I’ve lived my life in apartment buildings, and expect to die in one, since there’s no way to even plausibly daydream that I could own a house in America. Besides, I don’t like mowing the lawn.

Inside my apartment building, in the corner of the front lobby where everyone’s mailbox is, there’s the shared shelf. It has no marking or sign; it’s just a shelf, but that’s where you can leave or take anything at all.

It’s like a Little Free Library, but for anything at all, not
just books. If you have something you don’t need you can leave it on the shared shelf, and if you see something that you’d like, take it, it’s yours.

I always glance at the shelf when I’m checking the mail. Sometimes on Sundays, when there’s no mail, or other days when I’m bored, I’ll walk down the hall just to see what’s on the shelf. Whatever’s there, it will
be reliably gone within a few days, and quicker if it’s cool. Video games and canned food are the quickest to vanish.

The neighborhood here is, let’s say, not high-income, and neither are the people in my apartment building, so the shared shelf is appreciated by everyone. It’s not uncommon to see your neighbor walking down the
hall with something in his/her hand, saying “Score from the shelf!”

I asked the building super if she ever has to throw things away off the shelf, and she said “Rarely.” The complex actually has two apartment buildings, and she said, if something sits on the shelf for a week or
so she’ll take it across the lawn to the other building, where there’s a matching shelf.

Some joker once left a one-pound package of ground turkey on the shelf, and the super said that it was pretty bad by the time she saw it.

Anyway, it’s an idea, if your landlord isn’t a rat bastard and will allow it. It would also be a great idea, I think, outside the building, for anyone at all — the neighborhood’s own little thrift store, but
without a cash register.

Things I’ve left on the shelf:

Things I’ve taken from the shelf:

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