My tech-gadget giveaways have made me a neighborhood rockstar.

The giveaways are coordinated through a Buy Nothing Project group, within which more than 3,000 people in my St. Paul neighborhood exchange goods and services. Dozens of these Facebook groups exist in the Twin Cities, all buzzing with activity.

The cardinal Buy Nothing rule: Everything is free.

My Amazon Kindle Oasis e-book reader? It’s free. My Logitech MX Mechanical Keyboard? No charge. My Google Pixel tablet with companion speaker/charging dock? Es gratis.

“I actually got a (high-tech) baby scale from you when I was pregnant,” Sacha Brown of St. Paul told me in a Facebook comment earlier this month, to jog my memory. “It came in handy because my son had severe jaundice and we needed to monitor his weight.”

I give, and I receive. In a “gratitude post” last year, I gave thanks for items I obtained from Buy Nothing members. These include a digital bathroom scale, a Timbuk2 messenger bag and a Titleist brim cap.

My latest acquisition: a hardcover copy of Caro Claire Burke’s popular novel “Yesteryear.” This book got me out of my reading slump, and I am looking forward to throwing it back into the Buy Nothing pool for someone else to enjoy.

Founded in 2013 by friends Rebecca Rockefeller and Liesl Clark in Bainbridge Island, Wash., Buy Nothing has over 14 million users exchanging 2.6 million items a month in over 50 countries, according to the group’s website, buynothingproject.org. It calculates that about 162,000 tons of waste are diverted from landfills each year.

“Every single day, I am moved by what I see happening here,” Clark wrote in a June blog post. “Whether you come to Buy Nothing simply to witness the authentic expressions of gratitude that fill our feeds, or you are actively giving and asking to help our gift economy thrive. We see you. Your presence matters, and your participation is the heartbeat of this community.”

In addition to the Facebook network, which you can quickly find by searching “Buy Nothing Project” from your Facebook profile, there also is a website/phone app combo. (The Facebook sites and the app/site duo stand apart, somewhat confusingly.)

Users’ stories

Buy Nothing members have many reasons for using the service.

“As a member of Buy Nothing for the past six years, I’ve made connections with folks in my community, saved money, helped the environment, and gotten rid of clutter that I no longer need!” said my neighbor Jenna Haack Ramirez.

Her favorite examples:

Plastic eggs: I needed plastic eggs for a classroom activity, but didn’t want to buy new plastic just for one-time use. I put in a request and found a neighbor just two blocks away who wanted to give me a bagful of plastic eggs that she was no longer using.

Hair gel: I bought a new hair gel for $14, used it once, and realized that it wasn’t for me. Nobody in my house was going to use it, I couldn’t return it to the store, but throwing it in the trash would have felt wasteful because it was practically new. I posted it and had a neighbor who was excited to have it!

Baby bathtub: A couple in my neighborhood received two baby bathtubs at their baby shower, and wanted to give one away. I was pregnant and thrilled to receive a brand new tub for free, especially because the cost of preparing for a newborn can get excessive. I used the tub for a full year, and I was able to pass it along to a cousin who used it for her baby, as well.

“I love seeing items posted, then reposted months later. I believe some items have been used by multiple people in the community,” Haack Ramirez said.

Bonnie Harris of St. Paul said, “Last fall I completed my transition to owning practically zero things and moving in with my partner. Since most of his things are of much higher quality I was able to purge through my Buy Nothing group, and it became a joyful exercise in letting go, removing negativity, and giving back.”

Her examples:

Recording equipment: A young woman starting her own podcast channel got the expensive equipment that a former agency that fired me bought for me.

Kitchen equipment: A person moving to the Twin Cities for the first time came and took almost everything out of my kitchen. I ended up making a new friend.

Bicycle: A young couple got my Trek bike and now could go on joint bike rides together.

Furniture: An immigrant family now has my couch and dining room table and chairs.

Here are more stories via Facebook or email:

“I love Buy Nothing!” Reagan Carpenter said. “I’ve furnished a whole apartment. 2 actually! One in Merriam Park and the other on West 7th! (Buy Nothing) is my favorite thing about Minnesota, actually!!”

“I’ve had some fun interactions,” said Stacy Sommerhauser Gianino of Highland Park. Like “gifting my Cherished Teddies figurine collection to a non-profit for adults with disabilities that was going to use them for bingo prizes, and giving my shot glass collections from college to an up and coming bartender.”

“We moved from Charleston to St. Paul,” Sacha Brown said. “We moved with items we couldn’t use in our new house, and we needed many new things due to the drastic climate change. Buy Nothing allowed us to acquire items that we couldn’t find, like snow pants, because we waited until the last minute.”“I once gave some winter coats to a student at Macalester. (He was a freshman and had never experienced winter),” said Kim of Macalester-Groveland. “A year later, he responded to a post on a bed I was gifting. He was moving from the dorms to an apartment, and I was happy to see him flourishing in Minnesota!”

Then there’s Buy Nothing Barb of Vadnais Heights:

“I want to tell you about my mother (Barbara Zurfluh Sandquist),” said Gayle Gammel. “She is 85 years old. A couple of years ago I got her on to this wonderful (Buy Nothing group). She fell in love. Starting clearing out her place and posting right and left.

“Then a dear friend’s wife passed away who had a hoarding habit,” Gammel said. “My friend would bring over bin after bin of new or slightly used stuff. My mother was in her glory! She set up shop in her spare room. Turned the bed into a photo studio and posted away. Every time he dropped off more stuff she squealed with delight.”

Admins on alert

Each Buy Nothing group on Facebook is supervised by a team of administrators who are sometimes fiercely protective of their domains. When I asked an admin of my group whether I could reach out to members in my Pioneer Press capacity, she politely but emphatically said no.

Admins enforce a rule of thumb: That people should belong to only one Buy Nothing group on Facebook. Those who break this rule are dubbed “frequent flyers,” said admin Cassie Hagen of Macalester-Groveland.

For enforcement purposes, admins are shadow members of adjoining groups on the lookout for frequent flyers, said Anya Benham of Macalester-Groveland.

Admins get to be users, too. “Gosh, when I walk into my house, there isn’t a place that I can look where there isn’t something I got from Buy Nothing,” Benham said.

Facebook admins are often oblivious to Buy Nothing’s phone app/website combo, which seems to exist in a parallel universe.

“I don’t know a ton,” said St. Paul admin Georgia Nesbitt.

I, too, am ignorant of the app, so as an experiment I put a bag of chocolate chip cookies up for grabs. I had a few takers — though this took a while. Seems legit, I concluded, though I’m not abandoning my Facebook group and “All Star Contributor” status anytime soon.

I am struck, for instance, how Buy Nothing is hawking paid “pro” accounts with added features for $4.99 a month (with “enterprise” accounts costing even more).

Isn’t free the whole point of Buy Nothing?