 0.75 square miles (2 square kilometers).

So yeah, Buy Nothing, Chelsea is total low key chaos at all times of the day and night. I mean, if you want a little snack, it's entirely possible you can find one in a two block radius and pick it up faster than you can get take out. Such as:

2 almost full jars of peanut butter.
#Flash give - which means pick them up NOW!

OK fine, you might not get to pick and choose your food groups, but almost every weekend someone is giving away a tote bag of dairy products, baby carrots and like a piece of cheese cake because they're going on vacation. 

Or every now and then you can pick up what amounts to a full fridge with a box of small appliances and a full set of silverware because, right, somebody died. I think whoever is cleaning out the apartment would get more traction if they didn't include the "my grandma died" in the description but at this point, we all know. Why else would anyone give away all their ketchup?

Random assortments of crap.

There's a lot of random assortments of miscellaneous crap, where the giver specifies "multiples preferred." You would think the odds of someone needing two parfait cups, a clock radio and a simultaneous thermos would be on the low side, but every time I snort at the very prospect, bam. Someone picks up the lot of it. 

I'll tell you what goes in snap:

The block is hot tonight!

When it comes to half used beauty products, you better get there quick. It'll be signed sealed and gone in T minus ten minutes.

Oh wait, who gave away this attractive wig item? That would be me. 

I take a little time and effort with my write ups.
A wig for fashion or espionage.

Shazam. Gone by the end of the afternoon. When I give my stuff away, i wrap it up all nice. Adds to the whole vibe, I think:

Ok it's a doordash bag, but I tied a ribbon on it!

And then, every twenty minutes you see a post like this:

Another chair out on the sidewalk.

There are always chairs out on the sidewalk. Like always. If you are having a dinner party and need more chairs, you probably could just go outside and find a bunch. One of my favorite facts of life about this city is how many people are just sitting on an office chair with wheels (it's always an office chair with wheels) out on the sidewalk talking to three other people also sitting in office chairs with wheels. Just having a smoke arguing about sports and ok. Probably selling drugs. 

On the other side of the Buy Nothing transaction, there's always lots of people #ISO In Search Of something or other. Sometimes I'm just floored by, idk. The optimism:

Yes, i just happen to have a sexy hershey kiss outfit lying around. (not)
Can't hurt to ask, I guess.

Or get a load of this one:

"I have cartridges, does anyone have a
Platinum fountain pen I can have to put them in?" (?!!)

In conclusion, I've saved what might be the longest running and most neighborly one for last:

A few pairs of crutches have been getting passed around the neighborhood for at least a few years.