Soft sweaters, plaid shirts, art prints, books, even a Duck scarf lying among other knitwear — all for free. The Campbell Club’s front porch was packed with items this weekend for its free market, open to the public. A small table also offered used CDs, DVDs and new paint canvases for cheap.
“We tend to accumulate a lot of free stuff,” said former University student Marisa Rutto said, who was a force behind the market and lives in the Campbell Club.
The Campbell Club @@http://pages.uoregon.edu/asuosch/index.php@@cooperative has 28 housing spots for students. Moving, travel and other considerations cause an ever-changing stream of people through the house. Add life in general and the occasional house guest and the result is lots of random stuff left behind.
Instead of throwing unwanted items away, the cooperative reuses them. The basement laundry room is the home for this “free pile,” also known by housemates as the island of lost toys. When someone moves, cleans, forgets or just decides to get rid of something, it goes in the free pile. Then anyone in the house can claim it as their own.
“You don’t want it anymore and you want someone else to enjoy it,” Rutto said of the philosophy of the free pile. “We want to share with everyone.”
But sometimes the pile grows too big.
“It gets to the point that there’s so much stuff, you need to purge,” Lauren Herr, who lives in the Campbell Club, said.
Rutto recently set out to clean and reorganize the laundry room. But the free pile proved large and full of items that had been passed over by housemates. So the Campbell Club members collectively decided to host a free market, where the free pile would be organized and open to the public on their front porch.
“Everyone was down with the idea,” Rutto said of her housemates.
Fall term means the start of school, with students moving into their new apartments and spending money on books for class, so money can be tight.
“It’s the perfect time to give stuff away for free,” Rutto said. “It makes sense for things to be affordable.”
University psychology major Meg Keys found a number of treasures Saturday. “I was coming back from buying books and they were yelling ‘Free stuff!’” she said.
Keys dropped her books off at home and came back with her roommate to look through the free market wares. In total she made off with 10 to 12 sweaters, jackets and dresses, as well as a duffel bag.
“I was like, ‘Are you sure it’s okay for me to take this much?’ And they were like, ‘Yeah, take it all!’” Keys said. “I think it’s really cool.”
The Campbell Club cooperative was started in 1935. The founders were inspired by University alumnus Wallace J. Campbell’s senior thesis entitled Depression Cooperatives. The Campbell Club has no landlord or leases — members sign a contract to become a part owner of the house. This means they’re allowed to paint the walls, but they also have the responsibility of fixing broken windows, replacing flooring and more. Living fees cover room and shared groceries for the six-day-a-week group dinner.
Twenty-eight students plus visitors could be a large, unwieldy group to unify. But the Campbell Club’s philosophy of cooperation, responsibility and communication make it work.
“Everybody who moves in becomes a part of the family instantly,” Rutto said. “It’s a community … we’re about giving things away; helping people out.”