The Breakroom Free Box
Context: I (Mod J) work in a warehouse for my day job. Employees aren’t allowed to leave the premises during work hours, but there is a good-sized breakroom with fridges, assorted tables, a coffee machine, and general breakroom stuff.
How it happened: I’d love to claim I had the intention of starting something like this from the beginning, but I didn’t. I had a friend who also worked at the same warehouse, and when she got a different job, she gave me her old uniform shirts. That left me with way more work shirts than I had space for. I folded up the extra shirts, put them in a box with “free” written on it, and put it on the table next to the time clock.
By the time I clocked out the next day, most of the shirts were gone, but someone had added a boxed cake mix and two cans of soup. And I realized something I probably should have thought of sooner: A box in the break room had more possibilities than just getting rid of my extra work shirts.
The box: I replaced the shirt box with a bigger box and a more visible sign.
Food has so far been the fastest to disappear out of the box, but mugs and clothing have also been popular. Even though due to varying break schedules, it’s mostly anonymous, it’s been a great project to share things among coworkers - and all it takes to start oneis a box and a marker.
