'It's amazing what people give away': The joy and savings of a buy-nothing group

Kirrily Graham is the kind of person who hates throwing things away.

"I'm very much about looking after the environment and waste just drives me insane — the amount of quality stuff you see thrown out all the time," she says.

So, after reading an article online about buy-nothing groups in 2019, she looked for one in her local area.

"I realised that there wasn't one for the area I lived in … so the only option was to start one," says Kirrily, 52, who lives in South Melbourne.

Buy-nothing groups can now be found all around Australia. They have a simple premise: providing a safe space to gift or ask for anything you want.

There are a couple of strings attached: the gifts must be free and you can only join a group in your local community.

"One of the key principles of buy-nothing is that the members have to live locally," Kirrily says.

Today, Kirrily's Facebook group – which covers three inner-city suburbs in Melbourne – boasts 1,200 members who share everything from bikes to Christmas trees.

Here's Kirrily in her own words on how you can use buy-nothing groups to reduce your waste and save money.

How do buy nothing groups work?

We have a set of questions that people have to answer to join the group to verify they live locally, and they have to abide by the group rules and ethos.

We take a different approach: people can say why they'd like [a particular item] or the gifter can ask.

This week, for example, someone was giving away some items for dogs and they asked to see photos of everyone's dogs. That's how they might choose.

Or they might get their kids to pick a name out of the hat or there might be a random name spinner or something like that. It's a very different approach.

Not everybody's on Facebook all the time, some people are on more often than others, and they tend to be the ones who get a lot of stuff if it's given away for free.

What else happens in the group?

People can also ask for particular things. We tend to have a lot of people [in the group] who have come into Melbourne for the first time.

They'll put up an ask [post], and they'll say: "We have nothing. If anybody's got bedside tables or lamps or a spare toaster or vacuum cleaner [could we have it?]."

There was a particular young family who had moved into the area, and they didn't have a Christmas tree. And there was no way my Christmas tree could fit in my apartment – it'd been on my mind to get rid of it already.

So when she asked, that was a perfect opportunity for me to forward that on. She sent photos of it up; I gave her the decorations and everything.

Seeing those photos, having her put it up for the first time, that was really lovely.

The third thing we do is to express gratitude. It's about being grateful for the things gifted and received.

On one occasion, one of the ladies was giving away a beautiful reusable coffee cup.

I said, "I'd love that, I'm a fan of the brand." Next minute, she's messaging me and saying she has another piece of pottery [from the same brand] and she'd put it aside for me for next time.

It might be something somebody's received as a gift and it's not their style, or they don't get to use it anymore. Rather than going in the bin, somebody can really appreciate it and use it in a way that's special for them.

How can buy-nothing groups help people who are struggling?

It's amazing what people are willing to give away.

We've had people ask for things like bikes so they can commute locally.

Sometimes, people might post things that they'd like to have and are essential. It's a safe environment for people to make those requests without too much concern about their situation.

Some people are quite open about it, others might be a little more private.

But I think people quickly learn that it is a community-based group, so there is a level of safety and comfort for people to ask for whatever they might need at the time.

There were requests when people sometimes needed something picked up or dropped off.

You can make those sort of requests as well, and that helped people feel a bit more comfortable during that time.

How can people get involved?

Within Australia, we're still on the Facebook groups. Look for 'buy nothing' and put your suburb name in.

When you join, you must make sure that you answer all the questions and agree to the group rules. We want people to understand how the group is different and how it operates differently.

It doesn't matter if you ask for something straight away, there's no problem with that.

It's just about getting in there and getting involved, gifting, asking.

Parts of this interview have been edited for clarity and brevity.