Cleaning Day Market, a great idea

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Author's note: a reminder that the OAS FCU volunteer elections are underway now through May 20. Remember to vote!

Many readers don’t know that I live in Finland, I used to work at OAS FCU years ago but moved to Europe for personal (romantic) reasons. Now I live in Helsinki with my boyfriend Fred and our 5 year old daughter Nila. And his is the first time that I write about something uniquely Finnish on this blog.

I think almost everyone has done spring cleaning at some point in their lives, even it wasn’t during the spring. In a previous article I gave sustainable solutions for getting rid of the stuff you want to throw away after spring cleaning. You may have taken some of them to heart after reading that article.

Now I bring you a completely new idea.

Image courtesy of Siivouspäivä

Siivouspäivä (pronounced ‘seev-os-paivah’), or Cleaning Day happens twice a year in

Helsinki, in the spring and in the fall. On Cleaning Day Finns are invited to go out anywhere in the city and sell the stuff that we no longer use. We can take books, clothing, furniture, car stuff, and cars, whatever, find a good spot, and sell. It’s 100% legal and we don’t have to declare it to anyone.

It’s called cleaning day because it implies cleaning out our storage areas of the things that we are no longer going to use, but that have a use. It’s a day to let others have things that they could use without having to buy them brand new; of letting go of things knowing that they’ll be used; of decluttering one’s life; and an exercise in sustainability.

There are technical aspects to Cleaning Day: since the city doesn’t want random spots to

You can sell anything at
Cleaning Day Market

become garbage dumps at the end of the day, Helsinki requires that people wanting to sell that day register their sale spot, specifically, on the organization’s website. That way, if they set up on someone else’s place or decide to leave their stuff at the end of the day, the city and the organization make them responsible. It’s also required to sell only on hard surfaces: no messing people’s lawns.

This whole project has a lot of benefits:

· It pushes the envelope for the re-usage of items

· It brings neighborhoods together, as people usually set out near their homes and get to meet new neighbors that day, both sellers and buyer

· It can be a social event: teens, social groups and even kids’ classrooms and sports teams have been known to pool items from everyone’s homes to sell on Cleaning Day to raise money for a common good or greater cause

· It’s another excuse to get out into Finland’s spring: with winters lasting usually from November through April (or even May), winters with very long nights, below freezing temperatures night and day, snow, ice and no hint of sunshine, a few degrees above

While comic, it's pretty close to true!
Image courtesy of Very Finnish Problems

freezing are the perfect excuse to run out into the streets in shorts and t-shirts –at least the most daring types- and make social events out of it

· It gives sellers and buyers a feeling of making a difference by stepping away from consumerism, by giving perfectly usable things a new home and a new use

It’s a great community and sustainability project, and that's why I am bringing it up: I think it can be adapted to other countries.

Honestly I think it would be hard to get some larger cities to agree on this type of street market even if for a day, but what about doing this on a smaller scale? Say, neighborhoods, villages and small towns? The best places that aren't public would be school yards. People organizing this even could ask their local school to allow the usage of their parking lot/sport fields/outdoor areas to run a sale during a weekend day. The hosting school itself or the PTA could also participate by selling refreshments and snacks during the day of the market, and collect funds for something this way.

It can also be adapted to small towns and villages using the local squares, parks with areas

Cleaning Day Market is a great social event

of pavement, or sports fields, with the agreement of city hall, which could also participate and get income. Just as long as people keep to the plan of selling previously owned items. Nothing else. Crafts and other stuff have their own markets.

I encourage you to speak with friends, neighbors, and find a way to start a market of this type, and to try to make it a seasonal event. It adds to the community, it helps the planet and it can provide you with an unexpected small source of income. It's a win-win proposition.

I will leave you with my favorite image that illustrates Finnish springtime weather; this picture became hugely popular in Finnish social media last month, as we were all rudely treated like the poor owl,. Thanks again to Very Finnish Problems for their great takes on life in Finland.