“What are you writing about this week?” my husband asks, stopping by the door to my home office.

“Buying nothing,” I say, tapping keys.

“I like the sound of that,” he says.

“Me, too,” I say, for a change.

My husband and I recently replaced our home’s air conditioning system and eight outdated light fixtures. We are still recovering from our home-improvement hangover, for which the best cure is no spending for six months. So when a reader sent me a link to the Buy Nothing Project (buynothingproject.org), I was primed.

A global web of neighborhood Facebook groups where members post stuff they are giving away or need, the Buy Nothing Project works like a giant gift exchange where nothing is expected in return. The aim is to knit together communities, reduce excess consumption and lighten the load on the planet.

Curious to learn more about how this nonbuying spree was going, I called one of the two founders. Liesl Clark lives on Bainbridge Island, a 30-minute ferry ride from Seattle. When her children were young, she told me, she often took them beachcombing. Her friend Rebecca Rockefeller and her kids went, too.

“We were constantly amazed by how much plastic washed up from the high tide,” she said. “Not just candy wrappers and straws, but car bumpers, garden tools and toys.”

They collected the debris, which the kids used to make art projects that got displayed in their community center and local art museum. But the thought of how much trash lurked in the oceans haunted the women.

All that plastic led to a cathartic Aha! “We knew the mantra ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,’” said Clark, also a documentary filmmaker for National Geographic and Nova. “And we decided to add a fourth R: Refuse.”

Their reasoning went like this: If we bought less and shared more, we would save money and reduce the amount of waste going to landfills or washing up on shores.

They started the movement by looking around their own houses.

“Our kids were outgrowing their clothing, and we weren’t using many of our household goods, so we thought, ‘Why wouldn’t we spare others in our community another trip to Lowe’s or Walmart?’” Clark said.

They started the first Buy Nothing Facebook group in July 2013. Within hours, several hundred members of their community had joined. Then came requests from others looking to form groups in their cities, and the project went viral.

Today, the Buy Nothing Project, which is volunteer run, has nearly 4 million participants in 44 nations, 12,000 volunteers and printed materials in 16 languages, Clark said. Nearly two-thirds of the groups are in the U.S., including one in my community with 830 members posting everything from baby bibs to bicycles.

How had I not known about this?

Clearly used to folks such as me who are slow to grasp the mind-blowing concept of not shopping, Clark offered a stream of examples: “If someone would like a peppermill, she can post, ‘Hey, does anyone have a spare peppermill before I go buy one?’”

Or, she added, say you’re baking a cake and need a springform pan. Because that’s an item you might only use once a year, maybe you can borrow it instead of buy it. Ask the group.

Then there’s the idea of the community lending library: “How many plastic snake routers to clear clogged drains do we need in one town?” she asks, “or post-hole diggers to build fences?”

To start a Facebook group, someone from the community has to go through the Buy Nothing training program and volunteer to administer the group. To join, you simply need to ask to be admitted.

Of course, anytime you have a concept steeped in goodness, you have abuses. To head those off and to preserve the integrity of these gift economies, Clark and Rockefeller created some rules: No buying or selling; no trading or bartering; no strings attached; no hate speech; nothing illegal (firearms, drugs, prescription medications, expired goods); no judgment (every giver and asker have equal value; and no penalties (if you loan something, you have to be OK with the possibility that it might get damaged.

Finally, no double dipping. You can only join one group. To be admitted, you have to live in that community. Beyond that, post anything you’d like to give away, lend or share. Ask for what you’d like to receive for free or borrow.

It’s worth a try, if only for the next six months.

Next week I’ll include some of the oddest items given and requested.

Marni Jameson is an author whose next book, “What to Do With Everything You Own to Leave the Legacy You Want,” is coming in June. Reach her at marnijameson.com.

“What are you writing about this week?” my husband asks, stopping by the door to my home office.

“Buying nothing,” I say, tapping keys.

“I like the sound of that,” he says.

“Me too,” I say, for a change.

My husband and I recently replaced our home’s air conditioning system and eight outdated light fixtures. We are still recovering from our home-improvement hangover, for which the best cure is no spending for six months. So when a reader sent me a link to the Buy Nothing Project (buynothingproject.org), I was primed.

A global web of neighborhood Facebook groups where members post stuff they are giving away or need, the Buy Nothing Project works like a giant gift exchange where nothing is expected in return. The aim is to knit together communities, reduce excess consumption and lighten the load on the planet.

Curious to learn more about how this nonbuying spree was going, I called one of the two founders. Liesl Clark lives on Bainbridge Island, a 30-minute ferry ride from Seattle. When her children were young, she told me, she often took them beachcombing. Her friend Rebecca Rockefeller and her kids went too.

“We were constantly amazed by how much plastic washed up from the high tide,” she said. “Not just candy wrappers and straws, but car bumpers, garden tools and toys.”

They collected the debris, which the kids used to make art projects that got displayed in their community center and local art museum. But the thought of how much trash lurked in the oceans haunted the women.

All that plastic led to a cathartic Aha! “We knew the mantra ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,’” said Clark, also a documentary filmmaker for National Geographic and Nova. “And we decided to add a fourth R: Refuse.”

Their reasoning went like this: If we all bought less and shared more, we would save money and reduce the amount of waste going to landfills or washing up on shores.

They started the movement by looking around their own houses.

“Our kids were outgrowing their clothing, and we weren’t using many of our household goods, so we thought, ‘Why wouldn’t we spare others in our community another trip to Lowe’s or Walmart?’” Clark said.

They started the first Buy Nothing Facebook group in July 2013. Within hours. several hundred members of their community had joined. Then came requests from others looking to form groups in their cities, and the project went viral.

Today, the Buy Nothing Project, which is all volunteer run, has nearly 4 million participants in 44 nations, 12,000 volunteers and printed materials in 16 languages, Clark said. Nearly two-thirds of the groups are in the U.S., including one in my community with 830 members posting everything from baby bibs to bicycles.

How had I not known about this?

Clearly used to folks such as me who are slow to grasp the mind-blowing concept of not shopping, Clark offered a stream of examples: “If someone would like a peppermill, she can post, ‘Hey, does anyone have a spare peppermill before I go buy one?’”

Or, she added, say you’re baking a cake and need a springform pan. Because that’s an item you might only use once a year, maybe you can borrow it instead of buy it. Ask the group.

Then there’s the idea of the community lending library: “How many plastic snake routers to clear clogged drains do we need in one town?” she asks, “or post-hole diggers to build fences?”

To start a Facebook group, someone from the community has to go through the Buy Nothing training program and volunteer to administer the group. To join, you simply need to ask to be admitted.

Of course, anytime you have a concept steeped in goodness, you have abuses. To head those off and to preserve the integrity of these gift economies, Clark and Rockefeller created some rules: No buying or selling; no trading or bartering; no strings attached; no hate speech; nothing illegal (firearms, drugs, prescription medications, expired goods); no judgment (every giver and asker have equal value; and no penalties (if you loan something, you have to be OK with the possibility that it might get damaged.

Finally, no double dipping. You can only join one group. To be admitted, you have to live in that community. Beyond that, post anything you’d like to give away, lend or share. Ask for what you’d like to receive for free or borrow.

It’s worth a try, if only for the next six months.

Next week I’ll include some of the oddest items given and requested.

Jameson is an author whose next book, “What to Do With Everything You Own to Leave the Legacy You Want,” is coming in June. Reach her at marnijameson.com.