That's basically what's happening this evening, although I will be putting out a post about the free couch in the alley - and if nobody gets it on time, Chicago's garbage trucks pretty much take _anything_.
Yeah stooping culture blew up during covid. My apartment is furnished with two couches that I picked up for free (both within my building actually). I'm going to estimate having stooped up to 10K worth of stuff since 2020 (almost all of it in astonishingly good shape), including plants, kitchen appliances, kitchen table and chairs, dressers, coat racks, a door sized painting (it might actually be a door as a canvas), etc. I have also given away things like my TV and living room console, one of those couches, medium fridge, plants, etc.
It's a pleasure to give and receive. It prevents perfectly good, clean, functioning things from meeting an early end at the landfill simply because selling it ends up being more of a challenge than expected.
Never imagined such a communal barter system to spring up in the modern day.
Very true. This process went much faster in Brooklyn. But also there were more people willing to pay for decent-quality things. It hasn't been bad in Chicago, but definitely slower and the prices have to be lower for used things.