We’re not sure when residents began leaving their unwanted items in the lobby, but over the past 16 years we’ve lived here at Keenleyside, it slowly became habitual. One day, someone would leave a couple of books, a stuffed toy, or a piece of pottery on the coffee table, with a little handwritten sign that said “free”.
Attractive items were snapped up in seconds. Often though, less tempting objects would stay there until an exasperated council member took them down to the trash. For our council, it opened up a ‘grey area’ in which, frankly, we wavered for a while.
Residents leaving items now and again, didn’t seem like such a big deal. The items were usually small, and if they were not taken by passersby, it was a minor effort to cart them down to the garbage room after a couple of days. On the other hand, some items created an untidy clutter and extra work for our cleaning staff.
Not all of the things left were attractive – they included ancient pans, obscure text books, and discarded coffee cups. Like many other Strata Councils, I’m sure, we have constantly battled with discarded ‘stuff’ left in the garbage room, and we certainly didn’t want the lobby to become another drop off point for unwanted junk.
Eventually, we decided to turn this problem into a solution.
As reported in the March issue of The Campus Resident, Keenleyside’s biannual Junk Amnesty Days provide residents with an opportunity to leave small or large unwanted items that don’t pose a hazard in a specified spot in the parking garage for swap or eventual removal at council’s expense. It’s a popular initiative and similar to other ones throughout the university neighborhoods.
And moving along in the spirit of sustainability and the sharing economy, we wanted to highlight another initiative, or “swapportunity” – a ‘Mini Book Swap’ shelving in the building’s lobby.
This is how it got started.
One day, one of our council members found a nice set of free shelves, and another member designed a notice inviting residents to leave small items such as books, toys, and puzzles there, either for people to enjoy as they sat in the lobby, or to take home.
What started as an experiment eventually evolved into a working solution.
The shelf is now stocked with interesting books for all ages and we’ve received positive feedback from residents.
Many people have commented that the lobby feels more inviting, and more communal. Several weeks into the experiment, no one has left junk or trash there. Rather, it looks as if it is being regularly tidied.
Architects designing footpaths on college campuses sometimes wait until people actually move in to live there and their walking patterns become visible ‘on the ground.’
One might call this approach to managing space ‘the path of least resistance.’ If residents keep leaving stuff in the lobby, there’s a reason, and whatever the bylaws say, they’re likely to keep doing so, because it often makes sense.
Sometimes it works to listen to the wishes of the people!
CLAIRE ROBSON IS A MEMBER OF THE KEENLEYSIDE STRATA COUNCIL.