Swap shops still exist at a number of local DPW locations. If you have something that you want to get out of your house, something nice that you can’t bring yourself to just toss in the garbage, then a local swap shop is a great way to go. Due to COVID-19 changes, we suggest you contact your town to make sure the hours and rules are still the same.
Your dishes, pots and pans, small appliances, toys, tools, clothing, lighting fixtures, furniture, nick-knacks, books and magazines can all have a satisfying second life with a new, local family thanks to your contribution and at the same time you get to declutter your own space. That, folks, is the definition of a win-win situation. It’s part recycling, part charitable contribution and part good housekeeping.
And should you be tight on cash but in need of something nice for own home, well, the swap shop is the ideal place to go. Allow someone else’s junk to be your jam, their loss be your gain, their trash to be your treasure. You’re doing your own part to exercise frugality while also giving unwanted furnishings the opportunity to find use rather than clogging up our local landfills.
Here on Cape there are a number such swap shops that are here to serve your needs:
· In Dennis there is the Mary Hood Hagler Memorial Goods Exchange, managed by the Sanitation Division of the Department of Public Works. Open, Saturday, and Sunday from 8 AM to 1 PM, and closed on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. The Swap Shop is closed annually from October 1st, and will open the first Saturday in May 2018 for the season.
· Barnstable’s Marstons Mills Transfer station includes a Swap Shop too. Tuesdays through Friday from 9 AM through 3 PM and Saturdays – for residents only – from 9 AM until 3 PM.
· The Eastham Stock Exchange is located at the town landfill. They’ve avoided the issues currently hitting Harwich by putting regulations in place to keep people from taking items from the swap shop and then selling them. The shop is open from 9 AM to 2 PM Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays.
· Dorothy’s Swap Shop in Bourne was named in honor of the late Dorothy Wilson, a long-time town volunteer in the early 1990s. Residents leave household items that are in usable condition for others to take.
· Falmouth’s Pick of the Litter Swap Shop, located at the town’s waste management facility is open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, from 7:45 AM until 12:00 PM.
· The Brewster Swap Shop is open Thursday through Monday between the hours of 8 AM and 3 PM at the Brewster Recycling Center.
· The Truro Swap Shop is been in the business for a quarter century at the town’s transfer station, collecting all measure of items for the benefit of the community and becoming one of the towns best hang out spots along the way.
· The Orleans Gift House is a small salvage operation on the grounds of the Orleans Transfer Station. The purpose of the Gift House is to allow residents an orderly and clean place to leave good, sound items that could be reused by fellow residents — and to save the town solid waste costs. Open from September through May from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. five days a week — closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays. During the summer, it is open six days a week, including Thursdays.
By CapeCod.com Staff
