Hi y'all. Last year I quit my job, married a Canadian, and uprooted my entire life - old typewriters, vintage costumes and all - to Toronto. We called it our Canadian adventure and we're living in Apartment A, or as we call it, Apartment "Eh?" Co...
Bridesmaid dresses, spider plant babies, anything from Aritzia. There is a hidden hipster economy in Toronto and its currency is subway tokens and tall cans of beer. It's name is the Bunz Trading Zone. Formally the bums' trading zone but Canadians are PC like that.
Your coworker invites you. You don't get the allure until you're bored one night and you start scrolling. Facebook lost its gossipy appeal years ago but this isn't a distant relative spouting racist political garbage, or an old high school acquaintance with two funny looking kids. Bunz proves I have landed in my dream city: post after post of attractive hipsters trading their possessions in exchange for booze, food or transport. A half cat/ half horse head figurine from a Toronto movie set? In search of 3 tokens or best offer. A beautiful pre-loved dildo? Let the unusual bids roll in. Six separate Mannequin heads? Why not. Advice on where to throw our Christmas party or the best nail art salons or help finding her lost bird? Bunz it.
With the rise of minimalism and Marie Kondo and the art of tidying up your life from anything that doesn't expressly bring you joy when you touch it, bunz has taken on new meaning. I've been clearing out our apartment and gaining booze in exchange. We bunzed an extra French press and a 10 year old iPod that stopped turning on 2 years ago for two bottles of wine. We made risotto and got drunk. It was a pretty good Sunday.
Bunz has also taught me more about this city and what's cool (succulents, Mac makeup, anything taxidermy). Those posts catch fire. You have to Facebook messenger the owner fast and make a good offer. I tend to be more practical: I've gotten a hair straightener (in exchange for a bottle of wine and a plant) a new Todd Baker iPhone case (two tokens), a minidress (3 tokens), a sodastream (7 tokens and some kale), a set of Japanese tea cups (two heads of broccoli) and most of the booze I've consumed in the last 8 months. One girl makes a giant batch of Thai soup each Sunday and has Bunz stop by with their own Tupperware.
When I joined Bunz (pretty late tbh), there were 10,000 members. Now there are over 30,000. Everyone I meet in the city, I assume they're a fellow Bunz. It's brought a beautiful sense of community to my life, wondering if/when I'll ever meet hot Tristan who woke me up on Sunday morning to hand me a bottle of wine for my old busted iPod, and who thinks that Reisling is a dry white wine. Poor beautiful Tristan.
Or Joanne, who asked me to meet her at the Underground Dance Center, where I also happen to take hip hop classes. When will we dance again together so I can film us doing stanky leg with my pretty new Todd Baker iPhone case?
Or the time I traded my own next door neighbor, sweet faced Emily who I'd barely spoken to, a spider plant in exchange for her homemade panettone.
There are a million Bunz stories like this. People aren't strangers anymore; they're possible partners in a badass trade.
Bunz recently started an app of their own but I think I'll always be fond of the Facebook group. Just when your eyes start glossing over from baby after baby after wedding after political rant, you get a beautifully lit photo of a bag of dicks.
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These could have been yours for a couple frozen pizzas.
But it's not all tokens and dick jokes. I genuinely believe in the eco-friendly idea behind bunz. There's so much waste in our lives, things we bought but don't use. Things that could be better loved by someone else out there. Having just finished The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, I'm excited to thank my past possessions for their service in my life and send them on new adventures out in the world.
That and I'm out of red wine. Anyone need 6 martini glasses?
